Annals of Library Science and Documentation1981, 28(1-4), 77-89

CONCEPT SPECIFICATION IN DEWEYDECIMAL CLASSIFICATION: A REPORTOF A PILOT PROJECT ON LITERATURE

The conventional approaches of dassifyingdocuments on Literature according to DDC showedcertain drawbacks while retrieving all the con-cepts dealt in the document to scholars of thediscipline. This was due to certain non-conven-tional approaches of the scholars as well aspublishers. An analysis into their approacl:eswas made and modifications to the DDC notat~onwere suggested keeping the order of the notationas far as practicable intact. The users' reac-tions to the new procedures showed encouragingresults.O. INTRODUCTIONOne of the major qualities of a good classifica-tion scheme is its expressiveness, both throughits notation and its mode of subject represen-tation. In other words, it must be able tospecify explicitly the general idea (i.e. con-cept) contained in each docum~nt ~or an ef~ec-tive organisation of informat10n 1n a retrle-val system. Dewey Decimal Classification (DOC)with its wide range of applicability and useful-ness was found to be suitable for organizationof large collections of documents in academiclibraries and maintains its interesting featureof grouping of documents by discipline. But inthe field of Litera.ture, because of its verynature, the subject relationships are fundamen-tally different.

1. SCOPE OF THIS PAPERSpecification of each and every concept that lieswithin a document in literature is somewhatdifferent from that in other traditional disci-plines~ Various problems were faced (see sec.2)

Vol 28 Nos 1-4 tMar-Dec) 1981

M. MAHAPATRADepartment of Library ScienceUniversity of BurdwanBurdwan- 713104S.M. PAT!Berhampur UniversityBerhampur- 760007

while processing the documents on literature,which resulted in the initiation of a PilotProject at the Central Library of the BerhampurUniversity Library System, in July 1977, to studyand solve such problems. This is a report on theworking of this project after 3 complete academicyears of observation (upto July 1980). It re-ports on the analysis of the various day to dayproblems faced, and the necessary solutions adopt-ed with suitable examples, and points out some ofits advantages and limitations.2. PROBLEMS OF INFORMATION RETRIEVALWhile classifying documents on 1 iterature accor-ding to the available provisions of DDC certainproblems were faced, mainly from the point ofview of retrieving the appropriate document/information. This was due to some non-conven-tiona 1 approaches of both the users and thepublishers. An analysis into their approacheswas thus made.2.1. Analysis into the non-conventional methods

of publlcat;ons.The DOC system recognises certain conventionalmethods of publication, but since the publishersdo not strictly follow'these methods, it wasfelt that a single class number cannot suffice,since more 'than one variety of books are pub-lished in a single volume in the form of arti-ficial composite book. Some of the non-conven-tional methods are as fo llows ;

a. one or more titles of a singie formof different authors of single ordifferent periods with or withouta conmon title,

77

b.

MAHAPATRA & PATI

one or more titles of different formsof different authors of single ordifferent periods with or withouta common title,

c. one or more titles of different formsof a single author with or without acorrvnontitle,

d. one or more specific works of asingle author with the biography/critjcism (the biography/citicismhaving been published elsewhere as aseparate book) about him by otherauthors,

e. specific work of a single author withthe criticism/comment (the criticism/comment having been published else-where as a separate book) on thework by other authors,

f. works of more than one form of asingle author with the criticism/comment (the criticism/commenthaving been published elsewhere asa separate book) about him by otherauthors, etc.

2.2. Analysis into the users' enquiriesThe daily enquiries of the users' were recordedin slips and analyses into their~pproaches weremade. The following are the approaches throughwhich the users asked for the documents. Thelist only shows the verified and correctedapproaches.

Literatu~ in general

a. Literature in generalb. Literature, collection, specific

periodc. Literature, coll ecti on, formd. Literature, co 11 ecti on, form,

specific periode. Literature, criticismf. Litera tu re , criticism, specific

periodg. Literature, criticism, formh. Literature, criticism, form, specifi c

period

Sped fie U terature

i. Specific 1iterature in generalSpecific 1iterature, collectionSpecific 1iterature, collection,specific periodSpecific literature, criticismSpecific 1itera ture, criticism,specific periodSpecific literature, formSpecific i iter-ature , form, collection

J.

k.

