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DEPTH CLASSIFICATION *

23 LEVEL CONCEPT AND ZONE ANALYSIS

Emphasises the need for at-one-ment of the thought-content and the class number of a document, and, for this purpose, the need for avoidance of homonym and synonym and con- formity to the Canon of Expressiveness. Enumerates the chief elements in classificatory thought initiated by an ana- lytico-synthetic scheme. Using CC as the guineapig, shows how some of the residual rigidity in regard to levels of facets of one and the same fundamental category has been removed by a special rule or by a postulate in the past, and how it can be further removed by utili sing the zone and sector analysis made possible by a mixed notation.

1 QUALITIES OF CLASSIFICATORY LANGUAGE

Kalidasa, the famous poet of medieval India, begins his historical poem Raghuvamsa with an invocatory verse praying for the nat_one_mentn of thought and language. The language of his poem is a natural language - Sanskrit. A clas- s ifie r too prays for the nat_one_mentn of the thought-content of a do curn ent and its class number; in his case, natural language gives place to an artificial language of ordinal num- bers. The success of a poet has to depend partly on the capacity and potency of t~~ natural language used by him as the medium ..'The s uc c e s s of a classifier has similarly to depend on the capacity and potency of the scheme of classification used by himf A natural language is created and developed casually through the ages by the common folk. (A c l a s s if'i c ato ry language - i .e. a scheme of classification -

S. R. RAN G A N A T HA N

is designed by a c Ia.s sific a tionist and developed consciously and according to a set of postu- lates and canon in a systematic way by a closed circle of specialists.

11 Expressiveness

A unit of expr~ssion in a.r."tur<>.lLang ua g e is often an ext en siorial term not cxp r e s s rv e of the characteristics of what is denoted; for example, 'cow' is an extensional term in English; and 'go' is its equivalent extensional term in Sans- krit. On the other hand, a unit of expression in a classificatory language - i ,e. the isolate number - has to be expressive; for example, the isolate number for 'cow' expresses its essential and relevant characteristics and means 'An animal, say the first favoured animal, whose primary produce has human food as l:ts primary us e'.

12 Uniqueness

An expression in a natural language may be capable of different layers of meaning - even an infinity of them. This is a common and inevitable attribute of expression by a poet.

For his profound intuitive experience tr a.ns ; cends the capacity of a.natural language.

Goethe, for example, says that a divine, trans- cendental - i. e. non-existing - language is

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needed to express the experience of a poet in all its e s s entia I char acter.istic s. On the other hand an·expression in a c Ia s s ific a t o ry language i. e. a class number - should be capable of one and only meaning! Suggestion is a valuable attribute in a na t ur al language and it leads to synonyms and homonyms. But synonym or homonym is fatal in a c l a s s ific a to ry language.

For the purpose of class numbers is to secure

conformity to a unique preferred sequence among Historically, DC,initiated in the Last seventie the diverse subjects _ mac r o as well as micro. the design of classificatory Ia ngusg e on a syste- For the universe of subject _ i. e. the universe matic basis. It respected uniqueness, but neg- of knowledge - is an ever-growing infinite uni- lected expressiveness. This wa s largely due to verse; a new subject may crop up at any time its pioneer status and its being used only for the and its helpful place in the sequence of the already classification of the macro thought normally known subjects will have to be fixed in the ide a getting embodied in books of a general nature pl an e and the c l as s number should carry out this during the latter half of the nineteenth century.

decision unerringly in the riotation a I plane. The But to that extent, its r e alis at ion of the at- one- determination of the more or less helpful place ment between the thought-content of a document to be preferred will have to be only on the basis and its class number was limited.

of its essential and re l ev ant characteristics in their filiation to those of the al r e ady known sub- jects. It is this that imposes on the notational plane more or less of conformity to the Canon of Expressiveness. The unerring procurement of the unique preferred place in the sequence requires that there should be no synonym or homonym among clas s numbers.

13 Brevity

Again, there need not be a limit to the length of an expression in a natural language. But it is desirable that a class number should be as brief as possible, consistent with the expressiveness of all the essential and relevant characteristics of the thought-content of a document. A class number has to be written on a document and in all its entries in a library catalogue or a docu- mentation list.

