Library Classification: One Hundred Years After Dewey

For one hundred years in claim and counterclaim we have developed what have seemed at times to be highly diverse and divergent lines of thought in the theory of library classification. However, I believe not only that these different developments have contributed to our present philosophy and model of classification, but also that their differences were more apparent than real we have often been bewitched by the appearance into paying insufficient attention to the creature beneath. In a very real sense, the most sophisticated modern theory is less a new structure founded on the work of a century ago than it is simply a validation and realization of that work. In order to describe what we have now I must review how we came to have it, since the study of classification is often a matter of hindsight, of determining the principles that are the key to good organization in existing classification schemes. For this reason, I shall propose a theoretical model that seems to lie at the heart of all fruitful classification and indexing developments of the last one hundred years. I shall also refer to several episodes in the history of classification and indexing, and draw from those episodes the elements of greatest significance to point out an overall pattern, even though these elements may have seemed of great significance neither to their authors nor to their audiences.published or submitted for publicatio