The Harvard–Yenching Classification System is a library classification system for Chinese language materials in the United States of America. It was devised by Alfred Kaiming Chiu (1898–1977). The system was primarily created for the classification of Chinese language materials in the Harvard–Yenching Library which was founded in 1927 at the Harvard–Yenching Institute .
22-586: During that early period other systems, such as the early edition of the Library of Congress Classification , did not consist of appropriate subject headings to classify the Chinese language materials, particularly the ancient published materials. As many American libraries started to collect the ancient and contemporary published materials from China, a number of American libraries subsequently followed Harvard University to adopt Harvard–Yenching classification system, such as
44-625: A result of this, the Library of Congress Classification System eventually replaced the Harvard–Yenching Classification System for all Chinese language materials acquired after the 1970s in many American Libraries. Though the system has largely been phased out, the system is still being used in some libraries for Chinese language materials acquired prior to the Library of Congress update. Such previously acquired books are normally stored in separate stacks in libraries. However, some of
66-492: A single letter of the alphabet as an identifier. The vast majority of these classes are divided further into two and three level sub-classes. With these sub-classes, numerical ranges are assigned to topics, going from more general to more specific. Unlike in the Dewey Decimal Classification, where the numbers assigned to a topic iterate throughout the system (e.g., the ".05" tag indicated a periodical publication on
88-669: Is a system of library classification developed by the Library of Congress in the United States , which can be used for shelving books in a library. LCC is mainly used by large research and academic libraries , while most public libraries and small academic libraries use the Dewey Decimal Classification system. The classification was developed by James Hanson (chief of the Catalog Department), with assistance from Charles Martel , in 1897, while they were working at
110-533: Is also distinct from Library of Congress Subject Headings , the system of labels such as "Glaciers" and "Glaciers—Fiction" that describe contents systematically. One variation from the original LCC system is the National Library of Medicine classification system (NLM), which uses the initial letters W and QS – QZ , which are not used by LCC. Some libraries use NLM in conjunction with LCC, eschewing LCC's R, QM, and QP, which overlap with NLM's schema. Another
132-501: Is essentially enumerative in nature. That is, it provides a guide to the books actually in one library's collections, not a classification of the world. The central core of the modern Library of Congress was formed from books sold to the government by Thomas Jefferson after the original collection was razed by the British in the War of 1812 . As a result, the original classification system used by
154-674: Is the Canadian Universities and the Canadian National Library using FC for Canadian History, a subclass that LCC has not officially adopted, but which it has agreed not to use for anything else. Together, the Dewey Decimal System (DDC) and LCC make up the two main classification system used in U.S. libraries. LCC is favored by large academic and research libraries. Systems of classification can be evaluated on several metrics, including expressiveness (the ability of
176-483: Is their approach to classifying. Dewey's system is a comprehensive classification to all topics, with no regard to the actual collections a library might hold. While this has allowed it to be successfully adapted into more modern classification systems for use outside of libraries, such as the Universal Decimal Classification (UDC), it does make it more unwieldy for large or specialized collections. On
198-483: The 1970s, the use of the system became popular for classifying not only Chinese language materials but also other East Asian materials including Korean and Japanese language materials. During the period from the 1970s to the 1980s, a comprehensive subset of subject headings for Chinese language materials was gradually established in the Library of Congress Classification System so that almost a full spectrum of ancient and contemporary Chinese topics can be widely covered. As
220-451: The Americas), and B (Philosophy, Psychology, Religion). On the other hand, the later-developed K (Law) gives fairly even weight to global law. Today, the various schedules are maintained and revised by the Library's Policy and Standards Division, in conjunction with experts in each field. However, updating various schedules with classification biases is generally assumed to be impractical due to
242-614: The East Asian Library of the University of California in Berkeley , Columbia University , University of Chicago , Washington University in St. Louis etc. In addition to American libraries, the libraries of other universities in the world including England, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Singapore etc. also followed Harvard University to adopt the system. During the period from the 1930s to
