Dear professionals, I wish to congratulate Mr. Sunil M.V. for posting a thought provoking topic in LIS Forum. I would like to share my views about why Library and Information Science is not classified under Social Science - 300 in DDC. Here the idea behind bringing it under 200 is that, LIS was earlier considered as one of general phenomena. In the earlier age libraries were called knowledge repositories where all kind of documents were kept. We can try to analyze on the basis of the division which LIS is surrounded by. The class 000 is Computer science, knowledge & systems. Here computer science is the discipline which was added in the recent decades where as the term knowledge was used in the first instance. As mentioned before the classificationist was in a notion that LIS fits to be in the class 000 as it deals with knowledge and information all the while. To make it little clearer we can have a look at the following examples- 010 Bibliographies 030 Encyclopedias & books of facts 050 Magazines, journals & serials 060 Museums 080 General collections 090 Manuscripts & rare books The most of the examples given above considered are documents which are stocked in library such as books, serials, manuscripts etc. On the other hand some of them like Bibliographies, encyclopedias, serials are the documents that are determined to be the sources of knowledge even from the earlier days and their uses were more significant in libraries than anywhere in the society. As library was a place to converge all the branches of knowledge the classificationist might have felt it is right to give LIS a place in Generalities which is 000 where ‘Knowledge’ is also located. Looking at it from a different paradigm, it feels that the libraries were not paid much importance in the 19th century. In terms of their services libraries were failed to make a mark in the society. We all have learnt that many libraries did not have an open access and books were kept in locked cabinets where only a few times in a year the library were allowed to be used. Hence, the chances were less to realize the importance of the libraries’ role in the society. This might have made the classificationist to place LIS under 000 which is Generalities. As the information revolution took place in the modern society now LIS subject is earning priority. Further, I completely agree that LIS is supposed to be considered as a branch of Social Sciences since it has always been associated with the social activities for serving information need. But, taking the current status of DDC it might become difficult to accommodate LIS discipline which is growing much larger in the information era. The class 300 (from 300-390) has already been entirely assigned for different branches of social science. If, changes are made to any part of Social Science, problems may arise in future regarding practical issues, where one of the entire divisions under the class 300 will have to be re-assigned. It may also bring the problem of changing the classification arrangement in libraries following the DDC in world wide. Though libraries are the heart of the education system, anywhere in 370 LIS cannot be inserted due to the same technical issues. Thanks and regards Muruli Acharya Librarian Excel Public School Mysore 97421 33755 _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________-- Dear Friends, One of my friends, Mr. Deepak who is a library science student is having a basic question regarding classification. We all know library science is classified under 000 (Generalities) in DDC. But,..... 1) the primary character of library is collecting and organizing of knowledge, which has come out of the society and flows again to wellness of the society. - Knowledge – from the people – by the people – to the people! - Children libraries, libraries for blind, etc., are essentially a social activity in nature. - Coming to public libraries, they are always seen as part of social development programs. - Encyclopedia Britannica has listed library science as associate of Social Science. - Ph. D’s in library science are awarded under social science branch. 2) Right from the time of Nalanda University, library is wedded with education system. Although there are special libraries associated with technical organizations, even there, major role of libraries is to support research (otherwise education) activities. With above points in view, my question is why library science is not classified under Social science-300 Please enlighten me with your discussion and valuable points. With sincere regards, ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- *Please consider your environmental responsibility before printing this e-mail* Sunil M.V. Librarian SDM Institute for Management Development No. 1, Chamundi Hill Main Road Siddharthanagar Post Mysore - 570 011 KARNATAKA -- This message has been scanned for viruses and dangerous content by MailScanner, and is believed to be clean.