Essential Classification

Classification is a crucial skill for all information workers involved in organizing collections. This new edition offers fully revised and updated guidance on how to go about classifying a document from scratch. Essential Classification leads the novice classifier step by step through the basics of subject cataloguing, with an emphasis on practical document analysis and classification. It deals with fundamental questions of the purpose of classification in different situations, and the needs and expectations of end users. The reader is introduced to the ways in which document content can be assessed, and how this can best be expressed for translation into the language of specific indexing and classification systems. Fully updated to reflect changes to the major general schemes (Library of Congress, LCSH, Dewey and UDC) since the first edition, and with new chapters on working with informal classification, from folksonomies to tagging and social media, this new edition will set cataloguers on the right path. Key areas covered are: the need for classification, the variety of classification, the structure of classification, working with informal classification, management aspects of classification, and classification in digital space. This guide is essential reading for library school students, novice cataloguers and all information workers who need to classify but have not formally been taught how. It also offers practical guidance to computer scientists, internet and intranet managers, and all others concerned with the design and maintenance of subject tools.

1. Introduction
2. The need for classification
3. First principles of classification
4. The variety of classification: systems and structures
5. The classification scheme: internal structure
6. Types of classification scheme
7. Order in the classification scheme
8. Content analysis 1: document description
9. Content analysis 2: practical constraints
10. Controlled indexing languages
11. Word-based approaches to retrieval
12. Library of Congress Subject Headings 1: basic headings
13. Library of Congress Subject Headings 2: structured headings
14. Classification scheme application
15. Library of Congress Classification 1: basic classmark construction
16. Library of Congress Classification 1: use of tables
17. Dewey Decimal Classification
18. Universal Decimal Classification 1: general properties and basic number building
19. Universal Decimal Classification 1: auxiliary tables
20. Faceted classification
21. Managing classification