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#1732858165696264-438: The Library of Congress. It was designed specifically for the purposes and collection of the Library of Congress to replace the fixed location system developed by Thomas Jefferson . LCC has been criticized for lacking a sound theoretical basis; many of the classification decisions were driven by the practical needs of that library rather than epistemological considerations. Although it divides subjects into broad categories, it
286-595: The form of an author-specific code, containing a letter and several numbers corresponding to the author's last name. This serves to further distinguish publications and nominally alphabetize volumes within a topic section. The final component of a typical LCC call-number is the publication year, in full. Library collections can add modifiers to distinguish specific volumes, such as "Copy 1." LCC should not be confused with Library of Congress Control Numbers (LCCN), which are assigned to all books (and authors) and defines online catalog entries. Library of Congress Classification
308-528: The library was of his own invention. However, by the end of the nineteenth century, the collection had grown to over a million volumes and his system was deemed too unwieldy. John Russell Young , the seventh Librarian of Congress, hired James Hanson and Charles Martel in 1897, who began the development of a new classification system that would more accurately describe the collections the library held. Young's tenure as Librarian ended with his death in 1899, and his successor, Herbert Putnam , continued to implement
330-497: The massive workload that would result in, especially as the "discipline" based classes of LCC have been entrenched in the average library user's mind. Like all classification systems, LCC struggles with catering to interdisciplinary scholars and topics, as ultimately, a book can only be shelved in a single location. Additionally, LCC has a problem with "othering" marginalized groups, making works related to or authored by members of these groups particularly difficult to locate. This
352-518: The numeration system to express the hierarchal and correlative relationships between topics), hospitality (the ability of the system to accommodate new subjects), and brevity (length of call numbers). While LCC is significantly less expressive than DDC, it is extremely hospitable, mainly in the fact that five class (I, O, W, X, and Y) lack any assignment to topics. LCC call numbers also tend to be shorter than those in DDC. The main difference between DDC and LCC
374-418: The other hand, Hanson and Martel designed LCC specifically for library use, which means while it does not completely enumerate the world, it does more reflect what books a library might hold. Because LCC was designed around the collections of the Library of Congress, it has an American, European, and Christian bias, as reflected mainly in the earlier developed schedules of D (World History), E and F (History of
396-666: The topic), the LCC numerical ranges are strictly hierarchal, only corresponding to their level on the outline. LCC is enumerative, meaning that it lists all the classes in officially published schedules, which are updated as needed by the Library of Congress. After the range of numbers making up the topical division, call numbers often also include one or more Cutter numbers, modeled after the unfinished Cutter Expansive Classification index. The full LCC schedules contain tables that describe Cutter numbers for certain types of media, collections of work, and geographical areas. Cutter numbers also can take
418-914: The university libraries in the Commonwealth countries of the United Kingdom such as England, Australia and New Zealand still continue to use the Harvard–Yenching system; for example, the Institute for Chinese Studies Library of the University of Oxford, University of Sydney, and University of Auckland. The key classes of the system are listed as follows: The official library classification in China is: The other library classifications for Chinese materials outside China are: Library of Congress Classification The Library of Congress Classification ( LCC )
440-642: The updates to the catalog through his long stay in the office. By the time he departed from his post in 1939, all the classes except K (Law) were well developed. In creating their classification system, Hanson and Martel evaluated several systems already in existence, including the Dewey Decimal System , Charles Ammi Cutter 's Cutter Expansive Classification , the Index Medicus , and the Putnam Classification System (developed while Putnam
462-428: Was K (Law): the first K schedule was published in 1969 and not completed until the 2004 publication of KB. From 1996 onwards, the LCC schedules were available online, and since 2013, there have been no new print editions of the classification system. All updates are now distributed by the Library's Cataloging Distribution Service entirely online. LCC divides all knowledge into twenty-one basic classes, exchanges given
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#1732858165696484-497: Was head librarian at the Minneapolis Public Library ). The one closest to their needs was Cutter's; however, he died before the completion of his system. Hanson and Martel thus decided to develop their own unique system, strongly based on his ideas. They published their first outline of the classification scheme in 1904. Development of the classes continued throughout the twentieth century. The last class to be developed
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