> Once again, let me play my broken record---there is demonstrated by many professional librarians a sad lack of understanding of the purpose of knowledge classification systems ... DDC, LCC, etc., are knowledge classification systems first, not physical arrangement devices. Physical arrangement is a by-product; using the class #s for shelf-arrangement is optional.
Let me attack this directly.
The history of a thing is not the thing. Etymology is not meaning. The
original purpose of something does not exhaust its purpose today, or
sometimes even have much at all to do with it. This is a very common
feature of standards. The "purpose" of our funny non-base-10 system of
months and measures is not to regulate the worship of Sumerian gods.
The "purpose" of books is not to combat the cutoff of papyrus supply
to Pergamon. The "purpose" of the Social Security Number is not really
the regulation of a particular New Deal program. The "purpose" of the
internet is not to provide computer networks with nuclear
survivability.
DDC exists today primarily as a standardized shelving system. That is
it's purpose. That's what it means to most librarians, and such
patrons as think it means anything at all. And, most importantly, it's
how it survived being merely a quaint product of late 19c. central
Massachusetts thinkery. A standard becomes its own justification, even
when it has no other defensible one.
Tim
Received on Wed Nov 11 2009 - 12:23:48 EST