1.

m.

n.o.p. Specific literllture, form, collec-

tion, specific period, more than oneauthor

q. Specific literature, form, criticismr. Specific literature, form, criticism,

specific period, more than one authors. Specific literature, form, criticism,

specific period, single author, (on)single work

t. Specific literature, form, criticism,specific period, single author, (on)collected works

u. Specific literature, form, criticism,specific period, (on) single author

v. Specific literature, form, collec-tion, more than one period, more thanone autlfor

w. Specific 1 iterature, form, criticism,more than one period, more than oneauthor

x. Specific 1iterature, form, specificperiod, single author, single text

y. Specific literature, form, specificperiod, single author, collectedtext.

3. IDENTIFICATION OF OBJECTIVESThe foregoing analysis of the non-conventionalmethods of publications and the approaches ofthe users' enquiries helped us to formulate thebasic objectives on which this project. wasbased. The objectives were:

i) to individualise the work of aspecific author.

78 Ann Lib Sc i Doc

CONCEPT S9ECIFICATION IN DOC

ii) to specify the works by an authorfrom the works about and for himof a specific geriod,

iii) to classify criticisms/biographyon more than one author of a speci-fic period published in a singlevolume,

iv) to classify criticisms/biography onmore than one author of more thanone period published in a singlevolume,

v) to classify texts of more than oneauthor of a.specific periodpublished in the form of an arti-ficial composite book.

vi) to classify texts of more than oneauthor of more than one periodpublished in the form of an arti-ficial composite book,

vii) to classify texts having specificscope of more than-one author ofmore than one period published ina single volume,

viii) to classify texts having specificscope of more than one author ofspecifit period published ;n asingle volume,

ix) to specify criticisms of singleauthors from their texts, etc.

4. REPORTS OF THE PREVIOUS WORKS AND DOCPROVISIONS

After identifying the objectives of the project,an investigation was made to find out theprovisions in DOC and the reports of the pre-vious works done on the subject. The analysisof the non-conventional methods of publicationsand the approaches of the users' enquiries werematched with the class numbers of the DOC 18thedition to measure the provisions giv~n in thescheme to classify such documents. Table 1gives the provisions of DDC.

After this an investigation into thevariations to recommended practices in DOC wasmade to see the feasibility of their applicationto the various problems faced in the work. Therecommendations are given below.

i) alphabetical arrangement of authorsunder each language by appropriatebook number,

Vol 28 Nos 1-4 (Mar-Dec) 1981

Table 1. PJoovisions in DDe Scheme

S1. Nature of Points of Provisions ComnentsNo. analysis approach in DDC

Non-conven- a to c Niltional me- d to f Partial classified withoutthods of subdivision under apublica- specific periodtions

II Users' en- a to h Fullquiries

i to 0 Fullp t(ilq Fullr Nils to u Partial classified without

subdivision underspecific period

v to w Fullx to y Partial classlTied without

subdivision under aspecific period

ii) direct alphabetical arrangement ofauthors under literature,

iii) application of letters or artificialdigits,

iv) classifying primarily by period,then fOt~ where appropriate, and

v) ignoring the diitinction of 810 and820.

The adoption of the above variations tothe recommended practices was not found suitablefor various reasons, for example adoption of thefirst variation ignores form and period. adoptionof the second vari.ation ignores language. formand period etc. At the same time adoption of •the sub-divisions and notation given for Shake-speare for all other authors could not solve allthe problems and was ~ot suitable for variousother reasons.5. METHODOLOGY

5.1 Data collection

i) User participation in random sampling

Users were asked to provide sample bookson literature randomly from the stacks to avoidany bias of the staff while choosing the books.

79

MAHAPATRA & PAT!

ii) Staff knowledgeThe knowledge of the staff of the Central

Library and other departmental libraries wasconsidered and their day to day problems fortackling requests and books on literature wererecorded.t it ) . Curriculum contents <!f universities

Curricula of both undergraduate and postgraduate studies of different Universities werescanned so as to find out their approach individing the literature into different studyunits or areas and their relevant features wererecorded.iv) Educational consensus

Opinion of some professors, researchscholars, and other persons engaged in the postgraduate teaching department of th~ study ofliterature were sought in the form of question-naire and in some cases, through personal inter-views regarding the trend in teaching practicesin' literature and the possible breakdown of theconcep~s of literature into various units ofstudy.5.2 Recording, filing and controlThe books which were randomly sampled from thestacks were recQrded, classified according tothe provisions of DOC, 18th edition in speciallydesigned slips. A sample of the slip is givenbelow.

