Of Classes, Divisions and Sections

As a means to introduce readers to the works of the Library we are starting a new series of posts which will feature extracts from books in the collection. These extracts will cover various topics and to provide some continuity, will follow the order of the catalogue. For those unfamiliar with the Library's catalogue it might be helpful to provide a short introduction.

The catalogue follows what is known as the Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC), with some modifications. The DDC is the most widely used classification system in the world and divides information into ten main classes. Each class is further divided into ten divisions, and each division into ten sections. Each section can be further divided to classify ever more specific information. The unique feature of the DDC is that starting with a simple three digit number to represent the ten classes, modifying a single digit allows the divisions and sections to be generated.

For example, the class Religion has been assigned the number 200. By changing the second digit to a '2' we arrive at the division Biblical Studies (220). By again changing the third digit to a '7' we have the section Epistles (227). This section can be further divided by adding '.9' so we have the Catholic Epistles* (227.9) and again by adding a '0.02' we finally arrive at the First Epistle of St. Peter (227.92). One can thus conceive the DDC as a game of addition which could be extended to encompass thousands of individual subjects.

Getting back to the Library's catalogue, one will notice that it specialises in the following classes: Philosophy & Psychology (100), Religion (200), Literature (800) and History (900), which should not come as any surprise. Therefore if you are after books on Social Science (300), Languages (400), Science (500), Technology (600) and the Arts (700) you can most certainly come in to the Library but it might be worth first visiting your local library or the State Library since they will have a greater range of books on these subjects.