Factors in the Selection of a Classification Scheme for a Large General Library

This paper concerns the British Library; by now it is well known that the British Library consists of more than one large library. One of its components, the British Museum Library, is among the largest in the world; two others, the Science Reference Library in London, and the Lending Division in Yorkshire, both have collections sizable enough to raise problems regarding classification. In fact, however, the Lending Division has long since rejected classification as an operational tool in any other than peripheral uses, and is not a component which enters into the considerations I am making today. In addition to these, there is the Bibliographical Services Division, which is evolving from the formerly separate entity, the British National Bibliography (BNB). This division is the most significant user of classification at the present time. Not only is the British National Bibliography primarily dependent on classification for its arrangement and articulation, but the classification data supplied by BNB is a substantial element of the centralized cataloging service which it gives to all kinds of libraries in Great Britain. One of the functions of the Bibliographical Services Division is to extend this service to cover the needs of in-house bibliographic processing within the British Library itself.published or submitted for publicatio