Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- 1 Introduction
- 2 The need for classification
- 3 First principles of classification
- 4 The variety of classification: systems and structures
- 5 The classification scheme: internal structure
- 6 Types of classification scheme
- 7 Order in the classification scheme
- 8 Content analysis 1: document description
- 9 Content analysis 2: practical constraints
- 10 Controlled indexing languages
- 11 Word-based approaches to retrieval
- 12 Library of Congress Subject Headings 1: basic headings
- 13 Library of Congress Subject Headings 2: structured headings
- 14 Classification scheme application
- 15 Library of Congress Classification 1: basic classmark construction
- 16 Library of Congress Classification 2: use of tables
- 17 Dewey Decimal Classification 1: general properties and basic numbers
- 18 Dewey Decimal Classification 2: number building
- 19 Universal Decimal Classification 1: general properties and basic number building
- 20 Universal Decimal Classification 2: auxiliary tables
- 21 Faceted classification
- 22 Managing classification
- 23 Classification in digital space
- Glossary
- Bibliography and further reading
- Index
16 - Library of Congress Classification 2: use of tables
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 08 June 2018
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- 1 Introduction
- 2 The need for classification
- 3 First principles of classification
- 4 The variety of classification: systems and structures
- 5 The classification scheme: internal structure
- 6 Types of classification scheme
- 7 Order in the classification scheme
- 8 Content analysis 1: document description
- 9 Content analysis 2: practical constraints
- 10 Controlled indexing languages
- 11 Word-based approaches to retrieval
- 12 Library of Congress Subject Headings 1: basic headings
- 13 Library of Congress Subject Headings 2: structured headings
- 14 Classification scheme application
- 15 Library of Congress Classification 1: basic classmark construction
- 16 Library of Congress Classification 2: use of tables
- 17 Dewey Decimal Classification 1: general properties and basic numbers
- 18 Dewey Decimal Classification 2: number building
- 19 Universal Decimal Classification 1: general properties and basic number building
- 20 Universal Decimal Classification 2: auxiliary tables
- 21 Faceted classification
- 22 Managing classification
- 23 Classification in digital space
- Glossary
- Bibliography and further reading
- Index
Summary
As we saw in the previous chapter, it's very straightforward to construct LCC call-marks. In most cases, the subject part of the call-mark is lifted from the schedule without any alteration. The only real intellectual work for the classifier is the creation of the Cutter number, deciding whether it should be for the author or for another aspect of the work, and contriving a number that will fit in with the existing sequence. Very often, even this isn't required, as LCC is so fond of lists that it offers thousands of ready-made subject Cutters.
There are, however, some areas where more detail can be achieved by a limited sort of number building, and you normally do this by using tables.
Tables in LCC
LCC is quite unlike any other classification in its use of tables. In most schemes you would expect to find commonly occurring concepts, such as place, time or form, provided for in a general table to be used throughout the system. This is what happens in DDC and UDC, and of course has its equivalent in LCSH in the free-floating subdivisions.
In LCC every table is special to the place where it is applied. Even where a table is used frequently in a particular main class (as happens in Class H, Social sciences) it can still be used only where the instructions permit. For example, in the part of the schedule shown in Figure 16.1, Table 21 can be used to expand the classes for Bisons (sic), Edible birds’ nests, Edible caterpillars, Edible snails and Kangaroos, but Table 23 must be used for Goats. You can't use a table to expand Rabbits since there is no instruction to do so, but some enumerated classes are provided.
This means that adding notation from tables is a laborious business since there is no single consistently used table for common concepts, nor is there any mnemonic value in the notation, since it hardly ever remains the same in two different classmarks.
In the online version of LCC the tables are very easy to use: when you click on the link to a table it pops up and inserts itself into the schedule, working out the numbers for you.
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- Essential Classification , pp. 183 - 198Publisher: FacetPrint publication year: 2015