T.P. : Area No.

Annotation:Analysis:

Class No OriginalDOC No

AdoptedDOC No

------------------~----------------------Usual 0FilingNo of digits

SpecialD___ Adopted __Original

Extra no ofcards in catalogue Signagure

Date:

Fig 1. Example of a slip

80

The slips were arranged according to theseria~ number (area wise) in specially designedcontalners and the necessary author, referencecatalogue cards were prepared according tothe usual practices of AACR '67. A separ~teshelfl ist was maintained for this"purpose for acomparative study with the shelflist of thelibrary collection.6. CRITERIA AND CONDITIONSAfter this certain criteria and conditions werelaid down for the working of the project. Themost important criterion was, as far as.practi-cable, not to break the natural order of the DOCnotation. Other conditions were, i) no limita-tion on the number of digits after decimalpoint, ii) books published in English scripton ly wer,e cons idered, iii) biography .of 1 iterary

~ons were classified under literature class(i.e. 800) not under biography (t .e. 928), and'iv) place of birth of an author has beenstrictly followed for deciding his/her natureof authorship, for example, T.S. Eliot andGeorge Bernard Shaw were classified as Americanand Irish authors respectively.7. AREAS OF INVESTIGATIONIn this section each area of problems are dealtin the following order:

i) Nature of the problemii) Examples from the samPle

iii) Shelflist card (emphasis should begiven on the class'number)

iv) Comments, if any.

Area no 1: To classify specific literature,specific form, specific period, individualauthor, single text

ExampZe 1 : Death in the afternoon/ErnestHemingway/Penguin Books LT97~7L The stroke/sign is used in theexamples to separate the two unitsor two different types of infor-mation in a title page ~813.5 Hemingway, Ernest Miller,HEM 1899-1961.

Death in the afternoon, byErnest Hemingway /~ondon7Penguin Books L~~6-'-

Ann Lib Sci Doc

CONCEPT SPECIFICATION IN DOC

The class number in the above example has beendivided into three parts, such as

i) The DOC notation for American fiction,modern period (original DOC number)

ii) First three capital letters of the'surname of the author (adopted number)

.iii) First three small letters of thetitle (adopted number).

If the first three letters of the titledo not form a single word, a comma has beenus~d after the first word to indicate thebeginning of the second word. However, thecomma has no significance while filing thecards. An example is given below.Example 2 :

813.5LEETo,k

Lee, Harper, 1926To kill a mocking bird.{Iondo~ Penguin Books {T961T

Area no 2: To classify specific literature,specific form, specific period, individualauthor, collected text with a common titleExample 3:

Sacrificel and other playsl BylRabindranath Tagore/Indian editionlMacmillan and Co. I 1963891.4425' Tagore, Rabindranath,TAG 1861-1941.T 12

Sacrifice and other plays{Iondo~ Macmillan, {T961T

The class number in the above example shows theusual first two divisions, i.e. i)DDC notationfor Bengali drama, and the period number forTagore, and ii) first three capital letters ofthe surname of the author. But the third partdoes not show the first three small letters ofthe title of the work, instead it shows theauthor number for Tagore derived from theCutter - Sanborn three figure author table.

Adoption of this procedure clearlydistinguishes the collected texts of the authorfrom the individual texts without disturbingthe order of the DOC notational system.Area No 3: To classify specific literature,specific form, specific period, individualauthor, collected text without a common titleExample 4 : Luigi Pirandello I Righ~ you are!

(if you think soliAll for the best I Henry IVIIntroduced and edited by...!E. Marti nBrowne / Pengui n Books {196'[/

Vol 28 Nos 1-4 (Mar-Dec) 1981

Pirandello, Luigi,1867 - 1936.Right you are! (if you thinkso). Edited by E. Martin6rowne {[on[otiT PenguinBooks {l96Y

The title page in the above example shows thatthere are three distinct books of Pirandellobrought together artificially by the publisherand they do not have a common title. This is acase of artificial composite book. If there isa common title as in example 3, the common titlecould be retained in the main entry and author -title analytical entries could be made forother titles. But if the book lacks a commontitle as in the case of artificial compositebooks, the first title is retained in the mainentry with a class number for a collected textand a special procedure of also bound withentries are prepared for other titles. Forinstance the above example needed three such~lso bound with entries.

