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<div>Abstract:</div><div></div><div>Shiyali Ramamrita Ranganathan (1892-1972) has been called the father of the Indian library movement. He developed the revolutionary Colon Classification (CC) from 1924 to 1928, which was published in seven editions from 1933 to 1987. In this article the evolution of CC through its seven editions is discussed. The unique features of CC are described, including the work in idea, verbal, and notational planes. Tools for designing and evaluating a system are enshrined in his 55 canons, 22 principles, 13 postulates, and 10 devices (Indian Statistical Institute 2012, 34-38). Semantic and syntactic relations are enshrined in his order of main classes, Principles of Helpful Sequence in arrays, PMEST facet formula fitted with rounds and levels of facets, and other principles, such as the famous wall-picture principle for citation order of facets, and numerous devices for improvising class numbers for nonexistent isolates and potential subjects. Briefly explained are facet and phase analyses and number building with its notational base of 74 characters and symbols. The entry concludes with a discussion of the extent of application of CC in libraries, its contribution to the science of classification, and a view of its future.</div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div>colon classification book pdf download</div><div></div><div>DOWNLOAD …
https://t.co/6PBiNZESJz</div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div>The Colon Classification (CC), conceived and initially developed from 1924 to 1928, and initially applied in the Madras University Library, was first published in 1933 (Ranganathan 1933) by the Madras Library Association (founded by Ranganathan in 1928). The latest edition, and the first published after the death of Ranganathan, was the seventh (Ranganathan 1987). Being a mathematician and a close student of an inspiring teacher W.C.B. Sayers (1881-1960) in the School of Librarianship, University College London, Ranganathan was most attracted to classification studies. In his later work, he perceived many similarities between classification and mathematics (Ranganathan 1939b). At the same time, practical classification by the Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC) did not satisfy his orderly mind. That being a "mark and park system" without any professed theory, he could assign more than one class number to a document, especially those dealing with compound and complex subjects. For example, "Anatomy of flowering plants" could either be given the class number of "Plant anatomy" or "Botany of flowering plants". It was a problematic option by default for all such compound subjects. In his view, this defeated the purpose of classification itself. Besides this, Ranganathan also found only a nominal representation of Indian subjects in the scheme. WASPish (White, Anglo-Saxon, Protestant) bias in Dewey's system, as it is in other western systems, is well-known, even today (Comaromi and Satija 1985). Indeed all KO systems are cultural and temporal in their making (Judge 1983); we shall return to this principal cultural bias in the conclusion (Section 5.3).</div><div></div><div></div><div>First, Ranganathan realized that the aftermath of World War I, 1914-1919, had brought in the emergence of specialized, micro, and interdisciplinary subjects, which the existing classifications failed to cope with. He diagnosed that DDC, because of its enumerative nature and 17th century roots, was a classification suited to the nineteenth century linear, mono-dimensional kind of literature (cf., Ranganathan 1961, 81-83). An enumerative classification by default is not able to assign coextensive class numbers to most compound and complex subjects except to some by coincidence (Parrochia and Neuville 2013, 14).</div><div></div><div></div><div>Knowing the malady, the remedy could not have been far away. The problem occupied his mind relentlessly. In 1924, Ranganathan happened to visit Selfridge's department store in London, and accidentally stumbled on a demonstration of a Meccano toy kit. The salesman was making different toys from the same kit by permutation and combination of the blocks, strips, nuts, and bolts. That triggered his mind to adopt a similar technique to design different class numbers from the same subject concepts to suit individual documents (Indian Statistical Institute 2012) [2]. This idea later brought a paradigm shift in classification theory, practice, and research. He visualized that all knowledge is comprised of some basic and discrete concepts (call these building blocks of the universe of knowledge), which could be combined to construct class numbers to specifically suit a document, instead of assigning it a predetermined ready-made sort of pigeonhole class number. Connecting symbols in the form of punctuation marks served as his nuts and bolts to string together discrete concepts. Sayers at once commended the idea of the new technique, but warned him of the labour and patience required for the huge task ahead (Maltby 1975, 191).</div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div>The second edition (Ranganathan 1939a), was important as it clearly laid down the theory and methods of CC as already published in his magnum opus, the Prolegomena to library classification (Ranganathan 1937). The third edition of CC (Ranganathan 1950) came out when Ranganathan had moved to Delhi University and was in the second phase of his writing career. In Delhi, he attracted a band of young and faithful follower librarians and organized them into a formal group named Library Research Circle; they considerably advanced research in classification, and applied his KO systems and methods in their libraries (Parthasarthy 1952). Colon Classification was widely adopted in Delhi libraries. This led him to delve into his classification theory at a somewhat more abstract level with his colleagues, disciples and students. New advances were published in conference volumes and serials of the Indian Library Association of which he was the president (1944-1953).