A study in the developments of colon classification

The pioneering works of Dr. S. R. Ranganathan in the field of library classification have indeed penetrated the minds of many thinking men in the library profession and have considerably affected the pattern of current thought in library classification. This is clearly indicated in the recent researches of the British Classification Research Group which seems to be profoundly influenced by “facet analysis” as propounded by Ranganathan. Foskett (1), one of the members of the Group, writes, “After a great deal of (quite valuable) discussion, the British Classification Research Group accepted that ‘facet analysis’ must be the basis of a classification scheme able to meet the modern requirements…” The British National Bibliography has accepted some of the techniques of Ranganathan, viz., the imposition of “facet formula” on the Decimal Classification Schedule, “Chain indexing,” “detailed featuring,” etc. Although the Scheme itself is not known to have been used anywhere outside India (2), there is no gainsaying the fact that the Colon Classification has cut new ground. In this context, it may be worthwhile to study the Indian Scheme in its various stages of developments. The purpose of this paper, in the main, is to attempt a study of the Scheme in two stages: 1) from its inception until the publication of the third edition in 1950, and 2) from 1950 to the present day, laying emphasis on the theory of library classification.