14 Basic Reason for the Qualities

These differences in at.trib ut e s between a natural and a c l as sific a to r y language arise out of the difference between the purposes of the two kinds of language. A natural la ng uag e has to serve as a medium for communication of thought in all its detaiLs; whereas a classifi- catory language has to serve as a tool for the mechanisation of a preferred sequence of expressed thought-units of all sizes, macro and micro, of the past, present, as well as

future. We may sum up by saying that while brevity is desirable, uniqueness end express- iveness are essential in a classificatory lan- guage.

2 HISTORY 21 DC

22 UDC

About a generation later, UDC sought to im- prove its expressiveness to a slight degree by adopting a mixed notation. This was motivated by the desire to apply the scheme to the classi- fication of micro documents also. But, it fet- tered its own freedom by accepting the rigid unexpressive DC as its core. Moreover, it did not give weight to uniqueness; this was due to failure to make the necessary distinction bet- ween apparently similar subjects, even in the idea plane. To this extent, its realisation of the at-one-ment between the thought-content of a document and its class number was limited.

23 BC and CC

One more generation later, BC and CC carried the design of classificatory language a step further. Before these schemes were designed, a graIl1mar of classificatory lan- guage was conceived and written out by Sayer s , Bliss and Ranganathan have been elaborating this grammar continuously after him.

24 BC

BC began with much respect for expressive- ness; but it was prepared to s ac r ific e it at the

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altar of br evity. Further it s innum erable alter- native class numbers for several subjects m<>y mislead the unwa ry to imagine that it did not give much weight to the quality of uniqueness in class number.

25 CC

CC has in it the essential features to secure expressiveness to any required degree. Its loyalty to uniqueness is paramount. It has been always on the look out for brevity, without sac- rifice of expressiveness. These qualities were found even in the basic design of CC, at its very start in 1924, though they were not consciously thought of at that time. From 1937 when the Prolegomena was written, there has been a continuous further development of these qua- lities at the conscious intellectual level. This is happening intensively even today.

26 Current Forums for Work The Committee on General Theory of Classi- fication, set.up by the International Federation for Documentation in 1950 ?nd called FID/CA, has been providing a forum for this line of work. The Library Research Circle in Delhi devoted many Sundays to the pursuit of this work from 1950 to its dissolution in 1953.

Since 1952, the Classification Research Group of London has this study as its chief objective.

The results of FID/CA are being given in the succes sive Annual reports since 1951. The results of the Library Research Circle of Delhi

were given in the Abgila; and the Annals of library science is the o r gan for the continua- tion of this work in India without a formal orga- nisation. The Classification Research Group of London brought out the first number of its Bulletin in November 1956 "to provide a means of distributing to interested persons and insti- tutions an account of our discussions and con- clusions".

27 Incentive for Work

The incentive for all such efforts in recent year s has been the adaptation of existing sche- mes or of otherwise providing for the Depth Classification required in the work of informa-

tion retrieval and documentation, with their emphasis on the organisation of nascent micro thought, with its multitude of es sential r ele- vant characteristics, to serve specialists so as to eliminate the wastage due to research- in-parallel and help the conservation of the research potential of humanity through res ear- c hcincseries. Such a conservation has now become a social necessity on account of the population pressure over -reaching the capa- city of natural and near -natural commodities and of management based rn airrly on native flair, and the consequent need for the creation of artificial commodities and for the placing of management on an objective ever-progres-

sive scientific basis.

3 PAST AND CURRENT WORK

31 Chief Elements

The chief elements in general classificatory thought, initiated by the atterript at adapting an analytico-synthetic scheme such as CC to Depth Classification and Documentation are:-

1 separation of wor k-rn the idea and the no- tational planes;

2 recognition and utilisation of the reciprocal influence of the work in these two planes ;

3 development of phase- and facet-analysis in the idea plane and of notational devices to implement these in the notational plane;

4 investigation of the methods for the exp- loitation, with the aid of Efficiency Table, of the ver satility of mixednes s of notation which appears to be inevitable in classified arrange- ment and in providing facility for thinking out classification and ascertaining the exact needs of readers during reference service, though unnecessary in coding for machinery for search.

5 the postulates about the Five Fundamental Categories, their Levels and Rounds; and

6 the latest concepts of Zone and Sector Analysis.

