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17 - Options and Local Adaptations

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 October 2023

M. P. Satija
Affiliation:
Guru Nanak Dev University, India
Alex Kyrios
Affiliation:
Library of Congress, Washington DC
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Summary

Introduction

The central conceit of the DDC is that any given concept or topic has one correct number. Notes, tables of preference and other devices help guide choices between numbers which seem equally suitable. Where a classifier assigns a different number, we could fairly call this a mistake. But the DDC is a universal system, used worldwide. Not all communities organize knowledge in the same way. Any library or other institution using the DDC may choose to deviate from standard DDC if doing so better serves their users.

There is an inherent trade-off to such practices, in that local alterations lessen mutual compatibility with other institutions, even as they better serve local users. The DDC's Introduction speaks to this:

Libraries should weigh the value of using an option against the loss in interoperability of numbers. The library will not be able to use numbers assigned by other libraries and other libraries will not be able to use the optional numbers assigned by the library. In addition, unless the option is widely used in a region, users may be confused by the alternate notation.

There are no ‘Dewey police’ that will come and reprimand any library that deviates from standard practice, but any library considering local notation should understand the implications of doing so.

Nevertheless, even standard DDC includes ‘official’ options, which chart a middle ground between unaltered DDC and completely local practices. Numbers from these options will be more readily comprehensible by other institutions, since they are described in the classification itself.

This chapter will examine the DDC's official options and discuss further local adaptations. For clarity's sake, ‘option’ in this chapter will always mean the official options and ‘local adaptations’ practices that go beyond anything spelled out in the classification; ‘alterations’ will refer to either or both of these together. ‘Local’ in the context of this chapter does not always mean one library and may refer to a group of similar libraries, perhaps even up to a national level in some cases.

Rationale

The DDC has a global user base and users from around the world participate in its development. Today, all development of the DDC has the aim of being the most useful classification system possible regardless of local context. But this necessarily means not all local priorities can be represented in standard notation.

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  • Options and Local Adaptations
  • M. P. Satija, Guru Nanak Dev University, India, Alex Kyrios, Library of Congress, Washington DC
  • Book: A Handbook of History, Theory and Practice of the Dewey Decimal Classification System
  • Online publication: 13 October 2023
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.29085/9781783306114.018
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  • Options and Local Adaptations
  • M. P. Satija, Guru Nanak Dev University, India, Alex Kyrios, Library of Congress, Washington DC
  • Book: A Handbook of History, Theory and Practice of the Dewey Decimal Classification System
  • Online publication: 13 October 2023
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.29085/9781783306114.018
Available formats
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Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Options and Local Adaptations
  • M. P. Satija, Guru Nanak Dev University, India, Alex Kyrios, Library of Congress, Washington DC
  • Book: A Handbook of History, Theory and Practice of the Dewey Decimal Classification System
  • Online publication: 13 October 2023
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.29085/9781783306114.018
Available formats
×