30 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 
The kinds of catalogues! may be divided into two general classes— 
those in which author and subject entries are distinct and separate; and 
those in which author and subject entries are combined in a single 
alphabet. The former class may be subdivided into four smaller groups: 
A. Subject catalogues in dictionary form. 
B. Classified on the decimal system (Dewey’s). 
 C. Classified on some other system (Cutter’s, Harris’, etc). 
D. Alphabetico-classed subject catalogue, i.e., a catalogue having general 
classes in alphabetic sequence, with alphabetic subdivisions. 
Of the several systems of classification, the decimal system devised 
by Mr. Melvil Dewey is most generally used. It has been adopted by a 
large majority of public libraries in the United States, and is making 
considerable headway in England. It is also used in a few Canadian and 
Australian libraries. It has won the approval of several leading Euro- 
pean librarians, but has as yet been adopted by very few, if any, libraries 
on the Continent. The decimal system has been fully described by Mr. 
Dewey in an elaborate paper published in the “ Special Report on Public 
Libraries in the United States” (pp. 623-648). Under this system the 
whole field of human knowledge is divided into ten classes; each of these 
is then sub-divided into ten divisions of the main class; and each of 
these, again, is further sub-divided into ten. This sub-division may, of 
course, be carried out indefinitely, and thus provide for the most minute 
classification. It is this division into tens that gives the system the 
name of decimal. The main classes are: General Works, Philosophy, 
Sociology, Philology, Natural Science, Useful Arts, Fine Arts, Litera- 
ture, History. The chief advantage claimed for the system is its adap- 
tability to the needs of any library, large or small, general or special. 
As an instance of the minuteness with which the classification may be 
carried out, take the case of a work on Strikes. The number for this 
would be 331.89; the first figure representing the general class Soci- 
ology; the second, the division Political Economy; the third, the section 
devoted to Capital, Labour and Wages; the fourth, Labouring Classes; 
and the fifth, Strikes. The main classification only covers three 
figures, any further sub-division being carried beyond the decimal 
point. 

1 The late Mr. Justin Winsor gave this admirable advice as to the use of 
cataloguing systems:— 
“Pach of two systems under proper conditions may be equally good, 
when both are understood and an equal familiarity has been acquired with 
each. Choose that which you naturally take to; use it, and do mot decide 
that the other is not perfectly satisfactory to him who chose that. Which- 
ever you have chosen, study to improve it, and you will probably do so, in 
so far as it becomes fitted more closely to the individuality of yourself and 
your library.” 
