(OT) Book classification was: [UA] Magick Schools: Lingomancy

[John Scott]

At 18:30 25/06/01 +0000, Mr Teapot wrote:
>I was specifically thinking of the library of congress categorizations 
>printed in with the copyright info.  It seems to me that, with however 
>many books there are being printed, there's got to be a small government 
>office somewhere devoted entirely to that, full of people judging books by 
>their covers* and laying down a small portion of the law over any and all 
>books.

Yes - there is.  And there are massive books describing how to classify 
other items into the right categories.

The same thing happens when you assign a Dewey Decimal Classification or 
Universal Decimal Classification number to a book.  The classifier is 
saying "This is where this book fits into the  knowledgespace of the world.

Not to say that mistakes don't happen.  When Shirley Conran's "Lace" first 
came out in the UK, BLCIP (British Library Classification In Publication) 
assigned it to Arts and Crafts ....


John


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