SA YERS AND DONKER DLYVISnopr.niscair.res.in/bitstream/123456789/28463/1/ALIS 8(3... · 2014. 4. 20. · V 8 N 3 Sep 1961 K331 change and to work what had been done in the past into

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SA YERS AND DONKER DLYVIS

tHEORY At-!D MAINTENANCE OF LIBRARY CLASS IFIC AT lOt-! S R HA:\CANATH'\~

Dwe. ~_s ",:'1' t r.e careers of two :;re,l: ol a s s: f_~c2tic)n~ S~/S 0-;' ~v>:el"":"'" .i e t h ce n t.ur-y - Sayers andLo~:ker Duyv i s , G_.\/8S their 'lc .•..i evcmen t s '~; t r.e '-'Tan:l:::~r_cu~ of classificatory 1angu,ige a~l~t

as the I:_oneer Y' i()cuT.e~~·~:~::Ol'l r-e ope c t.i v e i y . Tl l u e t.r n t e s t he ~r:f2'Jences of S3yers ,'uHiDonker Jcl,Yvis on Col or: ·,SS,!·lca: .• or. :crd P:'!" .. cu·:'.:c~::r or: ·',8 r.hre e pl'lr.es of classificatoryWO-:-'r:.• ;.J:.lrr:-::.',C:s +:~\.3 _r;':!Lc;n~-:'8 bt..:::;.e-:'_"s ~0 _-br'~~',J' ;:C.,c;:.ce ~~'J.'-:'0 p e r aor.n • o on t.a c t s of devotedworkers ir: ~he f_e ~~.

Ab br cvi at ions used

BCCCDC

Bibliographic classificationColon clas s ific ationDecimal classification

FIDLCSC

International Federation for DocumentationLibrary of Congress classificationSubject classification

UDC = Urriv e.r sal Decimal Classification

W C Berwick Sayers F ri ts Donk er Du yvi s

B!J

23 December

7 0 cto be r

18811960

BD

30 April

9 Jul y

18941961

P b 0 to grapb s reproduced witb due a c k n o u.l e d g em en t to

t b e Library Association Record and tb e FI ()

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Kl RANGANATHAN

I CHRONICLE

The world has lost two veterans in libraryclassification, within the last one year,W C Berwick Sayers died on 7 October 1960;and he was born on 23 December 1881.Frits Donker Duyvis died on 9 July 1961; andhe was born on 30 April 1894. Sayers belongedto England; and he was born at Mitcham.Danker Duyv is belonged tc Holland; but he wasborn at Samarang, Java. Sayers completedhis school education in Bournemouth; he didnot enter any university; his interest was inthe humanities. Donker Duyvis studiedChemical Engineer ing at Delft Univer sity; hisintl'!H~t was ill (i.Pfllieq SFl~npl'l, Sa.:yeH qe~fmhi§ €iHeef a.:§ eiltf!Y il:s' fii§ fHteentlt YeiH l:lvj€linifl~ t1HI s,t~.ff of ~!HH'nemqlJth P4Pli€ ~HmH'yin UJ!\Itli he fetireQ in 1(;141'E3tH!lf Pelng theChi@f bJibNfi~fI qf Crpyqgn ~~Qlip t.H:mtfies;ft@ had WfH¥.@d in thM WUafY a§ PePlJty bJi1:lrariftnfl'l''1m PH)!} tg F.ll§ when he §'4€€tHIQ@d ~tanlvJa§t ell ih@ ~hi@f, POfl¥.@l' Oyyvi§ WE\.§ f€lrIH:lm@time imhHitriil-l 130nEi4Hiiftf to the OQvarnnH'lfltflt H§Ha,JHl; in 1949, he jQifltH;t the 13tftif Elf theDut<;h Fateflt OW~t:lj and il-ftljll' p. lQn~ term ofurviee he I'@Hud ail ih Viee-preijident in 19§8.Both hAd lIui!e!ud during the! war yl'lat'~i butnaturally the .uffering had been more s eve r-ewith Donker Duyvia.

2 LITERARY CONTRIBUTION21 Sayers

Sayers wielded a fluent pen. Apart fromhis work on War archives of Croydon and afew contributions to Belles-lettres, most of hisbooks and articles were on Library Science.Those on library classification are the mostwidely read. His Introduction to classificationwent through nine edj t ion s between 1918 and1958. It has been the most popular book onthe subject throughout this period. It has beenused practically in all the countries whereEnglish is understood. His Manual of classifi-cation was slightly heavier. It appearedfirst in 1927. The current edition is the third,and was brought out in 1959. He was a fr e-quent contributor to the British periodicalson Library Science Most of these are onclassification. Some are biographical.

