Journal of Information and Knowledge (Formerly SRELS Journal of Information Management)

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Revisiting Sayers: One Hundred Years of Canons of Classification


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1 Department of Library and Information Science, Vidyasagar University, Midnapore – 721102, West Bengal, India
     

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William Charles Berwick Sayers (1881-1960), an English librarian, made outstanding contributions to the development of a theory of library classification. He is referred to as the first grammarian of library classification. Even though he did not design any classification scheme, he interpreted and systematised the ideas of other theoreticians to formulate guidelines for designing library classification schemes. Sayers presented his theory of classification by stating 29 principles, called Canons, in 1915. He desired to make a comparative study of his canons with Richardson's Criteria, Bliss' Principles and Ranganathan's Canons. This paper presents a comparative study of Sayers' Canons (29 Canons), Bliss' Principles (32 Principles) and Ranganathan's Canons (43 Canons). Richardson stated only five Criteria in the form of general instructional statements these are not included in this study. Sayers' two Canons are similar to both Bliss' Principles and Ranganathan's Canons. Bliss' three Principles show highest similarity with Sayers' five Canons. Ranganathan's three Canons show highest similarity with Sayers' Canons, which are Canon of Currency (Verbal plane), Canon of Reticence (Verbal plane) and Canon of Hierarchy (Notational plane) respectively.

Keywords

Bliss' Principles, Canons of Classification, Library Classification Theory, Ranganathan's Canons, Sayers' Canons, Subject Classification.
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About The Author

Bidyarthi Dutta
Department of Library and Information Science, Vidyasagar University, Midnapore – 721102, West Bengal
India


Notifications

  • Sayers, W.C.B. (1915). Canons of Classification: Applied to “the Subject”, “the Expansive”, “the Decimal” and “the “Library of Congress” Classifications. London: Grafton; p. 14-15.

  • Ranganathan, S.R. (1961). Sayers and Donker Duyvis: Theory and maintenance of library classification. Annals of Library Science, 8(13), 85-99.

  • Sayers, W.C.B. (1960). A bookman’s browsings. Library Review, 17(6), 399-403. https://doi.org/10.1108/eb012324.

  • Ollé James, G. (1981). WC Berwick Sayers, librarian and teacher. Journal of Librarianship, 13(4), 232-247. https://doi.org/10.1177/096100068101300403.

  • Wiegand Wayne, A. (1998). The “Amherst Method”: the origins of the Dewey Decimal Classification scheme. Libraries and Culture, 33(2), 175-194.

  • Brown, J. D. (1898). Manual of Library Classification and Shelf Arrangement. London: Library Supply.

  • Van den, H. C. (2012). The Dutch connection. Donker Duyvis and perceptions of American and European Decimal classification systems in the first half of the twentieth century. In: International Perspectives on the History of Information Science and Technology, ed. Carbo Toni, Hahn Trudi Bellardo. New Jercy: Information Today; p. 174-186.

  • Sayers, W. C. B. (1912). The Grammar of Classification. The Library Assistants’ Association Series. No. 1, Croydon: [s,n].

  • Sayers, W. C. B. (1915). Canons of Classification: Applied to “the Subject”, “the Expansive”, “the Decimal” and “the “Library of Congress” Classifications. London: Grafton; p. 26-43.

  • Sayers, W. C. B. (1922). Introduction to Library Classification, Theoretical, Historical and Practical and a Short Course in Practical Classification, 2nd Rev. ed. London: Grafton.

  • Sayers, W. C. B. (1955). A Manual of Classification for Librarians and Bibliographers, 3rd ed. London: Grafton.

  • Richardson, E. C. (1912). Classification: Theoretical and Practical: Together With an Appendix Containing an Essay Towards a Bibliographical History of Systems of Classification. New York: Chas Scribner’s.

  • Alan, R. T. (1998). Bibliographical Classification: The Ideas and Achievements of Henry E. Bliss. Cataloguing and Classification Quarterly, 25(1), 51-102. DOI: 10.1300/J104v25n01_05. https://doi.org/10.1300/J104v25n01_05.

  • Broughton, V. (2008). Henry Evelyn Bliss-the other immortal, or a prophet without honour? Journal of Librarianship and Information Science, 40(1), 45-58. DOI: 10.1177/0961000607086620. https://doi. org/10.1177/0961000607086620.

  • Bliss, H. E. (1923). The Organization of Knowledge in Libraries and the Subject Approach to Books. New York: H.W. Wilson; 1934 Rep.

  • Attar, K. E. (2002). The practice of Bliss. Cataloguing and Classification Quarterly, 34(4), 47-65. https://doi.org/10.1300/J104v34n04_06.

  • Nam, T. W. and Yoo, K. Y. (2005). A study on Bliss’s Bibliographic Classification. Journal of the Korean Society for Information Management, 22(2), 57-85. https://doi.org/10.1633/JIM.2005.36.1.057.

  • Campbell, D. J. (1976). A short biography of Henry Evelyn Bliss (1870-1955). Journal of Documentation, 32(2), 134-45. https://doi.org/10.1108/eb026621.

  • Ranganathan, S. R. (1967). Prolegomena to Library Classification, 3rd ed. New York: Asia Pub House.


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  • Revisiting Sayers: One Hundred Years of Canons of Classification

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Authors

Bidyarthi Dutta
Department of Library and Information Science, Vidyasagar University, Midnapore – 721102, West Bengal, India

Abstract


William Charles Berwick Sayers (1881-1960), an English librarian, made outstanding contributions to the development of a theory of library classification. He is referred to as the first grammarian of library classification. Even though he did not design any classification scheme, he interpreted and systematised the ideas of other theoreticians to formulate guidelines for designing library classification schemes. Sayers presented his theory of classification by stating 29 principles, called Canons, in 1915. He desired to make a comparative study of his canons with Richardson's Criteria, Bliss' Principles and Ranganathan's Canons. This paper presents a comparative study of Sayers' Canons (29 Canons), Bliss' Principles (32 Principles) and Ranganathan's Canons (43 Canons). Richardson stated only five Criteria in the form of general instructional statements these are not included in this study. Sayers' two Canons are similar to both Bliss' Principles and Ranganathan's Canons. Bliss' three Principles show highest similarity with Sayers' five Canons. Ranganathan's three Canons show highest similarity with Sayers' Canons, which are Canon of Currency (Verbal plane), Canon of Reticence (Verbal plane) and Canon of Hierarchy (Notational plane) respectively.

Keywords


Bliss' Principles, Canons of Classification, Library Classification Theory, Ranganathan's Canons, Sayers' Canons, Subject Classification.

References