32 Source Materials

The first three of these elements are dis- cussed and s urn m arised fully in the symposium

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Depth Classification (1953) edited by Ranganathan and presented to the Eleventh All India Library Conference held at Hyderabad in 1953. The fourth element has been developed in succession in the Annual reports of FID/CA and in the pages of this quarterly. The fifth element had its origin in Ranganathan's Library classification:

Fur,damentals and procedure (1942) and it was taken forward in the pages of the Abgila. An interim summary was given in the Depth Classi- fication. A consolidated account of all the five

elements is given in the forthcoming edition 2 of Ranganathan's Prolegomena to library classi- fication. The sixth element is just in the procesE of-development in the Annals of library science and the Review of documentation.

33 Guineapig

Though prompted by and arising naturally in the further development of CC in its being adap- ted to the needs of depth classification, the above six elements are inherent in any a nal yt ic oc syn , thetic scheme of classification. They are in- herent in. the idea plane; and it is likely to be helpful, and perhaps even necessary, to have them implemented in the notational plane .v ith the aid of suitable notational devices. To sec- ur e sufficient c onc r etenes s in the discus sion that follows, it is necessary to dwell as much on the notational plane as on the idea plane.

As the notational system of CC is found to be more versatile in this respect than that of any other scheme, CC is used in the exarnp l e s , , 'This should not be taken as an implication that the line of thought is something peculiar to CC and foreign to other schemes. CC is used only as a guincapig.

4 NOTATIONAL SPRING OF ACTION

41 Connecting Symbol

• An analytico-synthetic c l a s s ific ation ha s to use connec ting symbols in the notational plane, to syn th e sis e the isolate numbers belonging to the successive facets. These are substantive digits representing any element or isolate in the expressed thought classified. The digits used as connecting symbols are therefore, usually of a species different from those used as substantives. In the existing schemes, the

Arabic numerals and the letters of alphabets form the species of digits used as substantives.

In UDC, circular brackets, quotation marks, and hyphen are used as connecting symbols. In BC, comma and some other symbols are used.

In CC, the punctuation marks, hyphen, and zero are used as connecting symbols. Till 1951, colon Was the only punctuation mark so used.

42 Forced Facet Formula

There is an inherent revulsion against the cluttering together of connecting symbols in any class number. But such a cluttering was possi- ble in the earlier versions of CC. For, then, CC prescribed a forced rigid facet formula for each basic class. If a document did not admit of any intermediate facet in the facet formula of its basic class, cluttering of two colons together was the inevitable result. If a document did not admit of two consecutive intermediate facets, there was a cluttering together of three colons. For exam- ple' a number like D6:::6 occurred.

43 An Experience

One day, a predatory thrust into the profes- sion by political forces happened to be at the counter. A reader came to me and asked ·Who is the new gentleman in the staff enclosure?

I asked him if both the colons should be entered in the c Ia s s number of this book. He jeeringly

said, Iput a few more colons also; it will please the Ii b r a ria n". I was shocked by such a remark from a person who appeared to be a member of the staff". This made me think.

44 Cluttering to be Eliminated

But a rule of conduct with me has been that every thing happens for good. What may appear to be an evil in a truncated context is ultimately beneficial when it comes to be seen in the con- text of a sufficiently long time-interval and com- plex of events. Experience had repeatedly

brought this home to me. I said to myself, 'However improper that behaviour of the mem- ber of the staff is from the point of view of his own conduct, there is no denying that it does force on my attention the irritating cluttering together of colons in a class number. This should be eliminated". This was in 1937.

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5 CONNECTING SYMBOL AS iNDICATOR 51. Macro Thought

The matter was simmering in the mind for a long time. As a first'step, the Five. Fundamen- tal Categories were postulated in 1.942. In 1.949, different connecting symbols were postulated for the different fundamental categories. Thus, the connecting symbol was invested with the addition- al power to indicate the nature of the facet follow- ing it. This additional indicator function of the connecting symbol eliminated the cluttering of connecting symbols. This wo r ked fairly well so far as macro thought went.

52 Micro Thought and Level

But the satisfaction was short lived. For the depth classification of micro documents resulted in a relapse of the cl utterin g trouble in a new W?,y.

