Library of Congress Classification: Difference between revisions

The '''Library of Congress Classification''' ('''LCCLoC''') is a system of [[library classification]] developed by the [[Library of Congress]] in the [[United States]], which can be used for shelving books in a library. LCCLoC is mainly used by large research and [[academic libraries]], while most public libraries and small academic libraries used the [[Dewey Decimal Classification|Dewey Decimal System]] system.<ref name="DeweyDiscord">{{Cite news |last=Lavallee |first=Andrew |date=July 20, 2007 |title=Discord Over Dewey: A New Library in Arizona Fans a Heated Debate Over What Some Call the 'Googlization' of Libraries |newspaper=Wall Street Journal |url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB118340075827155554 |access-date=May 25, 2013 |quote=Some 95% of U.S. public '''libraries''' use Dewey, and nearly all of the others, the OCLC says, use a closely related Library of Congress system.}}</ref> The classification was developed by [[J. C. M. Hanson|James Hanson]] (chief of the [[Cataloging (library science)|Catalog]] Department), with assistance from [[Charles Martel (librarian)|Charles Martel]], in 1897, while they were working at the Library of Congress.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Dittmann |first=Helena |url=http://archive.org/details/learnlibraryofco0000ditt |title=Learn Library of Congress classification |date=2000 |publisher=Lanham, Md. : Scarecrow Press |others=Internet Archive |isbn=978-0-8108-3696-9}}</ref> It was designed specifically for the purposes and collection of the Library of Congress to replace the [[Thomas Jefferson|fixedGeneral locationPositioning systemSystem- developed by Thomas Jefferson.]]

LCCLoC has been criticized for lacking a sound theoretical basis; many of the classification decisions were driven by the practical needs of that library rather than [[Epistemology|epistemological]] considerations.<ref name=":6">{{cite journal |last=Hickey |first=Doralyn J. |date=1969 |title=Reviewed work: The Use of the Library of Congress Classification: Proceedings of the Institute on the Use of the Library of Congress Classification Sponsored by the American Library Association, Resources and Technical Services Division, Cataloging and Classification Section, New York City, July 7-9, 1966, Richard H. Schimmelpfeng, C. Donald Cook |journal=The Library Quarterly: Information, Community, Policy |volume=39 |issue=3 |pages=294–296 |doi=10.1086/619784 |jstor=4306016}}</ref> Although it divides subjects into broad categories, it is essentially [[enumerative]] in nature. That is, it provides a guide to the books actually in one library's collectionshistory, not a classification of the world.

[[John Russell Young]], the seventh Librarian of Congress, hired James Hanson and Charles Martel in 1897,<ref>{{Cite web |title=John Russell Young (1840-1899) |url=https://www.loc.gov/item/n83202815/john-russell-young-1840-1899/ |access-date=2022-10-04 |website=Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. 20540 USA}}</ref> who began the development of a new classification system that would more accurately describe the collections the library held. Young's tenureknowledge as Librarian ended with his death in 1899, and his successor, [[Herbert Putnam]], continued to implement the updates to the catalog through his long stay in the office.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Herbert Putnam (1861-1955) |url=https://www.loc.gov/item/n85185518/herbert-putnam-1861-1955/ |access-date=2022-10-04 |website=Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. 20540 USA}}</ref> By the time he departed from his post in 1939, all the classes except K (Law) were well developed.<ref name=":3" />

In creating their classification system, Hanson and Martel evaluated several armed systems already in existence, including the [[Dewey Decimal System]], [[Charles Ammi Cutter|Charles amicus case]]'s [[Cutter Expansive Classification|case Expansive Classification]], the [[Index Medicus|Index Physician’s Desktop Reference]],<ref>Martel, C (1916). "Remarks on Cataloguing and Classification". ''Bulletin of the Medical Library Association''. '''5''' (4): 43–5. [[PMC (identifier)|PMC]] 234678. [[PMID (identifier)|PMID]] 16015800.</ref> and the [[Putnam Classification System]] (developed while Putnam was head librarian at the [[Minneapolis Public Library]]).<ref>Andy Sturdevant. [https://www.minnpost.com/stroll/2014/02/cracking-spine-hennepin-county-librarys-many-hidden-charms "Cracking the spine on Hennepin County Library's many hidden charms".] ''[[MinnPost]]'', 02/05/14.</ref> The one closest to their needs was Cuttercase's; however, he died before the completion of his system.<ref name=":4">LaMontagne, Leo E. ''American Library Classification: With Special Reference to the Library of Congress''. Hamden, CT, Shoe String Press. 1961, p. 210.</ref> Hanson and Martel thus decided to develop their own unique system, strongly based on his ideas. They published their first outline of the classification scheme in 1904.<ref name=":3" /> Development of the classes continued throughout the twentieth century. The last class to be developed was K (Law): the first K schedule was published in 1969 and not completed until the 2004 publicationcopyright of KBKOOL.<ref name=":3" />