852.91PIRP66

i) 852.91PIRAll

Pirandello, Luigi, 1867-1936.All for the bestAlso bound with

Pirandello, Luigi, 1867-1936.Right you are! (If you

think so )852.91

PIRP66

This entry signifies that the text All for thebest is also bound with the text Right you are!(If you think so). The class number for theformer is for a single text (i.e. giving firstthree small letters of the title), but for thelatter, even if the main entry shows a singletext the class number is for a tolle~ted text.This indicates that some other titles are in-cluded in this book. Similarly another entry isto be made for the te~t Henry IV, such as

i i) 852.91PIRHen

Pirandello, Luigi, 1867'-1936.Henry IVA l80 bound wi th

Pirandello, Luigi, 1867-1936Right you are! (If you

think so )852.91

PIRP 66

Now a third entry, which is an important one.and sometimes confusing at the beginning stageis the specific entry for the single textRight tau are! (If you think so). The entry isgiven elow.

81

MAHAPATRA & PAT!

i i i) 852.91PIRRig

Pirandello. Luigi. 1867-1936Right you are! (If you

think so)Also bound with

Pirandello. Luigi. 1867-1936Ri ght you are! (If you

think so)852.91Pi.R

P 66This entry is done to indicate that Pirandello'sRight you are! (If you think so). besides beingpresent in the collection as a single text.is also bound with other books in the form ofan artificial composite book. (The importance andspecial procedure of filling also bound withcards are dealt in sec. 12)Area no 4 : To classify specific literature.spec;flc form. specific period. individualauthor. collection along with the criticism byother authorsExample 5 : Fielding / Selections / with essays

by / Hazlitt / Scott / Thackeray /with an introduction and notes by /Leonard Rice-Oxley/Oxford/ At theClarendon Pres's / LT95g823.5

FIEF . 45

Fielding, Henry, 1707-1754.Selections with essays by

Hazlitt, Scott land! Thakeray.Oxford, Clarendon-Press LT95~.

Here the critical appraisal part by other authorsare ignored and the book is classified underFielding as a collected text.Area no 5: To classify specific literature.specific form, specific period. individualauthor, biography or criticism on him by otherauthorsExample 6: William Riley Parker / Milton / A

Biography / II/Commentary. notes /Index and / Finding-list / Oxford /At the Clarendon Press / 1968821.094

MILP 24

Parker. William RileyMilton: A biography.

Oxford, Clarendon Press. 1968As the book is specifically a biography or criti-cism of the author, a slight deviation in thenotatfOhal plane has been made to separatesingle and collected works of the author fromhis/her critical or biographical works. Thenotation 09, which basically stands for historyand critic~l appraisal in literature class hasbeen introduced before the period number of t~~

82 •

author whose biography or criticism are dealt inthe book. In this case, the period number 4 forMilton (1608-1674) is used after the biography or

~criticism number 09. Adoption of this procedureIn this case, the period number 4 for Milton(1608-1674) is used after the biography orcriticism number 09. Adoption of this procedurenot only separated single and collected worksof an author from his/her critical works, butalso brought the latter to the beginning whileshelving them. The second part in the classnumber shows the first three capital lettersof the biographee and the third part shows theCutter's author table nuniber for the biographer.Another example showing the critical appraisalon an author is given below.Example 7: Joseph Conrad / J. I.M. Stewart /

Longman / {Londo.!!!/ LT96g823.098

CONS 85

Steward. J .1 MJoseph Conrad by J.

I.M. Steward /[ondon7Longman LT96g -

The book deals with criticism of most of Conard'sfamous works and includes a chapter on his life(1857-1924) and liteiary career.

While dealing with works on criticalappraisal another variation was found, thatsometimes a specific title of an author has beencommented or criticised by other authors. forexample.Example 8: Twentieth century interpretations /

of / Wuthering Heights/ A collectionof critical essays / Edited by ThomasA Vogler/Prentice-Hall, Inc /Englewood Cliffs, N.J. / 1968. \

Vogler. Thomas A ed.Wuthering heights:-A

collection of criticalessays. Edited by ThomasA Vogler. EnglewoodCliffsL N.J .• Prentice-Hall P96i!(

As the author of Wuthering Heights, the periodof Emily Bronte (1818-1848) has been broughtfrom Irish literature and used with the inser-tion of a 09 to indicate that the book is acritical appraisal of the text.

