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Name: Crystal Stephenson

Course: LIS6711 Organization of Knowledge I
Assignment: Classification Systems
Due Date: June 23, 2018

For the first part of this assignment, I followed the OCLC’s Connexion link to
WebDewey. Once there, I chose to supplement our course material by reviewing some of the
helpful links provided on their home page, including the Manual, Introduction, and Glossary,
which all had something to offer along the way. As I am unfamiliar with this process, I didn’t
know exactly what to “search” besides the title of what I wanted a DDC for, so instead I built it
through browsing the main schedule or classes, following the prompts and guidance through the
manual. After re-reviewing the lecture, I did wind up using the search feature to confirm the
direction I was on.

From WebDewey’s home page, I clicked on “Main Classes,” so they were listed easily for
me to choose from. While “Technology” was briefly considered, I wound up choosing
“Computer science, information & general works” (000), which prompted the next list. From the
subcategories of classes, I chose “Library & information sciences” (020). While it was not
apparent from the start, I ruled out class fields involving relationships, human resources and
management, specific institutions, unassigned categories, and information media, which left me
with “Operations of libraries and archives” (025) by means of process of elimination. When I
clicked on this, it took me to a page listing history, notes, relative index terms, and subdivisions
of the classes. Beneath the summary, it stated that, “In this number and its subdivisions, libraries
and archives are used to represent libraries, archives, information centers, institutional
repositories, media centers, and their digital equivalents.” More notably, it continues, “Class here
documentation (the systematic collection, organization, storage, retrieval, and dissemination of
recorded information); interdisciplinary works on data curation” are included, so I felt this was
correct.

Once I felt I had the appropriate Dewey Decimal Classification number, 025, I reviewed
the list of subdivisions provided and clicked on “Information storage and retrieval systems”
(025.04), because as the publisher’s note on the back of the book indicates, “information
retrieval” appears to be at the heart of the material’s primary subject. Once clicked, the notes
provided above seemed to confirm my choice. 025.04 is, “Systems for storing and retrieving
bibliographic resources or their surrogates, including text, audio, image, and/or video content.”
And this class includes, “bibliographic databases, unstructured text databases; search and
retrieval in information storage and retrieval systems, information retrieval based on metadata,
information retrieval based on natural language text; query languages for information storage and
retrieval systems; comprehensive works on information filtering systems.” Relative index terms
included bibliographic databases in information science, concepts in information retrieval, query
languages, etc., so I felt this was a contextually relevant path. However, this was the point at
which I stopped and had trouble following through to the end, so to speak. While 025.524 was
suggested for “search and retrieval use of information storage and retrieval systems in reference
and information services,” clicking on that number seemed to be incorrect, since it was primarily
for users of services and reordered my initial subdivisions which deviated from my inclinations.
Furthermore, while reviewing the subdivisions beneath 025.04, I knew that “Special computer
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methods,” “Women -- information systems use,” and “People with disabilities – information
systems use” were all not appropriate for this book. The final choice was “World Wide Web”
(025.042), however, so I clicked on that, which says, “Class here Internet viewed as an
information storage and retrieval system, Internet literacy; interdisciplinary works on World
Wide Web.” Since this seemed possible, I reviewed the list of subdivisions. There were two
options of note, “Search and retrieval” (025.0425) and “Semantic web” (025.042/7), so I clicked
on both to see where they would take me. “Search and retrieval,” while somewhat relatable in
context, seemed incorrect here, because it was taking me down a path of Internet searching,
which isn’t necessarily the primary focus of the textbook. In this case, I clicked on “Semantic
web,” which I felt was more appropriate, but that is where the subdivisions ended in this first
table. Some of the related index terms included linked data, resource description framework, and
web of data. I did not follow any other tables (e.g. T2, T3 or T4) beyond the standard
subdivisions. I can’t say that this final conclusion was correct, but I felt confident with my initial
classification number, so it was time to confirm it by checking the Library of Congress Catalog.

