Examining Dewey in a Dewey-Less World

1. CONTEXTUALIZING A
CLASSIFICATION SYSTEM:
EXAMINING DEWEY IN A DEWEY-
LESS WORLD
Presentation to the University of the Fraser
Valley - Library & Information Technology
Program
BY ALLAN CHO
Twitter: @allancho

2. Outline of Presentation
1. LIBT 130: Introduction to
Classification Systems
2. Understanding & appreciating
Dewey Decimal Classification
3. Challenges of the DDC
4. A Dewey-Less World?
5. Alternatives to Dewey

3. History of Subject Classification
The need to organize is an almost
instinctual form of human thought
● It goes as far back as Aristotle's
classification of living things in
which his History of Animals
classified organisms in what is
called the “Great Chain of Being”
● The Seven Epitomes (Qi lüe), the
first library catalogue in China

4. Appreciating Dewey
In the Western library world, the Library
of Congress (LCC) and Melvil Dewey
(DDC) created classification systems for
organizing books
● Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC)
system uses the "tree of knowledge"
approach that divides all knowledge
into "branches" or main classes.
Dewey created 10 general classes.
● DDC is used in 200,000 libraries in at
least 135 countries

5. A 19th Century Construct
Developed in the 19th century
essentially by one man and was built
on a top-down approach to classify
all human knowledge, which makes it
difficult to adapt to changing fields of
knowledge.
● Rich Notational Structure

6. Dewey’s Challenges
Some discrepancies to note about
the Dewey Decimal Classification
and the Library of Congress
Classification:
• 80% of DDC’s religion section
(the 200s) is exclusively devoted
to Christianity
• “American literature” holds its
own separate section (the 810s)
while all other literatures are
organized by language
• The section (325.4-325.9)
combines “migration” and
“colonization” which prioritizes
power domination and
subjugation of the colonized
• Fiction vs. Non-fiction

7. Indigenous Knowledge
• Western and Indigenous
Knowledge Organization
• However, the knowledge
systems known as
“Indigenous” and “Western”
have been in interaction long
ago, at least since the 15th
century and in fact continue to
today

8. Non-English Classification
Systems
New Classification Scheme for
Chinese Libraries
Nippon Decimal Classification
(NDC)
Chinese Library Classification
(CLC)
Korean Decimal Classification
(KDC)
Russian Library-Bibliographical
Classification (BBK)
Maori Subject Headings

9. Korean Decimal Classification
Dewey Decimal (DDC) Korean Decimal (KDC)
War as a Social Process and
near Diplomacy
War as Social Problem and near
Suicide; Juvenile Problems; and
Problems of the Aged
Many types of railroad stations Only one class for railroad
stations
Sex education under Medicine
along with Birth Control and
Reproductive Technology and
Sex hygiene
Sex education under Social
Problems and near Prostitution;
Rape; and Homosexuality
Bible developed fully in its own
section with many subdivisions
Bible on section under
Christianity
(Kwasnik, 2004, 195-197)

10. The Metis Classification
Metis is a Dewey-free library classification system developed and
implemented in 2011 by the librarians at the Ethical Culture School
in New York City

11. Dewey’s Dilemma
Is it fair to critique a system
that had been created more
than a century ago?
- It is important to recognize
that a classification system
is a social construction. As
a product of their times,
classifications reflect
inherent biases of their
creators as well (Olson,
1998, 234).
- Already widely adopted
- It’s free!

12. Balas Kaplan, Tali, et al. "One Size Does Not Fit All:
Creating a Developmentally Appropriate Classification
for Your Children's Collections."Knowledge Quest 42.2
(2013): 30-37.
Kwasnik, Barbara H., and You-Lee Chun. "Translation
of classifications: Issues and solutions as exemplified
in the Korean Decimal Classification."Proceedings of
the ISKO Conference. 2004.
Olson, Hope A. "Mapping beyond Dewey's boundaries:
Constructing classificatory space for marginalized
knowledge domains." Library trends 47.2 (1998): 233-
254.
References