Dewey Decimal Classification, Universal Decimal Classification, and the Broad System of Ordering: The Evolution of Universal Ordering Systems

O f the three systems named in the title of this paper, the first is familiar to everyone, even outside the profession of librarianship; the second is much less well known; and the last one is probably still a total stranger. Actually, to say that the Universal Decimal Classification (UDC) is little known in the United States is an understatement. Except for a handful of people who actually use the system, the general notion among many librarians in this country seems to be that the UDC is a quaint, even outlandish system, a transmogrification of Dewey performed by some oddballs in the city of Brussels. American textbooks on classification still call it the "Brussels Extension." Such ignorance and neglect is even more deplorable as the UDC is essentially of genuine American descent, being the offspring of the Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC).When we celebrate the Dewey centennial, we can at the same time look back on exactly eighty years of UDC. It was in 1895 that two Belgian lawyers, Paul Otlet and Henri La Fontaine, decided to adapt the DDC for their plan of the Institut International de Bibliographic (IIB) as a classification system for the worldwide repertory of all knowledge recorded not only in books, but also in articles, reports, and any other kind of documents.published or submitted for publicatio