</div><div></div><div></div><div>After long experience and a constant quest to generalize the various facets, in 1952 he came out with his famous, although debatable, theory of "five and only five fundamental categories" in the universe of knowledge. In the earlier editions, the facets were named variously in different main classes, e.g., problem facet, institution facet, substance facet, etc. (Ranganathan 1939, 1.85-1.151). In the fourth edition (Ranganathan 1952) these were highly generalized by an intuitive process of abstraction, and named as personality, matter, energy, space, and time, famously known as PMEST [3]. It was a masterstroke in generalizing myriads of facets to a few seminal categories [4]. Five is considered as the least number of categories for any bibliographic classification postulated so far. The fifth edition (Ranganathan 1957a) was proposed as two volumes of basic and depth versions, but only the basic version was published. Later Ranganathan realized the non-viability of publishing depth schedules in book form (Indian Statistical Institute 2012).</div><div></div><div></div><div>By the time the sixth edition was published (Ranganathan 1960), CC had reached its pinnacle of glory, exemplified by the International Study Conference on Classification Study and Information Retrieval, held at Dorking, England in 1957, which exclusively discussed his theories with wide approval. The Classification Research Group (CRG, London, formed in 1952) declared its manifesto of faceted classification as the basis of all future information retrieval systems. Ranganathan's philosophy and method of facet analysis achieved wide acceptance, though only a few believed the doctrine of five fundamental categories. The term facet was used differently by different scholars and classification schemes, and it still continues so.</div><div></div><div></div><div>During this period, the facet formula was rigid and predetermined. The colon was the only connecting symbol for all the facets. That is, until the fourth edition (Ranganathan 1952) the only connecting symbol was the colon; even the absent facets had to be indicated by dummy colons, e.g., 2::::N for "libraries in twentieth century". Here the first three colons indicate the absence of matter, energy and space facets, the last colon is the connecting symbol for the time facet, i.e., "twentieth century". This made the class numbers unwieldy and even slippery. An inadvertent extra colon could land the book in an alien place, thus misplacing it. Some adversaries made fun of the cluttering of colons.</div><div></div><div></div><div>This period was devoted to the close study of the properties and structure of the universe of subjects. The matter category was split into three sub-categories: Matter-Property, Matter-Method and Matter-Material. Discovery of new common isolates, the concept of speciators to further differentiate a facet into species, and the development of highly hospitable sector notation and devices for improvising class numbers made CC more flexible. This led Ranganathan to declare it as a freely-faceted analytico-synthetic scheme, which is a sort of a self-perpetuating system. A self-perpetuating system is one that needs least revision, and which allows forging of new isolates as needed with the help of inbuilt devices. The new version has a virtually infinite capacity to incorporate new subjects at their proper places with the help of hospitality devices for the creation of new isolate numbers. However, even though CC is a truly postulate-based analytico-synthetic classification, and a highly faceted classification, history has proved that no classification can be self-perpetuating. The theory or concept of a self-perpetuating KO system is flawed.</div><div></div><div></div><div>Prior to Ranganathan, classification design was considered as an intuitive field, the domain of a few inspired geniuses. This is quite obvious from the work of Melvil Dewey (1851-1931), C.A. Cutter (1837-1903), and J.D. Brown (1862-1914). H.E. Bliss (1870-1955), who was singularly dedicated to classification studies, did base his Bibliographic Classification (1944-1953) on some concretely formulated principles which Ranganathan viewed as static theory. The first edition of CC was mostly based on intuition and unstated principles. Later he justified this approach by his belief that in the real world a practice precedes its theory: poetry emerged much earlier than poetics (Satija 1992, 87-88). To elaborate in his own words:Design work of any kind has to draw largely from intuition unmediated as far as possible by the intellect or by rules framed by intellect. In its general makeup, a scheme of library classification will have to come out whole as an egg from the intuition of a classificationist of the creative variety. The intellectual classificationist can only polish it with the aid of a theory germane to it (Ranganathan 1961, 79-80).Nevertheless, Ranganathan soon crystallized the unconscious theory that had gone into the making of his CC from 1928 to 1933. This theory was precipitated in his magnum opus, Prolegomena to library classification (1937). Through comparative approach and by identifying the best practices in existing systems, he formulated a panoply of canons and postulates for designing and evaluating classification systems. Structuring his theory into canons was obviously borrowed from Sayers whom he always regarded as the first grammarian of library classification (Ranganathan 1961, 76). In 1950, a great breakthrough was achieved in the design of classification by dividing it in three succeeding phases, called planes: idea plane, verbal plane, and notational plane. Guided by basic laws of thinking and the overarching Five Laws of Library Science (1931) the work in each plane is executed by a total of 55 canons, 22 principles, and 13 postulates. Ranganathan (1967a, 53-71) makes clear distinctions between these terms. In addition, there are 10 devices to improvise notations for non-existing concepts or terms in the schedules.</div><div></div><div> df19127ead</div>
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