Library_1969-75_021

By utilising the information provided on the printed cards, e library cleric can process most books without professional help of a librarian* The cataloging will have been done by the Library of Congress and will not hove to be done over or rechecked by oar staff# The cotaloger y/ill be able to administer the technical processes department and handle the exceptional cataloging problems# Librarians have been somewhat tardy in realizing that Irost materials can move almost mechanically through the labyrinth of ordering, acquisition, cataloging, and processing# ®hile econoiay is stressed as one reason for changing from DC to LC, it must be made clear that if e library has to make a choice between service and economy, it must always choose service# However, a library can change to LC and economise without any loss in service# In feet, the level of service should eventually improve# Superiority# For academic libraries the LC classification is superior to the IX? classification# Some have also suggested the use of LC for public and school libraries# The IX? system is a logical attempt to fit all knowledge, past, present, or future, into a predetermined outline# Because of the great increase of knowledge and new subject fields, some of which overlap, it becomes increasingly difficult to be consistent in the application of DC schedules# Divorced from any central book collection, DC can wander through man’s accumulated knowledge in a rather cavalier way, searching for that "theoretic harmony end exactness" which Dewey himself said had been "sacrificed to practical requir©Kents," The suggested DC numbers on catalog cards Upt always be evaluated by the cataloger# The LC classification was developed from an actual collection of books (Library of Congress)# It is a shelf arrangement devised by a cate* loging expert in each subject field# LC schedules are more complete and detailed# This is especially important in specialised technical curriculum areas# These books can be better classified in LC than Dewey# The LC classification as found on the catalog cards can be accepted by the library without review. The adoption of the LC classification would allow the maximum amount of work performed at the les expensive clerical level# Also, Librarians would perform only those tasks which require professional competency# Use, in acedomic Libraries# During recent years scores of Libraries throughout the United States have begun with the L#C# classification or have reclassified to it later# Specifically, all campuses of the University of California and all California State Colleges have adopted the 1C classification*-----------—...................................