For, a micro document often presented several manifestations of one and the same fundamental category. These were first distinguished by the postulates about Round and about Level, as be- longing to different rounds and different levels respectively. There was no cluttering of connec- ting symbols arising in respect of the manifes- tations of the same fundamental category in different rounds. But its different manifeste>- tions inside one and the same round, called different Levels, occurred consecutively. This was in 1.951.. There is an inherent probability for one or two intermediate levels being absent in some documents. Then, cluttering together of connecting symbols will occur.

52 Universe of Literature

This was experienced even with macro thought in the basic class Literature. The language, the form, the author, and the work of what is treated in a document had all along been treated as dif- ferent facets. According to the new postulates, they became successive levels of per s on alit.y , occurring as consecutive facets in one and the same round. Here it is possible for the Iforml

facet _ an inter rn e diat e level - to h ave to be kept vacant in certain documents, including books.

For in the case of many autho rs , such as Shakes- peare, Goethe, Hardy, Kalidasa, Tagore, - who have works in many forms, critical and biographical books cannot be differentiated on the basis of fo r mcc h a r a cteristic . The form

facet has naturally to be kept vacant. And two consecutive commas with clutter together, evg , 01.1.1." J56w (Biography of Shakespeare) and 01.1.1" J56:g (Criticism of Shakespeare).

The cluttering of the comma S vr«S sought to be eliminated by a rule prescribing that a book of either kind should be fo r c ed ly given a form number, denoting the form to which the author c en be taken to belong predominantly.

531. Escapism and Arbitrary Rule Such a rule may perhaps be justified in the case of a critical work. For in that case, the vacancy of the fae et may arise out of multi- focalness. In that c a s e it is proper to put the book in one of the foci and cross-refer from the others. But, even the correct form number will have to be determined, not by the form to which the author criticised belongs predomi- nantly, but by the form predominatly criticised in the book classified. In the case of a bio- graphy, the position is worse. The form facet has to be kept vacant because it is actually absent. In this case, to choose a form number forcedly violates the Canon of Reticence. For it is not proper for a classifier to make the class number reflect his own critical judgement as to the form to which the author criticised pre- dominantly belongs. Thus the rule prescribed in CC is arbitrary and dependence on it is nothing short of escapism.

54 Universe of Concrete Solid Entities

When the idee>,of levels was first conceived in 1.951, it got really clarified only in the case of Personality in a universe of solid concrete entities with separate or mentally separable parts. Here wholes are distinguishable from parts; and part itself is distinguishable into portion, organ, and constituent. Portion being a whole in little so to speak, it is equated with whole for classificatory purposes. Constituent being capable of occurring as constituent of many entities, it was taken to be a manifesta- tion of Matter. And organ is taken to be per- sonality of the next level. For example, taking th e universe of cycles, tube, tyre, wheel, gear-mechanism, handle, frame, seat, and auxiliaries such as brake, bell, light, carrier, and support, are organs. These constitute a

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facet different from that of varieties of whole cycles. But the organ facet also is a manifes- tation of personality. But, steel and rubber do not form organs but only constituents. These too form a different fa cet . But this facet is a rnatter-facet. We reach a further level of personality-facet in the organs of an organ,

S2.y in the rim, spokes, and hub of a wheel.

541 Wishful Thinking and a Postulate Here, the cluttering of consecutive commas was believed not to occur; for, it was argued for exa rnp Le, that the isolate rim cannot occur in the third level facet unless its immediate universe wheel occurred in the second level facet. Grasping this argument as a prop, "- postulate was laid down that no level of a fun- da rnent a l category can occur unles s an isolate occurred in the facet of the next preceding level. There has always been the fear, h-:Jw- eve r, that this postulate may really be a crea- tion of wishful thinking. This came to be true.

When the concept of level was extended to a universe of abstract entities.

55 Universe of Abstract Entities Extension of the idea of level to universes of abstract entities, occurring as manifestations of personality, has been difficult and slow. Some experience was gained in 1956 when a schedule of classification was designed for the abstract

distillate ManagementI' This schedule has been published in the AnnClJs of library science,' 3,

1956, 33-85. Here levels are distinguished by relative concreteness. It is po s sibl e , for example, to recognise five levels of facets within the universe of Cost-Accounting - v iz assembly of relevant records, kind of state- ment, product group etc, enterprise arid sys- tem of accounts. For example, we c an think of a document of Punched Card Assembly of Overhead Statements in the Development Wing of a Joint Product Enterprise according to a specified System of Cost Accounting. It is also possible to have a document like Punched Card Assembly in Cost Accounting. The class number for this should ordinarily have three commas cluttering to ge th e r-cK, , 934. Here the wishful postulate mentioned in section 541 is not applicable.