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2.2. Donker Duyvis

The literary contributions of Donker Duyviswere only in the form of articles. The Rev doc(21,1954, 13-15 and 23, 1956, 144-46) gives alist of his contributions. To this should beadded his papers of the three later years.The earliest belonged to 1920. It had thetitle Documentatie and was published in theChemisch Weekblad (1920, 484-5). Thelatestpaper came out in 1960 with the title Docu-Ir.ent r e roduction service s; their efficientorganisation and management Unesco BullLibraries 14, 1960, 241-59). Perhaps thelatest of his ideas were embodied in hispepf:3F pn ~t9:!1geFq!§aHgn G§ a tgg! gf mana~l'!=~ in thi:i1diJftji@rHlii'll,-'1~'l; i{Hl~~He heq al§a ~e¥gtf:3q tRm~~M tg tR€l fll'€l~l@mof a,p'EjtgI'Hn~,

3 l' HtiiOR Y OF ~U~RAR YGLA~~IFleA'I'ION

3l SIl,Y!H§ Fl§ the Firl'lt Orammarian

1'hi3 chi!;!! §1;ll'viCe of SFlY@l'I'l to diHH!iH"ationc ent r e s round the devel opment of it!! th~tlry.His firilt contribution Wf!.ll the Ca.nClJlIl,o{c!ca.ltt •.U_plhon. This carne out in 1915. It has beentaken to progressive fullnc88 through hill othertwo well-known books. Sayers was the firstperson to build up an elaborate, consistent,and fairly complete grammar of the classi-ficatory language. This he built up first inhis classes and later embodied in his books.His poineer teaching of the theory of libraryclassification was truly inspiring. He gave aprofound and significant content to the routinework of picking up cl as s numbers from therelative index of DC schedules. It made hisstudents look upon classification as disciplinewith a charm and a challenge of its own. Inmy case, his first three lectures were suf-ficient to make me embrace the subject.This happened in 1924. I cannot still escapefrom its grip. It is a welcome grip. It is alife-giving grip. It has given me delightduring all these thirty seven years. Everyyear opens out new vistas for fresh pursuit.I cal1 Sayers the first grammarian of theclassificatory language. But he had noneof the phlegmatic bigotry usually associatedwith grammarians. He heartily accepted,

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surnmarised, evaluated, propagated, andeven embodied in his own books the latergrammars of classificatory language writtenby others. This was the case with the canonsformulated by Bliss. So also it was with thecanons stated in my Prolegomena to libraryclassification (1937). I met Sayers in 1948after a long interval of 23 years. He tookme to Croydon. We were sitting in oneof the public parks. He referred to myClassification and international documenta-tion published by FID just a month earlier.He said in effect, "I read only a few sen-tences at a time. Your writing is so con-densed. I have to think over each sentencefor a long t irn e . Of course, you have madeyour subject a science. You have alsodeveloped the precise terminology neededin the exposition of a new discipline. Ofcourse, it will take some practice forothers to pick up and handle your tern,ino-logy. I have done it and it has paid me. "How narrow, impatient, and allergic areso rne and even deny the need for a specialc e r rni nol ogv , Here is a typical examplef r orn Miss Barbara Kyle. "But, as usual,he (Ranganathan) alienates all readers, buthis existing disciples, by assuming theiracceptance of his terminology. How even,if you understand this, would you translateit in French? This, within the FID, seemsa fair and valid question". What an in-sularity unworthy of any scientist andcertainly of one brought up by in the tradi-tion of Sayers! When I met him again twomonths later, he said, " I have now finishedreading your paper. I enjoyed it. I couldnever imagine that so much of new thoughtcould be erected with what little I taught youas the foundation." Sayers was then 68. Hemaintained resilience of mind even in thatadvanced age. His remarks on my openingaddress on "Classification as a discipline"at the Dorking Conference in May 1957, area dernon s t r at ion of his superb scientificattitude, openness of mind and agility ofintellect, maintained by him even when hewas 77. He said, "Classification is apractical instrument bringing together inreliable order the fluid field of knowledge.Hence it has no perennial life but requiresconstant reconstruction, constant referenceto principles. We need to face the fact of

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change and to work what had been done in thepast into the fabric of to-day".

