Re-classification of Library Materials

To enable the English and Chinese materials of the same subjects to be shelved together for facilitating our users’ browsing and retrieval of library materials, the Lingnan University Library has embarked on a 3-year project to migrate its entire collection of 500,000 plus items to the Library of Congress Classification Scheme.

Background & Needs for Re-classification

Lingnan University Library has until now employed the Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC) for classifying the English materials, and Lai’s Classification for the Chinese materials, and they are presently kept in 2 separate locations. The current setup impedes information organization and retrieval, as material on the same subjects are kept in two different locations. It also hinders effective space planning for the library collections as a whole, as separate sets of space plans must be prepared for the expansion of our Chinese and English materials. Owing to the above reasons, Lingnan Library will migrate its entire collection to the LC Classification Scheme.


 

Migrating to LC Classification will Bring the Following Benefits to Users

  1. Migrating the entire library collection to the LC Classification Scheme will lead to more effective organization of library resources via the use of a single classification scheme. Library materials of the same subject will be shelved together irrespective of their difference in language.


  1. Users’ satisfaction will be significantly raised as they can locate or browse, and retrieve materials of different languages from the same call number range in the most convenient fashion. Their efforts required to locate the English and Chinese library resources with same subjects will be minimized.


  1. In addition, there will be more detailed classification provided for Chinese literature, arts, culture, and history under the LC classification scheme.

  2. After the conversion, Lingnan will have the same classification system as most other UGC libraries. When our users access other university libraries, they would not need to spend the extra time and effort to get accustomed to a different classification system.

Target Timeframe

  • Aug 2006 – The re-classification and re-labeling of the Large Book and Reference Collections were successfully completed. Both Chinese and English books in these collections were inter-filed together.


  • Jul 2007 – The entire Serials Collection, including titles in compact storage was re-classified and re-labeled. Both Chinese and English periodicals were shelved together.

  • Aug 2007 – A ceremony was held on 17 August to celebrate the successful completion of Phase 1 of the LC Re-classification Project.

  • Dec 2007 – The Re-classification and re-labeling of the English Book Collection was completed.

  • May 2008 –  Work on the AV Collection was completed. Both Chinese and English AV materials were shelved together according to the format of each material.

  • Dec 2008 –  To complete re-classifying and re-labeling monographs in Classes A-C of the Chinese Book Collection and inter-shelving them with the existing English Book Collection.

  • Sep 2009 – Complete re-classifying and re-labeling the entire Chinese Book Collection. Both English and Chinese books will be shelved together.