CHOICE OF SCHEME FOR CLASSIFICATION - Indian Statistical ...

15 ;3 Physiology of flowering plants L ;3 Human physiology
L185;3 Physiology of the eye
Normally, the interest of readers goes by Basic Subjects; specialization is also
normally by Basic Subjects; these form the majority of readers — generalists as well as
specialists taken together. Therefore, the above-mentioned sequence of the nine
subjects will meet the needs of the majority of the readers. The interest of a small
minority of specialists may cluster round an Isolate Facet instead of a Basic Facet of a
subject, whatever be its distance from the Basic Facet. In the particular sample,
let us take the interest of the Physiology Specialist. He would like to have brought to his
notice to the satisfaction of Law 4 of Library Science, all the books on Physiology. In
other words, he would like to have Physiology as the first facet and Animal,
Cell, Cow, Eye, Plant, etc as the respective second facets. For, the isolate Physiology is
hidden in the respective Basic Facets in the table given above. The Principle of
Uniqueness of Class Number makes a Scheme for Classification to say, "I cannot
serve two masters — two groups of readers with different interests. I can only serve one
group. It is desirable that it is the majority group." The Five Laws of Library Science
protest saying, "To us any minority is as important as the majority. Library technique
should meet our demand." Classification pleads, "I do not claim to be the only library
technique. What I cannot do without causing inconsistency and confusion to readers as
they pass from one library to another, I will stick to the Principle
of Uniqueness of Class Number and ask the catalogue or the administration to meet your
demands." A few more samples are given in the Prolegomena (60).
4.4 Help of the Catalogue Through Class Index Entry
In a generalist library, all the books on Physiology can be brought to the notice of
the minority of Physiology Specialists by the Class Index Entry, as shown in the
following table:
Physiology Physiology (continued)
Biology G;3 Medicine L;3
Cell Gll;3 Plant I;3
Cow KX,311;3 Rice plant J381;93
Eye, Human L185;3 Zoology K;3
Flowering plants 15 ;3
No doubt, this will call for more time than having all the books on Physiology together.
But life is a compromise; so also the arrangement of books in a library has to be a
compromise. The extra time needed by the minority specialists is not much.
4.5 Help of the Catalogue Through Special Index Entry
A generalist library will be used by many different specialists. Law 4 of Library
Science can serve all the minorities even better by introducing into the Alphabetical
Index of the catalogue a special set of index entries. Each such special set of entries may
have as its heading the subject of specialisation concerned. For example, the Alphabetical