32 Bliss and Sayers

Sayers was a great adrn i r e r of HenryEvel yn Blis s - the author of two well knownbooks of organisation of knowledge. He notonly accepted the more elaborate gr a rnrrra rof classification of Bliss, but also extendedhis own grammar so as to cover the newdevelopment in the classificatory languagebrought into vogue by the BibliographicClassification of Bliss. In fact, perhapsSayers was responsible rrio r e than anyone elseto interpret to the world the outstanding contri-bution of Bliss-both as a grammarian ofclassification and as a classificationistresponsible for a new scheme of classificationof our own days-the BC. I remember the realwarmth and adrni r at ion with which he used totell me about the persistent achievements ofBliss through nearly half a century.

33 CC and Sayers

331 Genesis of CC

Blis s was senior to Sayer s. But the affectionof Sayers to his juniors was no less ardent. Itwas more than ardent. It was a source ofstimulus. My mind goes back to November1924. One afternoon we were s itt in g in thecafeteria of the University College, London.Two hours s l ipp ed away without our knowing.What kept us so absorbed? It was the greatenthusiasm of Sayers for understanding thestruggle of a novice in the profession. It washis great readiness and sympathy to entertain,accept, and discuss with discernment andsympathy, even the chirpings of a novice inthe field of classification. There was onlya nebulus idea working in the rnirid of thenovice at that time. Neither the nameColon Classification nor the concept of Facethad taken shape at that tirn.e. The name wasadopted only five years later. Facet-conceptwas hit upon only twenty years later. Theidea of looking upon a sys te rn of class numbersas an artificial language of ordinal numberswas the.n unknown to eithe r of us. In fact,none of the te r rrrinol ogy of cl a s s ifi c atiorinow widely current was then available for

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communication. One can imagine how arduousinterchange of ideas on CC should have been inthat discussion. Communication had to belargely through diagrams and examples. Thevery struggle and the failure to communicatein -onventional language proved to be the chiefrnean s of communication. I realised onlythen the significance of the phrase" darknessvisible" read by me as mere words in doingMiltan's Paradise last in the first manth ofmy university cour s e in April 1909, Italso. m ad e HIe r eal is e the meaning of thephrase "e loqu en ce of silence" faund in averse describing the cornrriurricat ion , fifteencenturies ago , of the bay Sankara to. his agedpupils. Far neith e r Sayers nor myself cauldthen express our thought to each ather in plainEnglish. Silenc-e interspersed with diagramsand backed by cnanges in facial expression andin the glow of the eyes was the anly means ofcommunication on that day. And it pr oved to. bean effective means. We understaad each ather.Satisfaction flawed to rne . I do. nat knaw whatflawed to Sayers. I r ernernb e r the sympathy,the stimulus, and the goad will flawing to mefrom Sayers.

332 Wholesome Warning

I also. gat a whale some warning from Sayers.He said in effect, "It may be all s rriooth sailingat the earlier levels. But, difficulties willappear at deeper levels. We cannat now anti-cipate what they will be ", This may look likea trivial warning for a classificatianist of ta-

day. But farty years ago, Sayers was perhapsane of the very few, if nat the only per son ,who could have sensed this. Even to-day, itis not realised by many a hasty classifierventuring into. the field of a classificationistand attempting to design a new scheme ofclassification - general ar special.

333 Encauraging Help

Perhaps any ather person wauld havesuppressed with cynical wards the attem~t.ofa novice to design a new scheme of c.la s s ifi ca r

tion on new foundations. But that was not theway of Sayers. On the other hand, he encouragedme to pursue the working of designing the CC.When the scheme appeared in print in 1933,

88

he was the first to write to. rrie with enthusiasm.Bliss was secand. Sayers devated a chapterto. an accaunt of CC in the later editians of hisIntroductions and Manual. I am t ol d that healso. began to teachit in his class. Hecammended the attention of the profession tothe new CC in several ways.

