The Classification of Books in the Natural Sciences.[1]
MY interest has been considerable for some time in the subject of this paper, and has been awakened from several sides. The theoretical interest that every student of Natural Science should have in observing classification systematically applied has been deepened for me by being brought face to face with some of the difficulties of organisation in our University Library. The problems that arise have been yet more vividly impressed on me during an attempt to work out the parallel task of putting into practical form a classification suited for use in a botanical museum, to be applied so soon as the extension of our buildings, now in progress, has included the botanical, department.
I have naturally sought to become acquainted with the schemes of classification that have been published, such as those of Dewey (with its modification by Mann), Cutter, Scudder and others, as well as with the distribution of subjects in the annual records of the several Sciences. The result has been to make me realise at once how much to be desired a good system is, and how many and great are the difficulties in the way, that must be overcome before one can be formed. I wish to come as a pupil in the hope that a statement of some difficulties may elicit a discussion in which light may be cast on the best methods of overcoming them.
There is no question that the relative location must supersede the fixed system in every living library, whichever modification be adopted. Dewey's Decimal System has great merits, but it has defects that are self-evident; and the same holds good of every system, so far as I am acquainted with them. Moreover the requirements of a general library differ so much from those of a. specialist that it is not easy to reconcile the two. There are comparatively few books that may not fall under more than one; division, in any relative scheme, according to the special point from which they are regarded, e.g., Bates' Naturalist on the River Amazon may be classed under Scientific Travels, or under
- ↑ Read before the Library Association, Aberdeen, September, 1893.
