Adapting the Concept of Faceting and Synthesis of Colon Classification in Dewey Decimal Classification

Classification system is crucial in the organization of knowledge. It enables organizing knowledge in logical, helpful and retrievable way. They are categorized under six species. The nature of present information necessitates adopting of a classification scheme having ‘freely faceted’ characteristics. DDC is the most popular and widely used classification scheme worldwide. The latest edition of DDC is somewhat ‘Semi-Analytico-Synthetic. But the organization of interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary subjects using DDC is difficult. So the author explored the possibilities for conversion of DDC into ‘freely faceted’ scheme using the concepts in S R Ranganathans’ Colon Classification Scheme. The schedule of Library and Information Science in DDC was taken as sample and was converted to freely faceted classification scheme (appended). The paper discusses the process for classifying books with newly designed Freely Faceted DDC with suitable examples. Advantages of this conversion are demonstrated.