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Library of Congress Classification

Library science
Alternate Title: LC Classification

Library of Congress Classification, byname Lc Classification, system of library organization developed during the reorganization of the U.S. Library of Congress. It consists of separate, mutually exclusive, special classifications, often having no connection save the accidental one of alphabetical notation.

Unlike the Dewey Decimal Classification, this system was based on an actual collection of some million books and incorporated the best features of existing systems with individual subject schemes or schedules devised by subject specialists. The arrangement, based on the order devised by the American librarian Charles Cutter in Expansive Classification (1891–93), roughly follows groupings of social sciences, humanities, and natural and physical sciences. It divides the field of knowledge into 20 large classes and an additional class for general works. Each main class has a synopsis that also serves as a guide. The resulting order is from the general to the specific and from the theoretical to the practical.

Special features include differentiation between general and general specific (books treating general works in a special way); minute groupings of subjects and geographic places for individual titles; and association of subject by country rather than topic in certain classes (philosophy, social sciences, political sciences). The quarterly appearance of LC Classification schedules testifies to the constant revision.

The Library of Congress does not publish a general index to the classification schedules, but a Combined Indexes to the Library of Congress Classification Schedules, compiled by Nancy B. Olson, was published independently in 1975. In place of standard subdivisions, each class may incorporate divisions for literary form and geography. Terminology may be explicit, exact, scientific, or popular, depending on the situation. There is no attempt to give mnemonic (memory) aids, and the fullness of each class varies. Subdivisions in the Library of Congress system are arranged roughly on a historical basis, and the notation is mixed: capital letters (single and double sets) and Arabic numerals. More combinations and, hence, greater specificity is possible, yet excessively long notations do not occur. Hence, university, special, and government libraries favour its use.

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