50 Dewey Searchin - Search Tactics (Information Research)
Description
This article is from the Information Research FAQ, by David Novak david@spireproject.com with numerous contributions by others.
50 Dewey Searchin - Search Tactics (Information Research)
The Dewey decimal system is similar in many ways to the patent
classification system. Each step is divided into 10 - getting more and
more specific. See this CAL State Dewey list
(http://www.calstatela.edu/library/guides/Dclass.htm) to get an idea of
its structure. This number here refers to a book called Australian
government assistance to local government projects:
The Dewey system is arranged by Discipline, not subject groupings. Each
digit to the right becomes progressively more detailed. The system
works well in organizing books - and libraries expand it to suit their
needs - but it is different from a subject catalogue. Because it is
arranged by discipline, subject fields may be split.
In searching, we want to duplicate the walk to the shelves and browsing
other publications that share similar numbers. We do this
electronically by searching/browsing books that share most of a number.
Drop a digit - expand the field of interest.
The Dewey system is a bit congested in certain areas, giving rise to
very long numbers. For this and historical reasons, several national
libraries do not use the Dewey system. The Library of Congress, for
example, has its own classification scheme (Outlined here
http://lcweb.loc.gov/catdir/cpso/lcco/lcco.html ).
Continue to:
My Books
