Systematic Shelf Arrangement and Call Numbering
Systems Applied
The systematic or classified arrangement of books is the
oldest known method of book arrangement. Even when chained to
shelves or locked into bookcases of mediaeval libraries, books have
most often been grouped by their content. But not until relative
book arrangement and the introduction of modern classification by
Dewey were we able to make full use of this logical and userorientated
principle.
But assigning a class mark to a book is not all that we have
to do. The very moment a library chooses a systematic arrangement
of books, the focus moves from the class number, i.e. classification,
to how to order books within subject classes. This is why, in library
traditions in which a systematic arrangement is the dominant way
of book arrangement, it is practical to talk about book marks or
book numbers, at a level below the class mark. At this point again
book numbers will be designed based on one of the following
methods of ordering: accession number, alphabetical or
chronological. These are described in more detail in section 4 of
this paper