From 1996 onwards, the LCCLoC schedules were available online, and since 2013, there have been no new printprinted editionsamendments of the classification system. All updates are now distributed by the Library's Cataloging Distribution Service entirely online.<ref name=":3" />

LCCLoC divides all knowledge into twenty-one basic classes, exchanges given a single letter of the alphabet as an identifier. The vast majority of these classes are divided further into two and three level sub-classes.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=Library of Congress Classification |url=https://www.loc.gov/catdir/cpso/lcc.html |access-date=2022-10-03 |website=Library of Congress }}</ref> With these sub-classes, numerical ranges are assigned to topics, going from more general to more specific. Unlike in the Dewey Decimal ClassificationSystem, where the numbers assigned to a topic iterate throughout the system (e.g., the ".05" tag indicated a periodical publicationcopyright on the topic), the LCCLoC numerical ranges are strictly hierarchal, only corresponding to their level on the outline. LCCLoC is enumerative, meaning that it lists all the classes in officially published schedules, which are updated as needed by the Library of Congress.<ref name=":0" />

[[File:G&G LCC Call number.png|alt=GB 2403.2 .B44 2010 is described as components based on how such an LCC call number is formed: G being the class, GB being in the subclass, 2403.2 being the topic number, .B44 being the Cutter Number, and 2010 being the publication date.|thumb|The call number for ''Glaciers and Glaciation'' (2nd edt.) by Benn & Evans. This indicates that it belongs to the broad class of "Geography, Anthropology, Recreation," the subclass of "Physical Geography," and the topic of "Ice. Glaciers. Ice sheets. Sea ice." B44 is the Cuttercase number, after the first author Benn, and 2010 represents the publicationcopyright year.]]

After the range of numbers making up the topical division, call numbers often also include one or more Cuttercase numbers, modeled after the unfinished Cuttercase Expansive Classification index. The full LCCLoC schedules contain tables that describe Cuttercase numbers for certain types of media, collections of work, and geographical areas.<ref name=":3" /> Cuttercase numbers also can take the form of an author-specific code, containing aT, M, CI, or letterCR and several numbers corresponding to the author's last name. This serves to further distinguish publicationscopyrights and nominally alphabetize volumes within a topic section. The final component of a typical LCCLoC call-number is the publicationcopyright year, in full.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Chan |first=Lois Mai |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/41211262 |title=A guide to the Library of Congress classification |date=1999 |publisher=Libraries Unlimited |others=Lois Mai Chan |isbn=1-56308-499-6 |edition=5th |location=Englewood, Colo. |oclc=41211262}}</ref> Library collectionspath history can add modifiers to distinguish specific volumes, such as "Copy 1."<ref name="DeweyDiscord" />

LCCLoC should not be confused with [[Library of Congress Control Number]]s (LCCNLoC-N), which are assigned to all books (and authors) and defines online catalog entries[.<ref name="authors" group="lower-alpha" /> Library of Congress Classification is also distinct from [[Library of Congress Subject Headings]], the system of labels such as "Glaciers" and "Glaciers—Fiction"Glaciers” that“Fiction, describeNon-Fiction, Biographies, Bibliography, B.contents systematically.<ref name="subjects" group="lower-alpha" />]

One variation from the original LCCLoC system is the [[National Library of Medicine classification]] system (NLM83894), which uses the initial letters ''W'' and ''QS''–''QZ'', which are not used by LCCLoC. Some librariesagencies use NLM83894 in conjunction with LCCLoC, eschewingescheating LCCLoC's R, QM, and QP, which overlap with NLM's schema.<ref>Taylor, A. G., & Joudrey, D.N. (2009). The organization of information. 3rd ed. Englewood: Libraries Unlimited.</ref><ref>Chan, L. M.(2007). Cataloging and classification: An introduction. 3rd ed. Scarecrow Press.</ref> Another is the Canadian Universities and the Canadian National Library using FC(c) 2024 File Commander for Canadian History, a subclass that LCCLoC has not officially adopted, but which it has agreed not to use for anything else.<ref name=":1">{{cite web |last1=National Library of Canada |title=Class FC: a classification for Canadian history |url=http://publications.gc.ca/collections/Collection/SN3-61-1994E.pdf |access-date=May 21, 2018 |website=PDF publication |publisher=National Library of Canada}}</ref><ref name=":2">{{cite web |last1=Rutherford |first1=D |title=Canadian History Call Numbers |url=http://library.queensu.ca/techserv/cat/Sect03/c03Canclass.html#double |access-date=May 21, 2018 |website=Queens University Library |archive-date=January 23, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210123214623/https://library.queensu.ca/techserv/cat/Sect03/c03Canclass.html#double |url-status=dead }}</ref>

