The document discusses the Colon Classification system developed by Indian librarian S.R. Ranganathan in 1933. It has 108 main classes divided into humanities and sciences. Notations use Arabic numerals and letters. Each class has five fundamental facets: personality, matter, energy, space, and time. Advantages include its general nature and ability to create new categories through facets. Challenges include lack of unequivocal determinations and whether its theoretical assumptions remain relevant today. The system has had a significant influence on knowledge organization but faces uncertainty due to long neglect.

1. COLON
CLASSIFICATION (CC)
SYSTEM/SCHEME
LIS 804:
THEORY AND ORGANISATION OF KNOWLEDGE
LECTURE FACILITATOR:
DR. O. I. AMUSA

2. AS PRESENTED BY:
EKUNDAYO, EMMANUEL OLUWAFEMI
PG / 16 / 0355
&
ONASANYA-SALAKO, TAIRAT.
PG / 16 / 0513

3. Shiyali Ramamrita Ranganathan
(1892-1972)

5. Colon Classification, system of library organisation was
developed by the Indian librarian S.R. Ranganathan in
1933.
It is general rather than specific in nature, and
It can create complex or new categories through the use of
facets, or colons.

6. FEATURES
CLASSES
There are 108 main classes
(previously there were 33)
and 10 generalised classes
(broadly divided between
the humanities and sciences)
NOTATIONS
They are represented
by a mixed notation
of Arabic numerals
and roman and
Greek letters.
FACETS
Each main class comprises five
fundamental facets, or groups:
 personality,
 Matter,
 Energy,
 Space, and
 Time.

7.  Colon Classification uses series of short tables
from which component numbers are chosen and
linked by colons to form a whole.
 The book number is an integral part of the call
number, a departure from Dewey or Library of
Congress systems.
 Each main class has its appropriate facets and
focuses; e.g., literature has language and form.
 In addition, there are four floating tables that
correspond to subdivisions—
e.g., form, geography, time, and language.
 Further expansion of the tables is allowed
through colon addition or omission (if the
subject cannot be expanded).

8.  The second edition, was
important as it clearly laid down
the theory and methods of CC as
already published in his magnum
opus, the Prolegomena to library
classification (Ranganathan 1937).
 The third edition of CC
(Ranganathan 2000) came
out when Ranganathan had
moved to Delhi University
and was in the second phase
of his writing career.

9. 4th Edition
In the fourth edition the
facets were highly
generalized by an
intuitive process of
abstraction, and named as
personality, matter,
energy, space, and time,
famously known as
PMEST.
5th Edition
The fifth edition
was proposed as
two volumes of
basic and depth
versions, but
only the basic
version was
published.
6th Edition
The sixth edition,
later issued with
amendments
(Ranganathan 1963),
remains the most
popular, used and
stable edition.

10. 1. Helpful Sequence
Classification helps in
organizing the documents in
a method most convenient to
the users and to the library
staff.
2. Correct
Replacement
Documents whenever
taken out from shelf
should be replaced in
their proper places.
This would require a
mechanized
arrangement so that
arrangement remains
permanent.
3. Mechanized
Arrangement
It means to adopt a particular
arrangement suitable for the
library so that the arrangement
remains permanent

11. 4. Addition of New
Document
There are two possibilities
in this regard.
The new books may be a
subject already provided
for in the scheme of library
classification, or it may be a
newly emerging subject
that may not have been
provided in the existing
scheme.
5. Withdrawal of
Document from Stock
In this case, the need
arises to withdraw a
document from the library
collection for some reason,
and then library
classification should
facilitate such a withdrawal.
6. Book Display
Library
classification
should be
helpful in the
organisation of
book displays.
Purpose (contd)

13. Division of knowledge in CC
Main basic subjects
- Traditional (Law, Physics)
- Newly emerging (Library &
Information Science)
- Fused (Biotechnology)
- Distilled (Research methodology)
- Subject bundles (Ocean sciences)
- Agglomerates (Social sciences)
Non-main basic
subjects
- Canonical classes
(Algebra, Geometry)
- System constituents
(Marxian economy)
- Environment
constituents (Desert
farming)
- Special constituents
(Gerontology
Complex subjects
A complex subject is a
two-phased subject
depicting mostly
interdisciplinary relations.
Six types of phase
relations have been
identified:

14. Type Indicator digits Example Class number
General A
Relation of political
science with history
V&aW
Bias B Psychology for doctors S&bL
Comparison C
Physics compared with
chemistry
C&cE
Difference D
Difference between
Christianity and Islam
Q,6&d7
Tool E Mathematical physics C&eB
Influencing G
Influence of Mahatma
Gandhi on John Lennon
NR,56,NwN40&gzG

15. Advantages of CCS

16. Challenges of CCS
 The determinations of the Colon Classification are not unequivocal ones,
and that the same subject may be classified in many different ways.
 Parrochia and Neuville (2013, 17) also found that since the 2000s, several
decades of research in Information Science did not solve anymore the
problem of a general theory of classifications in library science, a dense and
active research field in the last century ([Dhyani 1999]).

17.  The CC seems to confirm the
sad experience that success
of KOS is related less to their
theoretical and research
based qualities than to the
strength of support for
maintaining systems.
 The survival of the
system in its present
state seems
uncertain because of
long and callous
neglect.
The DDC is
considered less
advanced, but is the
most successful
classification.

18. CONCLUSION (contd)
 Although CC introduced a
methodology of classification that has
many advantages, and that remains a
strong and distinct approach in
knowledge organisation, some of its
assumptions are regarded by many
today as utopian, or even undesirable.
 Having already subtly pervaded the
making of new systems and getting
sublimated into a theory, CC has
achieved nirvana from bodily avatar.
Transcending the cycle of life and death,
it has become a subliminal tool of
information retrieval and knowledge
mapping.

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