891.623093BROV 88

Area no 6 : To classify specific literature,specific form, specific period, more than oneauthor. collected text with a common titleExample 9: Classic Irish drama / Introduced by

W.A. Armstrong / The Countess Cath-leen / W.B. Yeates / The Playboy of

Ann Lib Sci Doc

CONCEPT SPECIFICATION IN DOC

the Western World / J.M. Synge /Cook-a-doodly Dongy / Sean O' Casey /Penguin Books / JL1~7~891.622408 Classic Irish drama

C 61 London Penguin Booksfl97§[

The class number in the above example showsthe addition of the notation for collection 08after the period number. This has been adoptedto separate collected texts of individual auth0runder the same period. This means the collectedtexts of more than one author will be shelvedafter the collected texts of individual authorswithin the same period. As the book has acommon title, author-title analyticals areprepared for other individual titles in the book.

Area no 7: To classify specific literature,specific form, specific period, more than oneauthor, collected text without a common title

Example 10: The poems of / Gray and Collins /Edited by / Austin Lane Poole /London / Oxford University Press /New York Toronto / )Lr961{

~contents include poems of Thomas Gray,edited'by Austin Lane Poole and PDems ofWilliam Collins, edited by ChristopherStone and Austin Lane Poole. Each bookhas its contents, preface, notes, appen-dices separately. That means two separatebooks have been bound together artificial-va.821.608 Gray, Thomas, 1716-1771.

G 78 Poems, edited by Austin LanePoole, London, Oxford UniversityPress tT96Q

As in the case of artificial composite books,the book i~ classified under the first author,i.e. Thomas Gray as a collec~ed text and an

- also bol.lid with entry 15 made for Wi 11iamCollins. The addition of 08 after the periodnumber indicates that the book is a collectedtext of 'more than one author under the sameperiod. The also bound with entries are givenbelow.

i) 821.6 Collins, William, 1721-1759.C 71 Poems

ilso bound withGray, Thomas, 1716-17.71.

Poems '821.608

G 78

Vol 28 Nos 1-4 (Mar~Dec) 1981

ii) !:I21.b Gray, Thomas, 1716-1771.G 78 Poems

Also bound withGray, Thomas. 1716-1771

Poems821.608

G 78Area no 8: To classify specific literature,specific form, specific period, more than oneauthor, critical appraisalExample 11: The metaphysical mode / from Donne

to / Cowley / By / Earl Miner /Princeton University Press /Princeton, N.J. / 1969

821.409 Miner, EarlM 66 Metaphysical mode from

Donne to Cowley. Princeton.N.J., Princeton UniversityPress, 1969.

The notation for critical appraisal of 9 hasbeen used here to indicate that the books is acritical appraisal on a particular period andits application after the period number indica-tes that the book deals with more than oneauthor.Area no 9: To classify specific literature,specific form, specific scope, specific period.more than one author, collected text

While classifying such books, the scopeis ignored and the book is classified accordingto the procedure adopted for area no 6 ~nd 7depending upon its nature.

Area no 10:To classify specific literature, spe-cific form, specific scope, specific.period,more than one author, critical appralsal

While classifying such books, the scopeis ignored and the book is classified accordin(to the procedure adopted for area no 8.

Area no.11: To classify specific literature.speclfic form, specifi~ scope, more than oneperiod, critical appralsal

Such books are classified generally accor-ding to the provisions of DOC.

Area no.12: To classify specific.lite:atur~,more than one form, specific perlod. lndivldualauthor. collected text with a common title

83

MAHAPATRA & PAT!

Example 12: Collected / Poems and Plays / of /Rabindranath / Tagore / Macmillan /London. Melbourne. Toronoto / 1967891.4415

TAGT 12

Tagore, Rabindranath,1861-1941.

Collected poems and playsLondon, r~acmillan, 1967. "

The books is classified as a collected textunder the known form (i.e. Poetry) of Tagore.Area no 13: To classify specific literature,more than one form, specific period, individualauthor, collected text without a common title

Example 13: The Bodl ey Head / Ford r'1adoxFord /Volume I / The Good Soldier / Se-lected memories / Poems / The BodleyHead / London / jJ96Y(823.91 Ford, Ford Madox, 1873-1939.

FOR Good soldier. London, (The)F 71 Bodley Head 1962

Tbe book is classified as ,an artificial compositebook. The other also bound with entries aregiven below. '-

i) 828.0991FORF 71

Ford, Ford Madox, 1873-1939.Selected memoriesAlso bound with

Ford, Ford Madox, 1873-1939.Good soldier

823.91FORF71

ii} 821. 91FORF71

Ford, Ford Madox, 1873-1939...•Poems

Also bound wi thFord, Ford Mado~, 1873-1939.

