There may be two reasons. The first is the fact that librarians
pride themselves in being curators and facilitators of knowledge
produced and amassed throughout the centuries by all professions
and from all areas of human activity. Why should their own
profession be an exception and why would they not attempt to
record and preserve knowledge on some of their own practices,
especially if these are in danger of disappearing? The second reason
is that despite the waves of change brought about by digitization we
know that it may still take some time before all physical document
collections have disappeared. As long as the physical collection is
in existence, even as a museum collection and as a last remaining
niche of specialisation, we may need these collections to form an
organized structure rather than a heap of books.
This paper will provide an overview of what book
arrangement and labelling may actually consist of and how it has
historically evolved. To complement the contribution of Satija
(2008) in recording Indian practice in his recent book the author
will pay special attention to the practices in European libraries