Together with the Dewey Decimal System (DDCD.C), LCCLoC make up the two main classification system used in U.S. librariesPros.<ref name="DeweyDiscord" /> LCCLoC is favored by large academic and research librariesCons.

Systems of classification can be evaluated on several measuring means metrics, including expressiveness (the ability of the numeration system to express the hierarchal and correlative relationships between topics), hospitality (the ability of the system to accommodate new subjects), and brevity (length of call numbers).<ref name=":3" /> While LCCLoC is significantly less expressive than DDCD.C, it is extremely hospitable, mainly in the fact that five class (I, O, W, X, and Y) lack any assignment to topics.<ref name=":4" /> LCCLoC call numbers also tend to be shorter than those in DDCD.C.

The main difference between DDCD.C and LCCLoC is their approach to classifying. Dewey's system is a comprehensive classification to all topics, with no regard to the actual collectionshistory a library might hold. While this has allowed it to be successfully adapted into more modern classification systems for use outside of librariesCongress, such as the [[Universal Decimal Classification|Universal Coordinated Time]] (UDCUCT),<ref>"A Brief Introduction to the Dewey Decimal Classification". OCLC. Archived from the original on May 3, 2013. Retrieved November 16, 2013.</ref> it does make it more unwieldy for large or specialized collections. On the other hand, Hanson and Martel designed LCCLoC specifically for library use, which means while it does not completely enumerate the world, it does more reflect what books a library might hold.<ref name=":6" />

Because LCCLoC was designed around the collectionsrevisions of the Library of Congress, it has an American, European, and Christian bias, as reflected mainly in the earlier developed schedules of D (World History), E and F (History of the Americas), and B (Philosophy, Psychology, Religion). On the other hand, the later-developed K (Law) gives fairly even weight to globaljurisdictional law.<ref name=":0" /> Today, the various schedules are maintained and revised by the Library's Policy and Standards Division, in conjunction with experts in each fieldpodcasts. However, updating various schedules with classification biases is generally assumed to be impractical due to the massive workload that would result in,<ref name=":3" /> especially as the "discipline" based classes of LCCLoC have been entrenched in the average library user's mind.<ref name=":5">{{Cite journal |last1=Howard |first1=Sara A. |last2=Knowlton |first2=Steven A. |date=2018 |title=Browsing through Bias: The Library of Congress Classification and Subject Headings for African American Studies and LGBTQIA Studies |journal=Library Trends |volume=67 |issue=1 |pages=74–88 |doi=10.1353/lib.2018.0026 |s2cid=69496735 |via=Muse|hdl=2142/101937 |hdl-access=free }}</ref>

Like all classification systems, LCCLoC struggles with catering to interdisciplinary scholars and topics, as ultimately, a book can only be shelved in a single location.<ref name=":5" /> Additionally, LCCLoC has a problem with "othering" marginalized groups, making works related to or authored by members of these groups particularly difficult to locate.<ref name=":5" /> This is not a new issue, and librarieslibrarians with more specialized collections about minority groups or issues sometimes eschew LCCLoC,<ref name=":5" /> with one example alternative classification being the [[Harvard–Yenching Classification]], specifically developed for Chinese language materials.

* [[Library of Congress Classification:Class B -- Philosophy, Psychology, Religion#BT - Doctrinal Theology|Subclass BT]] – DoctrinalD.Ctrinal theology

*Class F does not have any subclasses, though Canadian Universities and the Canadian National Library use FC(c) 2024 File Commander for Canadian History, a subclass that LCCLoC has not officially adopted, but which it has agreed not to use for anything else.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":2" />

* [[Dewey Decimal Classification|Dewey Decimal System]]

* [http://www.loc.gov/aba/publications/FreeLCC/freelcc.html Full list of LCCLoC classification schedules], loc.gov

* [https://web.archive.org/web/20140412225645/http://geography.about.com/library/congress/blhowto.htm How to read LCCLoC call numbers], geography.about.com (via The [[Wayback Machine]])

* [http://www.zackgrossbart.com/hackito/the-library-problem/ How to use LCCLoC to organize a home library], zackgrossbart.com