Good soldier323.91

FORF 71

iii) Ford, Ford Madox, 1873-1939.Good soldierAlso bound with

Ford, Ford Madox, 1873-1939.Good soldier

823.91FORGoo

823.91FOR.F 71

The argument behind each entry is similar tothat of area no. 3.

Area no 14: To classify specific literature,more than one form, specific period, individualauthor, collected text with critical appraisalby other authors.Example 14: Milton / Poetry & Prose / With

essays by Johnson / Hazlitt /Nacaulay / With an introduction byA.M.D. Hughes / and notes by variousscholars / Oxford / At the ClarendonPress / 1962821.4

r~ILM 66

Milton, John, 1608 - '1674.Poetry and Prose with

essays by Johnson, Hazlittand Macaulay. Oxford,Clarendon Press 1962

The book is classified under the known form(i.e. Poetry) of the author as a collected textignoring the critical appraisal part of the book.8. SEQUENCEOF COOCEPTS UNDERA SPEEIFIC

FORM

lne foregoing solutions to different types ofbooks helped to specify different concepts underone form in the following sequence :

i) rmre than one period, rrore than oneauthor, collected texts,

Li.) rrore than one period, trore than oneauthor, critical appraisal,

iii) specific period, individual author,critical appraisal about the author /work / biography,

iv) specific period, individual author,single text, \

specific period, individual author,collected text,

v)

vi) specific period, rrore than one author,collected text, and

vii) specific period, rrore than one author,critical appraisal.

9 . FILI~ ORDER OF rora, CONCEPTS

The filing order of the total concepts wi.thtna particular literature is given below. Arreri.canLiterature has been cited as an example.

801 - 809810

General literature

Alrericanliterature, I1Drethan one form, I1Drethan oneperiod

Ann Lib Sci Doc

811

CONCEPT SPECIFICATION IN DDC

811.008Arrerican poetryArrerican poetry, mrre thanone period, collected text

811.009 Arrerican poetry, rmre thanone period, critical apprai-sal

811.091-.095 Arrericanpoetry, specificperiod, critical appraisal

Under each period:i) Ihree capital letters of the surname

of the author criticised with theCutter's author table number for thecriticiser

ii) Arrangement: Alphabetical811.1-.5 American poetry, specific

period, individual author,single and collected texts

Under each period in the following sequence :a) Single text

i) Three capital letters of thesurname of the author with threesmall initial letters of thetitle

ii) Arrangement: alphabeticalb) Collected text

i) lhree capital letters of thesurnane of the author withCutter's author table numberfor his surname

ii) Arrangement: Alphabetical811.108-.508 American poetry, specific

period, rrore than one author,collected text

811. 109- .509 Arrerican poetry, specificperiod, rrore than one author,critical appraisal

10. DEMONSTRATION OF A PORTION OF SHELFLIST811.008

098811.009P 35

Oxford Book of American verseEdited by F.O. ~atthiessen

Pearce, Roy HarveyContinuity of American poetry

Vol 28 Nos 1-4 (Mar-Dee) 1981

811.095ELIG 35

811.095POUK 36

811.4WHILea

George, A GT.S. Eliot His mind and art

Kermer, HughThe Pound era

Whitman, Walt, 1819-1892Leaves of grass

811.5ELIOld

Eliot, Thomas Stearns, 1888-1965Old possum's book of

practical cats •811.5

ELIE 42

812.095ELIJ77

812.5ELICoc

Eliot, Thomas Stearns, 1888-1965Collected poems, 1909-1962

Jones, David EThe Plays of T.S. Eliot·

Eliot, Thomas Stearns, 1888-1965Cocktail party

812.508 New American DramaN 53 A Collection of nodem

American dramas812.509 Kernan, Alvin Bed.

K 31 The rrodem Arrericartt'fieatre:A collection of critical essays.

11. STATISTICAL OBSERVATIONS11.1 Total booksTable 2 reveals the total nurber of books in thesarrpl,eand the total nurber of books neededclassification in different literature.

11.2. NUHBER OF DIGITSAn analysis of the number of digits of tbe classnumber of different literature is given inTable 3. The calculation of the nu!ber ofdigits has been made only for those areas wheremore than 25 books had to be classified fromthe sample.