Illustration of my hierarchy of class and standard subdivisions:

000 Computer science, information & general works

020 Library & information sciences
025 Operations of libraries and archives
025.04 Information storage and retrieval systems
025.042 World Wide Web
025.042/7 Semantic Web

Just to satisfy my curiosity, I performed a search on WebDewey for “information

organization,” which retrieved a list of results, including 025 as I had located prior, so once
again, I felt confident in my determined classification. I followed up by searching for
“metadata,” and it pulled up the 025.04 that I located above through process of elimination, but
another avenue suggested was 025.3, so I clicked on that. The summary includes cataloging in
publications and ISBNs, as well as “standards for bibliographic analysis and control;
comprehensive works on cataloging and classification, on indexing, or information storage.”
Some of the relative index terms included metadata in information science, indexing, and Dublin
Core. While I initially thought 025.04 was a promising route, I must admit to reconsidering my
determinations, but when clicking on 025.34, which would have made sense in the abstract, I
wasn’t entirely satisfied with that either. However, I do believe I was on the right path.

Once I located our textbook in the LC catalog, the only classification number provided is
025, which meant I was correct, but didn’t really tell me whether the path I took beyond classes
was correct or not. I was hoping for a full number for location, so I could compare that to my
findings. When doing some additional searching online, I admit I couldn’t locate the full number
for confirmation. I used WorldCat as well, but since this book is often in eBook format, I wasn’t
able to locate the full DDC as I set out to. That said, I did successfully determine the
classification number, 025, from the WebDewey site and confirmed it through the LC Catalog.

For the second part of this assignment, I spent far more time analyzing our lecture and
materials, as well as supplement the assigned readings with further researching outside sources
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for context, and I believe I have figured out how the call number (Z666.5 .D57 2013) for the
textbook was constructed. Part of this process was simple, while other parts were more difficult
for me, hence my additional searching. Beginning with the easiest or simplest part of the call
number, “Z” is indicative of the Library of Congress Class for “bibliography, library science, and
information resources.” Since this is a general source, Z was adequate and no additional letter
was attached like the initial example in our lecture. The “666.5” was honestly the most difficult
portion of the call number to decipher. While it may have been an incorrect method, I did try by
utilizing the cutter explanations for both the 666 and the .D57 portions of the call number. I tried
to relate it, however wrong, by skipping the first article (“The”) and after the initial vowel in
“Discipline,” for the second letter, “p” would be 6. After the initial “S” in the word, for the
second letter, again “p” would equal 6. And after the initial consonants for the second letter, “o”
would also be a 6. Like I said, I didn’t feel as though I deciphered the class notation of the call
number correctly, even though we use “Discipline” for both title of the work and in lieu of the
author, but I may have better understood the cutter instructions for the second part, .D57.

Since Glushko is the main editor, but not author, we must use the title of the book in lieu
of the author and skip beginning articles, so the cutter sequence would be for “Discipline” once
again. Initial letter is “D” and after initial letter, “i” is a 5 and the expansion third letter is “s” or
7, so the cutter is .D57. For the final sequence, the year of publication is a given, 2013. So “Z” is
the subject area, the numbers that follow indicate more specifically the given subject area, the
second portion cut off represents the author or title (when multiple authors are involved or no
author is given), and the final portion is the year of publication.

In conclusion, I located the LC classification number, 025, rather easily, but played
around with it quite a bit to become more familiar and experimented with how far I could take
the subdivisions. However, the LC Catalog only provides the 025, so I could not confirm my
work any further than that. When it came to an explanation of the call number, I admit to
struggling and doing a great deal of research beyond our lecture for more context, but may have
misinterpreted or did so incorrectly. I believe the tricky part is that while “Discipline” is part of
the title for identification, we also use “Discipline” in lieu of an author’s name, so to make the
sequence match the call number I used both cutter charts with an expansion. I can’t speak to this
being correct, but I did manage to find a corresponding number and letter for what ultimately
makes up the call number. I am sure there is an easier way or explanation and it makes more
sense than I gathered here. I would love to know how this specific call number was constructed
in your comments and notes for this assignment, especially if I did so incorrectly. Since the
illustrations in our lectures are always very helpful in disseminating the content and information,
I would enjoy reading a follow up to how this book’s call number was compiled, since it would
be valuable to my understanding of this material.