The History of Library Classification before Dewey in Western library

서양의 자료분류법의 발달과정 - 고대에서 해리스까지 -

  • Kim Myung-Ok (Department of Library and Information Science, Soong-Eui Women's Junior College)
  • 김명옥 (숭의여자전문대학 도서관과)
  • Published : 1993.12.01

Abstract

This study is on the history of classification in Western library from ancient to Harris(1870), before Dewey. It looks into the classification systems of librarians, bibliographers, booksellers and libraries of that time. One of the earliest was the classification of the clay tablets in the Assyrian library of Assurbanipal. But the earliest recorded system in the papyrus is that which Callimachus(B.C. 310-240) devised for the library at Alexandria. In the medival, the monastry libraries used many classifications. but their libraries were very small. Gesner, Naude, Brunet, Jefferson, Edwards, Harris etc. tried to make a good classification for bibliographies and libraries. Especially Brunet made the scheme based on the French system, and it used on bibliographical classification and shelf classification in the many libraries. In 1859, Edwards made the classification scheme for the public library in the Great Britain. In 1870, Harris made the famous inverted Baconian classification and it strongly influenced the Dewey Decimal Classification.

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