Table 3 reveals that only seven areas inthe sanple had 25 or rrorebooks each whichneeded classification. The table shows t:\.1ocolumns for each literature, one is for originaU(0) class numbers where the books did not needany revision, ~hat means the notation of theoriginal DOC scheme completely satisfied theconcept specification in them, while in the

85

.MAHAPATRA & PAT!

Table 2. Literature-r.n.se total "umbel'of booksin the sarrple.

IJ.terature ClassIllIIber

Total booksin thesemple

Totalbooksneededclassifi-catim

General

American

English

German

French

ItalianSpanish

Latin

Greek

Salskrit

tbdern IndicIJ.terature

P\njabi

Hindi

Bengali

Oriya

Marathi

Gujrati

Iranian

Irish Gaelic

800

810

820

830

840

850

860

870

880

891.2

891.4

891.42

891.43

891.44

891.45

891.46

891.47

891.53

891.62

Scottish Gaelic 891.63

091.66Welsh

Russian

Slavic

Hebrew

Arabic

OralieDravidian

Chinese

African

891. 7

891.8

892.4

892.7

894.5

894.8

895

896

130

516

1534

82

129

18

10

1

41

54

1

4

22

29

l3

2

1

1

101

37

l3

49

3

2

4

9

6

3

1

79

421

1125

54

107

18

8

1

24

21

1

4

21

15

10

2

i

1

74

2712

43

3

2

4

8

6

3

1

2096

86

Total 2816

other (R) the books needed revised class mmbersfor corrplete concept specification. A calcu-lation for the average numberof digits perbook in different literature irrespective ofthe total numberof books in each digit groupwas made. The AnEricanliterature shoeed 5.5average digits in Original and 8.0 averagedigits in Revised books. Similarly, the averagedigit calculation per book for Englishliterature (0 - 6. 0, R-8.0), German literature(0-7.0, R-9.5), French literature (0-5.0, R-9.6),Irish Gaelic (0-8.0, R-13.5), Scottish Gaelic(0-10.5, R-ll.6) and Russian literature(0-7.0, R-I0.6) was also made. The averagenumber of digits for revised books in thedifferent areas literature showed that theirnumber was within the range of the physiologyof eye and psychology of memory.

11.3 NUMBER OF BOOKS REVISEDTable 4 reveals the percenta~e of books revisedfrom their total classified books in thesample. The percentage calculation has beenmade only to those areas of .1iteratures whichhad 25 or more books requiri~g·revis~d classnumbers.

It can be noted from Table 4 that inthose areas of literature considered, almost90 books needed revised class numbers. Thisis a clear evidence of how many books neededconcept specification in literature for theireffective retrieval.12. ALSO BOUND WITH ENTRIESThese are special entries adopted to solve theproblem of artificial composite books. It,hasbeen seen that certain publishers bring outpublications having i ) two or more books ofindividual authors, ii) more than one authoreither of specific period or of more than oneperiod, iii) in certain cases of more than oneform and iv) of more than one literature, forcommercial purposes. It was felt that in thosecases specifying the particular concept of thebook by classifying according to the'tradition-al provisions of DOC was not possible. There-fore, this procedure was adopted to locate aparticular book in the shelf as far as pr~cti-cable, without distorting the notat tone'l orderof DOC.12.1 Filing of,al.so bourd iaitn ca;cis

. f

The al.so bound with cards are filed accordingto~the;r usual alphabetical sequence, but atplaces where a single text entry and an alsobound with card of that text simultaneousry-

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CONCEPT SPECIFICATION IN DOC

Table J. Lite~turewise dist~ibution of digits, O=~ginal, R=Revised.Digits

3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 Totals

Americano - 18 3 12 6 39R 7 60 82 233 - 382

English 0 1 44 18 46 16 13 5 143R 8 26 86 52 161 192 457 - 982

German 0 2 2 4-R 4 5 2 12 23 4 50

French 0 2 2 4-R 6 10 7 28 43 - 9 103

Irish Gaelic0 2 1 3R 1 14 - 34 22 71

Scottish Gaelic0 1 1 2R 1 1 23 25

Russian0 3 1 4R 6 5 28 39

'lcwle4. Pe~aentage of ~evised books

Literature No. of books No.of books Per-classified revised centage

American 421 382 90.7English 1125 977 86.8German 54 50 92.6French 107 103 96.3Irish Gaelic 74 71 95.9Scottish Gaelic 27 25 92.6Russian 43 39 90.7

Vol 28 Nos 1-4 (Mar-Dec) 1981 87

MAHAPATRA & PAT!

occur, they are filed in that order. Forexample,813.3 Hawthorne, Nathaniel, 1804-1864.

