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Permalink Reply by SADAF SIDDIQUI on April 22, 2011 at 16:41

Any library classification has two fundamentally opposed requirements.

The first is that it must remain eternally the same: because changes in the scheme will cause dismay, confusion, and a great deal of hard labour in the libraries in which it is employed.

The other requirement is for frequent, continuous, and sometimes radical revis­ion; to keep up with the constantly changing world of knowledge, and to correct mistakes, made either when the classification was first put together, or later, when it was revised.

 

One of the features of the DDC that has been an important factor in its success is that its publishers have man­aged to strike at least a measure of balance between these contradictory requirements.

    The first method has been to expand existing schedules to accommodate new subjects, essentially by sub-dividing existing headings. 

    The other method has been to simply scrap a whole section of the classification that is palpably out of date and replace it with something entirely new.

    This kind of thing was once called a “Phoenix Schedule”.

    The only thing that is different about this particular Phoenix is that it is NOT an official, standard, Dewey bird, but a “foreign exotic”; designed initially for a particular library. In spite of this, it builds on what are already the great strengths of DDC (as any constructive suggestion of change to such a beloved institution must) to enhance its universality, and make it even more widely applicable.

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Permalink Reply by Dr. N K Pachauri on April 23, 2011 at 1:56

Ms. Sadaf is correct. Phoenix Schedule is an important feature of DDC.

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Permalink Reply by SAFIQUR RAHAMAN on April 23, 2011 at 2:50

Thanks for your valuable information

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