334 Brotherly Cancern

Sayers showed a bratherly concern in thedevelopment of CC. Shortly after its firstpublicatian, I received a letter f r om himinviting my attention to. an article in theMadern librarian. He wrote to. the effect"The authar of the article has sent me acapy of its reprint. Do not be upset by theabsurd statements found in it. The authorhas only betrayed his own ignorance.Probably his motive is one of env.y andhatred. When he joined the course here inLondan, he introduced himself as a studentof yaurs. But his performance in the exami-nation was very poor. We gave him gracemarks and passed him for two reasons. Hehad corne a long distance for the course,and he was yaur student. Do riot take hiswards to heart. Pursue your work withcheerfulne s s ",

335 Welcome Reception

One of the canons of Sayers which hadbeen giving me trouble for several yearsfrom the moment I learnt it in his class wasthat of Hospitality. I had anly a vague feelingthat there was something nebulous about it.Therefore, it was difficult for me to tell him in1924 what my difficulty was. He used to hearme on this with sympathy while I was strugglingto express my difficulty. But the communicationfailed every time. It was only in 1936 thatthe difficulty got not only entmciated clearlybut al so salved elegantly. The solution wasthe recognition of hospitality as a doublepersonality. Two kinds of hospitality wererecognised. The necessary terminology wasestablished to deal with the problem. It is

now realised that the failure of communicatianin my discussion with Sayers in 1924 wasdue to lack of appropriate terminology.This failure in verbal plane caused failure in

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self-communication too. It led even to a worseresult. There was confusion in the idea planetoo. To use the terminology established in1936 and used widely now-a-days, the term'Hospitality' was a homonym. It denotedcapacity to accommodate new classes orisolates in one and the same array and againin one and the same chain. The homonym wasresolved by denoting the two kinds of hospitalityby two different terms viz., Hospitality inArray and Hospitality in Chain respectively.A canon corresponded to each of these kinds ofhospitality. The single compound Canon ofHospitality of Sayers was replaced by two

canons viz., Canon of Hospitality in Array In due course, one or other of the elementsand Canon of Hospitality in Chain respectively. in the bundle of disciplines, traditionally labelledThese findings were embodied in the Prolego- d f h'Philosophy' in general, seized the stu y 0 t emena in 1937. Soon after a copy of th~-book - f 1 ifi t' . the firstmental process 0 c a s s i i ca Ion Inreached Sayers, he gave them a welcome recep- d A th ~ of classifica. and the s ecori senses. eo r y -tion. He wrote in effect, "I now r ealis e what you . b d 1 b t d A account. tron was egun an e a ora e. nwere strugghng to express to me when you hi h t b . 1 ded eventually. . .. , of t IS t eory came 0 e lnc uwere stu dy in g lTI London. T'h is spl it ting of in books on logic. I believe that the inclusiona single canon into two is a great step forward ifi cat i t th di . line of logic was, ,. , " of cl a s s i ica.tion In 0 e lSClPIn the theory of c l a s s i fi cat ion , 'F 1 ' , the dis cip l ine con-fortultuoUS. or oglC IS

cerned with the making of valid inferenceseither from a set of experiences based onobservation and/or experiment or from aninitial proposition. In the former case, it isinductive logic. In the latter case, it isdeductive logic. The discipline of arrange-ment cannot form part of log~c in eithersense. However in the absence of anybodyelse taking up the development of this discip-line, the logician became its wet-nurse.

34 A Handicap of Sayer s

As the first grammarian of classifica-tory language, Sayer s had a handicap.This handicap may be described as follows.As shown in my Classification and communi-cation (1951), the term 'Classification' turnedout to be a homonym.

341 Classification in the First Sense

In its first and earliest sense, it meantputting all the like entities of a universe intoa single group and thereby replacing the singleaggregate of entities forming the universeby a number of subaggregates or groups. Theresult of classification in this primitivesense was the replacement of an aggregate ofentities by an aggregate of groups. The term'aggregate' implies that the groups are throwninto a random sequence. Classification in thissense is made even by children. It had beenmade even by the early man.

342 Classification in the Second Sense

Gradually man was not satisfied with arandom arrangement of the groups arising

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in the classification of a universe in the firstand primitive sense. It was not as serviceableas necessary and possible. The groups came

to be arranged in a preferred helpful sequence.Then the term' classification' was taken todenote the combination of the two processesof dividing the entities of a universe intogroups of like entities and of arrangingthese groups in a definite sequence. Thiscombination of the two processes representsthe meaning of the term classification in thesecond sense.