HAW Scarlet letter. New York,Sca The Modern Libra ry, 1950

813.3HAW·Sca

Hawthorne, Nathaniel, 1804-1864.Scarlet letterAlso bound with

Hawthorne, Nathaniel, 1804-1864,Scarlet letter

813.3HAWH 39

The above two cards show tha~ Hawthorne'sScarlet letter, besides being present in thecollection as a single text, it is also boundwith anQther book, whose class number indicatesthat the book is a collected text. The latterca rd belongs to an ai-fif; era 1 compos He book.Both the cards are filed in the sequencegiven above.

r:12.2 Frequent~y Occurring AuthorsAn investigation of the authors whose namesoccurred most frequently in the also bowuiwith cases in the sample was made. Table 5g1Ves the percentage of authors appeared inalso bound with cases in their respectiveareas of literature with the forms in whichthey had occurred.

Tab Ie 5. Percentaqe is also bound with authors

Literature Form Total Also bound Per-authors with cases centage

American Drama,Fiction 103257

9

9

8.73.6English Poetry,Drama,

FictionOther Drama,Fiction 69 12 17.39

It can be noted from Table 5 that not many authorsoccur in also bOW1dwith cases. Therefore, theaddition ofspeclal also bound uri ih. cards wouldnot hamper the natural orderCTt.ne system. More-over, adoption of this procedure was found to bequite helpful for locating books when they appear-ed as artificial composite books.13. USER REACT! ONSThe adoption of the new procedures was explainedand demonstrated to the users of the Library and

88

a cyclostyled pamphlet was distributed amongthem explaining its procedures and usefulness.The usual shelflist of the collection was kept asa control to the revised shelflist and the react-ions of the users were recorded. The users'reactions were very much encouraging exce~t invery few cases where it tended to be slightlyconfUSing at the initial stages.14. ADVANTAGES AND LIMITATIONSImplementation of the new procedures in the dayto day working of the library had certain advan-tages and limitations. They are enumerated below.r-;14.1 Advantages

i) Single texts of individual authors arequickly distinguished from thecollection.

ii) books on critical appraisal could bekept separately by authorwise forresearch purposes.

iii) the problem of artificial compositebooks could be solved, bringino intolight the single texts which otherwisegot hidden in the collection.

14.2 Limitationsi) sometimes caused filing inconsistency

ii) books of critical appraisal on anindividual author of a specific periodgot separated from those of more thanone author of that period.

iii) the increase in the number of digits ina class number caused confusion to theusers at the beginning.

15. CONCLUSIONA strong necessity for such changes in theliterature class was felt during the working ofthe library, specially due to the demands of theresearch scholars working in the field. Theimplementation of the project solved a goodnumber of problems in concept specification ofbooks on literature keeping the Dewey notationalorder, as far as practicable, intact.16. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTGrateful acknowledgement in due to the Authori-ties of Berhampur UniverSity for granting thisProject and by providing five extra technicalassistants and for permitting us to publish thisreport. We are thankful to Dr B.B. Jena,

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CONCEPT SPECIFICATION IN DDC

Professor-in-charge of the library System andto Mr. B.N. Panda. Deputy librarian of thelibrary for the ir encouragement and cooperationduring this investigation. We are also thankfulto other assistants of the Technical and Proces-sing Section for their help. specially to MissS. Maharana. Chief of the Junior TechnicalAssistants for her sincerity in processing andfiling of shelflist and other catalogue entries.17.1.

lEFERENCRSDewey. Melvil. : Dewej decimal classi-fication and relative index. 18th ed.N.Y.: Forest Press. 1971. 3 Vols.

Vol 28 Nos 1-4 (Mar-Dee) 1981

2. Cutter. C.A.: Cutter-Sanborn threefigure author table.

3. Bakewell, K.G.B.: Classification andindexing practice. (london: CliveBingley. 1978.

4. Friis-Hansen. J.B.: What Dewey knew.libri 1976. 26. 216-230.

5. .Vann. Sarah K.: Dewey decimal classi-fication (In Maltby. A.: Classificationin the 1970's: A second look. london:Clive Bingley. 1978. p.226-288)

89