THE UNIVERSE OF INFORMATION.pdf - ideals

kinds had to be constructed by each classifier independently,
and it was necessary that there should be simple and precise
rules for their formation and use.
The analytic subdivisions were just those recurrent divisions
within a particular science first discussed in «On the
Structure of Classification Numbers»- They were now, however,
taken out of parentheses and were to be indicated by a special
precedent «intercalatory zero»- If 633.12 were the cereal,
Rice, and 631.13 were the agricultural operation, Irrigation,
then 633.12.013 would be the Irrigation of Rice where rice is
the main subject. These subdivisions were not specially created,
but «are borrowed purely and simply from the analytical
part of the classification itself»- 45 Analytics would, of course,
vary from one science to another, and their use and limitations
to their use would in every case be indicated in tables for
each of the sciences.
Of all the subjects discussed in the Manual, the common;
subdivisions were the most extensively treated. A quotation
from Leibnitz and one expressing the underlying principle of
the classification were placed at the head of the section which
dealt with them. 46 From Leibnitz:
The measure of the richness of a language is not the large number
of its words, but the small number of its radicals and the facility
with which one can form precise combinations from them.
About the Decimal Classification:
From simple and elementary numbers... [it aims] to form an indefinite
quantity of compound numbers able to translate the most preciseaspects
of bibliographical classification into figures.
The ensuing discussion suggests the overtones of a residua!
conflict in the development of the classification between theinexhaustible
possibilities of theory, of philosophy, of linguistic
parallelisms, and the limitations imposed by practice. It wasstated
quite clearly that
... common subdivisions should not be understood to be subdivisions
whose application is uniform and constant across the whole classification,
but only subdivisions whose application is as general as possible,
and to which there are numerous exceptions. The common subdivisions
can be used only with respect to the individual tables of
a science with all the limitations and exceptions that the subject leads
to. This fundamental rule follows: works should be indexed conforming
to the classification numbers indicated in the individual tables
and not with the aid of numbers Classifiers form themselves from;
rules and general principles. 47
While recognising that «absolutely logical and quite general
rules would have been eminently desirable» given the
«encyclopedic nature» of the OIB's work, Otlet and his colleagues
were forced to admit that
it would not have been possible to give the bibliographic classification
such a degree of perfection without prejudicing other, more
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