When the Mississippi State University (MSU) Library undertook a major reclassification project in March 1989 to convert 175,000 Dewey Decimal titles into the Library of Congress Classification, the Technical Services staff involved in the planning realized that communicating policies and procedures to all levels of library personnel would require…

This paper examines the use of the Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC) system at the U. S. Conn Library at Wayne State College (WSC) in Nebraska. Several developments in the last 20 years which have eliminated the trend toward reclassification of academic library collections from DDC to the Library of Congress (LC) classification scheme are…

Designed to acquaint students with the facilities and resources of the North Dakota State University (NDSU) Library, this library manual is divided into 24 chapters: (1) The Main Library; (2) Reference Room; (3) Periodical Indexes; (4) Infotrac Academic Index; (5) Abstracts and Two-Step Indexes; (6) Locating Periodicals; (7) Newspaper Indexes and…

The adequacy of shelflist count was tested by determining the percent of titles in philosophy, political science, history, and sociology at Purdue University which were classified in Dewey or Library of Congress classes reflecting those disciplines. Included are two methods for correcting inaccurate shelflist counts, two tables, and seven sources.…

Designed for use by students enrolled in the audioconference course, Introduction to Technical Services, this 2-part guide presents 10 course units on cataloging. The study guide provided in the first part presents the content of the lesson together with objectives and readings for each unit; the second part contains several assignments, or…

Investigates techniques for automatic classification of book material focusing on: computer-based surrogation of monographic material, book surrogate clustering on basis of content association, evaluation of resultant classifications. Test collection (250 books) is described with surrogation by means of back-of-the-book index, table of contents,…

This paper argues that the ancient people of Kemet (Egypt), "the black land," built and operated the first major libraries and institutions of higher education in the world. Topics of discussion include the Ancient Egyptians as an African people; a chronology of Ancient Kemet; literature in Kemet; a history of Egyptian Librarianship; the…

Determines book obsolescence rates for instructional departments within university by analyzing annual library's circulation and relating patterns of library use to curricular programs. Immediacy and intensity of peak usage, use dispersion, and commonality of use were used to develop acquisition priority weighting formula. Twenty-two sources and…

Describes the Dewey Online Retrieval System (DORS), which was developed at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), to experiment with classification-based search strategies in online catalogs. Classification structures in automated information retrieval are discussed; and specifications for a classification retrieval interface are…

Techniques for building a world-wide information infrastructure by reverse engineering existing databases to link them in a hierarchical system of subject clusters to create an integrated database are explored. The controlled vocabulary of the Library of Congress Subject Headings is used to ensure consistency and group similar items. Each database…

This research project focuses on the implementation and testing of the Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC) system as an online searcher's tool for subject access, browsing, and display in an online catalog. The research project comprises 12 activities. The three interim reports in this document cover the first seven of these activities: (1) obtain…

Discusses the training of professional and paraprofessional staff who do reference work in public, academic, and school libraries. The source-centered teaching approach versus teaching the search process is discussed, user needs are considered, and the use of Dewey Decimal Classification to teach the organization of the collection is described.…

This workbook for a library and information skills course at the University of South Florida (USF), Tampa campus, contains the following sections: (1) syllabus; (2) tentative course outline; (3) statement of the course goal, general objectives, and objectives related to LC (Library of Congress) classification and the online catalog, dictionaries…

Discussion of precision in information retrieval highlights a prototype online catalog, ILSA (Improving Library Subject Access), developed at Indiana University of Pennsylvania that uses subject clusters and classification. Topics addressed include problems with keyword searching, controlled vocabulary, and thesauri; natural language mapping…

Considers ways to teach the Dewey Decimal System and suggests teaching about Dewey himself. Relates interesting segments of Dewey's life, including activities at the Amherst College library, his simplified spelling system, and women and his library school. (LRW)