Library of Congress Classification
October 07, 2006
The majority of university libraries -- like Hale Library at Kansas State University in Manhattan or Mabee Library on the campus of Washburn University in Topeka -- use the Library of Congress Classification (LCC). For this reason, students planning to pursue a college education should probably familiarize themselves with this organizational system.
| A General Works |
B Philosophy, Psychology, Religion |
C Auxiliary Sciences of History |
D History: Generaland outside the Americas |
| E History: United States |
F History: United States Local and America |
G Geography, Anthropology, Recreation |
H Social Sciences |
| J Political Science |
K Law |
L Education |
M Music |
| N Fine Arts |
P Language and Literature |
Q Science |
R Medicine |
| S Agriculture |
T Technology |
U Military Science |
V Naval Science |
In the beginning ...
Before Melvil Dewey and his classification system, there was yet another notable man who loved books: Thomas Jefferson. He served as president of the United States from 1801 until 1809, and approved the first law defining the role and function of the Library of Congress.
Jefferson not only appointed the first two Librarians of Congress, but he also personally recommended books for the Library throughout his presidency. At first, these books were arranged by size -- folios, quartos, octavos, and duodecimos -- and then arranged by accession numbers. By 1812, the Library of Congress implemented a classification scheme, based on Benjamin Franklin's Library Company of Philadelphia, which Franklin had adopted from the ideas of Francis Bacon and D'Alembert. This new scheme consisted of eighteen classes, which were then subdivided according to size and then arranged alphabetically.
In 1814, the British army invaded Washington D.C. and destroyed the Capitol building as well as the 3,000 volumes in the Library of Congress. As an attempt to replenish the nation's library, Jefferson sold his own personal library of 6,487 volumes -- the largest in the country -- to the United States government, at a cost of $23,940. It was a diverse collection, reflecting Jefferson's extensive interest, for he believed there was "no subject to which a Member of Congress may not have occasion to refer."
Changes are made
With the acquisition of this new library came yet another system of cataloguing, personalized by Jefferson himself, but also based on the scheme developed by Francis Bacon and D'Alembert, Jefferson's system, however, had forty-four main classes, which reflected the size and diversity of his collection.
With modifications, the Library of Congress continued to use Jefferson's classification, but by 1897 the Library of Congress inventory had grown from 7,000 volumes to one million. This growth was due in part to the Copyright Act of 1870, which brought all U.S. copyright registration and deposit activities directly to the Library of Congress. In addition, the Smithsonian Institution had transferred its 40,000-volume library in 1866, in order to focus more on scientific research and publication.
As a result, a new classification was needed to accommodate the growing influx of books. A committee considered adapting the Dewey Decimal system, but Dewey was unwilling to compromise or make adjustments in his classification order. They also looked at Hartwig's Halle Scheme, which was described as being strongly oriented in traditional German philosophical thought. Ultimately, the committee chose The Expansive Classifications, based on the work of Charles Ammi Cutter, who was amenable to making some changes.
In terms of adaptability, the Library of Congress Classification is perhaps more suited for large libraries, because it utilizes almost all the letters of the alphabet, resulting in cataloguing that is more expandable and versatile, especially when combination of letters are utilized. Dewey, on the other hand, catalogues by using the digits 0 through 9, or ten main categories, which tightly limits the bounds of expandability when compared in number to the letters of the alphabet.
