THE UNIVERSE OF INFORMATION.pdf - ideals

extensive form, much of the material appearing in the prefatory
matter of the General Abridged Tables and in the «General
Principles of the Decimal Classifications which had been prepared
for the IIB's 1897 Conference, on such topics as the encyclopedic
nature of the classification, its advantages, the
concordance between the complete and abridged tables, the use
of divisionary cards in a repertory, and characteristic and
abbreviated ways of writing decimal numbers. Among newly
introduced general matter was a discussion of how a useful
concordance could be achieved between the Decimal Classification
and various special classifications for which it could
provide an internationally comprehensible index. The use of
subject headings arranged systematically or alphabetically was
also discussed. It was observed that the same card could be
used in an alphabetic repertory of author's names, in a repertory
classified by decimal numbers, and in an «analytico-
•alphabetic» repertory by subject headings, provided that the
subject headings were indicated in some relatively simple way
in the titles given on the cards. Moreover, at any point of division
in a decimal number, the individual bibliographer could
begin an alphabetic arrangement of subject headings, the decimal
number serving to establish a conventional relation between
main headings of a specified degree of generality. Such
a procedure would be facilitated by the attempt to establish
strict concordance between the Decimal Classification and special
classifications,, and to develop the Classification in terms
of the conventional nomenclature of particular sciences.
Under the heading «Concordance between the old editions
and the new editions of the Decimal Classification with respect
to Compound Numbers», the Manual presented a detailed
account of the Office's debt to the 1894 American Dewey, and of
how it had attempted to make explicit and to systematise by
means of auxiliary tables and special signs, suggestions only
partly developed of simply implicit in the American work. 113
It was to this matter that most of the Manual was addressed
The various forms of the term, «determinant», were tinalh
abandoned for the terms «analytic and common subdivisions^
Three methods of subdivision were recognised for obtain
ing symmetry and concordance between parts of the whole
classification. First, actual classification numbers could be
divided in a similar way so that «only the first figures and the
meaning given to them are different*: 445.8, the Verb in
French Philology; 455.8, the Verb in Italian Philology. 44
Second, analytic subdivisions could be employed throughout
the whole classification to form compound numbers. Third,
«common» subdivisions could be added from auxiliary tables
to numbers derived from the main tables. The first kind of
subdivision would be evident from the tables, but the other
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