551 Avoidance by Zone Analysis This ugly number has given p.Lac e to the cleaner number K934 in the schedule designed.

The cluttering together of commas has been obviated by the telescoping of the facets of personality of the different levels. Facets of differing concreteness i. e. of different levels as viewed from the idea plane are telescoped into the same array as viewed from the no- tational plane; and to satisfy the Principle of Inv e r sion , the sectors of the array for CI.CCO-

modating the different levels of the idea plane are in the sequence of increasing concreteness.

Thus, assembly of records is accommodated in zone 2, kind of statements in the penulti- mate octave of zone 3, the product group etc in the last octave of zone 3, the type of enter- prise in the second sector of zone 4, and the system of cost accounting in the fourth sec- tor of zone 4. The fact that the significant first digit in each sector is different from th at of any other is utili sed to indicate the level, instead of the use of a distinguishing connec- ting symbol as indicator.

552 Fanning Out of Telescoped Facets

K K934

Cost accounting

Assembly of records in cost accounting

K9A K9A,934

Statements in cost accounting Assembly of records for statements in cost accounting

KU Cost accounting for the Deve-

Ioprnerit Sec tion of an enter- prise.

Assembly of records in cost accounting etc.

Statements in cost accounting for etc.

KU,934 KU,9A

KU, 9A, 934 Assembly for statements in cost accounting for etc.

Cost accounting for joint products enterprise.

Assembly of records in cost accounting for joint products enterprise.

K(5)

K(5),934

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K(5),9A Staternents in cost accounting for joint products enterprise K(5),9A, 934 Assembly of records for

statements in cost accounting for joint products enterprise K(5), U Cost accounting for the Deve-

lopment Sec tion of a joint products enterprise

Assembling of records in cost accounting etc.

Statements in cost accounting etc.

K(5), U, 934

K(5),U,9A

K(5), U, 9A, 934 Assembly of records for state- ments in cost accounting for the Development Section in a joint products enterprise

6 APPLICATION TO UNIVERSE OF CONCRETE ENTITIES

This device of telescoping is available for application to levels of personality in the case of universes' of concrete entities also. Thus the postulate that no level can arise unless the immediately preceding level of facet has a definite focus is not necessary, though suffi- cient. When it may be used has to be deter- mined in the idea plane, in the light of the character of the universe concerned.

7 APPLICATION TO LITERATURE The device of telescoping to avoid clutter- ing together of commas is available for appli- cation to literature also. The fact that the first significant digit is a numeral in the form

facet and a capital letter in the author facet makes the telescoping effective in a forced and modified way without any change in notation.

But, it is for the idea plane to decide if telesco- ping would r;ive a more helpful result than the rule now in force in terms of dominance.

8 CONCLUSION

Thus, the use of the distinctive species of digit, occurring as the first signific a ntvdigit in the diverse sectors of the different zones, CI.S indicator of level of pe r s on aIi ty facet marks a further stage in the removal of rigidity caused by notation in general and by facet fo r rn uLa in particular. The rigidity is now reduced to the case when a level, not thought of in the schedule, arises in future a.sking for interpolation at a particular point among the already-provided- for levels or for extra-polation at the beginning of the telescoped schedule. Though the chance for this contingency arising is much more re- mote than for the cases for which the rigidity has been already removed, we c ann ot rule it out. Further work should be done in the nota- tional plane to meet even that remote contin- gency. For, past experience in classificatory work has made us realise that Maxwell's Ghost cannot be ignored. We have yet to experience the corresponding problem in the case of levels of matter facet. It is believed that the results got for levels of personality facets will' make solution easy in their case. Levels of space and time facets have been treated in a. peculia r way in CC and it is believed that a l l possible contingencies have been considered in Ranga- nathan's series on Common Isolates in the Review of documentation 1955, 22, 18-25. By postulate, the corresponding problem is evaded in the case of energy facet.

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