Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC)

Approaches of readers for documents search in library

Author approach: Arrangement of documents on the basis of the author is not always
helpful. If you want a particular document, or documents on a particular subject, the
author arrangement fails to bring documents having the same specific subject and related
subjects at one place.

Title approach: Title arrangement, like author arrangement, fails to bring together
documents having the same specific subject at one place. Because of these limitations;
the arrangement of documents on the basis of title is not very helpful.

Subject approach: In academic, special, technical and research libraries, and to a large
extent even in public libraries, we find that the majority of readers approach documents
on the basis of the subject.

Subject approach is the most useful way to arrange and classify library collection.

The Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC) system is the worlds most widely used way to
organize library collections since 1876. It constantly updates to enable better discovery across
many topic in multiple languages. Because the DDC is easy to use, it can increase the visibility
of library materials quickly and efficiently.

Since, DDC is built on sound principles that make it ideal as a general knowledge organization
tool: with meaningful notation in universally recognized Arabic numerals, well-defined
categories and well-developed hierarchies. It provides rich network of relationships among
topics. In the DDC, basic classes are organized by disciplines or fields of study.

At the broadest level, the DDC is divided into ten main classes, which together cover the entire
world of knowledge. Each main class is further divided into ten divisions, and each division into
ten sections of subjects. Moreover, this Classification scheme includes the concepts of relative
location and relative index which allows new books to be added to our library in their
appropriate location based on subjects.

The 10 main groups are:

000 Computer science, information & general works

100 Philosophy & psychology
200 Religion
300 Social sciences
400 Language
500 Science
600 Technology
700 Arts & recreation
800 Literature
900 History & geography
Class 300 has been elaborate with example below:

300 Social sciences

323 Civil & political rights (Human Rights)

323.0954 Human Rights in India
340 Law
341 Law of nations
342 Constitutional & administrative law
345 Criminal law
347 Civil procedure & courts
350 Public administration & military science
351 Public administration
355 Military science
360 Social problems & services; associations
361 Social problems & social welfare in general
362 Social welfare problems & services
363 other social problems & services

363.2 Police
363.20954 Police in India
363.325 Terrorism
364 Criminology

364.019 Psychological principles

364.04 Special topics of criminology
364.08 Groups of people
364.09 History, geographic treatment, biography of criminology
364.1 Criminal offenses
364.2 Causes of crime and delinquency
364.3 Offenders
364.4 Prevention of crime and delinquency
364.6 Penology
364.8 Discharged offenders
364.9 History, geographic treatment, biography of crime
365 Penal & related institutions

370 Education
375 Curricula
378 Higher education
379 Public policy issues in education

Cost of latest (23rd) edition of DDC Manual (4 vols.) is $ 575

(Appx. Rs. 38,065/-)
 Sears List of subject Headings

Since 1923, the Sears List of Subject Headings (SLSH) has served the unique cataloging
needs of small and medium-sized libraries by providing a flexible, extendable vocabulary in
natural language.

A subject heading is that uniform word or phrase used in the library catalog to express a topic
that can be useful to users in searching OPAC. A subject heading list, such as the Sears List is
simply an alphabetical list of terms that have been established over time as warranted by the
materials being cataloged.

The purpose of a subject authority, such as the Sears List, is to provide a basic vocabulary
of authorized terms together with suggestions for useful cross-references for searching.
It provides a core list of key headings, together with patterns and examples to guide us in
creating further headings as required. It is indeed very useful tool for providing key words to
the subject topics.
It is in agreement with Dewey decimal classification system to ensure that subject headings
sync to library standards.
The 21st edition of Sears List is having easy to use thesaurus like format.
More than five hundred subdivisions in the Sears List that would be really helpful for library
users.

The Cost of latest edition is around $ 165 (Rs. 10,923)