343 Logic Wet-Nurseas

344 Naturalist as an Enricher

During the last few centuries, the naturalistpractised classification extensively. Theclassification of plant and animal groups wasdeveloped elaborately. Natural science borrowedthe terminology of logic freely. It did notturn its attention to a pure theory of classi-fication in the first two senses. But itspractical achievement was very impressive.It permeated into the general apperceptivemass of the votaries of even other disciplines.This m.ade many persons classification-minded.Enumeration in a s ys ternat.i c sequence, carryingthe enumeration down a large number ofsuccessive arrays, and basing the enumera-tion at each stage - that is, at the transitionfrom one array to the next- on a definite

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characteristic was brought into vogue by thenaturalist. He thus became a great benefactorto the dis cipline of clas s ific ation.

345 Enumerative Classification

But the theory needed for this enumera.tiveclassification did not go outside the range ofthe theory al r eady established by the logician.Therefore, the naturalist did not make anydistinctive addition to the corpus of the theoryof classification in the first two senses.

346 Classification in the Third Sense

In the nineteenth century, classification ofbooks began to be seriously practised. It wasfound helpful to arrange the books on the shelfon the basis 6f a scheme of knowledge classes.The schemes found in the works of Bacon andof a few later philosophers and scientists wereused for the purpose with some modifications.These were still only schemes of classifica-tion in the second sense. But the task of re-storing the sequence of the books on the shelvesfrom day to day and from hour to hour afterthe reader took away 1ook s from here, there.and everywhere in the sequence almost atrandom for study, and returned them becametoo arduous. Finding a helpful, filiatoryplace for books newly acquired from time totime was no less arduous. Mechanisingthese tasks became a necessity as the booksincreased in number, the user too increasedin number, and the frequency of call byreaders became nearly continuous in eachday. The use of ordinal numbers in thismechanisation was hit upon. With the helpof decimal fraction notation, DC made theordinal numbers remarkably versatile inmechanising these tasks. EC, LC, and SCalso designed different brands of ordinalnumbers for the purpose. This added anew dimension to classification in thesecond sense. Thus, classification in thethird sense came into vogue. Classifica-tion in the third sense is classificationin the second sense plus representing eachof the classes by a distinctive ordinalnumber belonging to a system of such numbers.By library classification is meant classifica-tion in this third sense. Though primarily

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designed for the arrangement and easymaintenance of the arrangement in the ever-growing and ever-disturbed universe ofbooks, it is adaptable for a similar purposein respect of a universe of any kind of entitieswhatever - concrete or conceptual.

35 Sayers and the Idea Plane

The entry of Sayer s into the field of thetheory of library classification happened atthis stage in the evolution of classification.He built on whatever had already been donein the field. Classification still continued to beenumerative. No doubt UDC had introduceda dash of analytico-synthetic element. Butit was too slight and too overshadowed bythe massiveness of the enumerative elementof its DC core. The theory of enumerativeclassification had been well developed by thelogicians in respect of its incidence in the ideaplane. Ther efor e, Sayer s accepted it andadapted it with great skill to library classi-fication. He re-stated that theory with aneloquence that had attracted many students.The success of his eloquence had as itsconcomitant the perpetuation of identifyingclassification with logic. This fault continuesto occur in abundance in the writings of thelater generation and in the words uttered inthe clas s room. The f;mlt is being perpetuatedwith uncanny naivety and even unconscious-ness. It goes unnoticed. In fact, the term'logical arrangement' is used by speakersand writers almost as a slogan withoutany thought about its sementic content.Because the term is used in that way, theolder people feel no difficulty. But a begin-ner - a student - under goes a mentalstrain. The clear thinking of many of themis clouded and even arrested by this un-expressed incommensurability of the words'logic' and 'arrangement' coupled togetherso as to make 'logic' apparently qualify'arrangement'. In spite of this wronglead, the contribution of Sayer s to the theoryof classification has been profound to theextent it has gone.

36 Sayer s and the Verbal Plane

The distinctive contribution of the natural-

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ists to the theory of classification has beenin the verbal plane. They evolved a nomen-clature competent to indicate the order of thearray to which a class belonged. The evolu-tion of such a nomenclature has led to muchprogress in classificatory thought. It hasalso added considerably to its clarity. Thechemist, the geologist, the botanist, theagriculturist, the zoologist, and the medicalprofession have shown the way for theother professions. They have establishedtheir respective international organisa-tions on nomenclature. Some of the latestachievements in the verbal plane of thetheory of classification have emer ged inthe field of agriculture. Sayers did notadd much to this. However, his canonsfor terminology form a landmark. Buthis attempt at building. a consistent, dynamicglossary of classificatory terms had beenrather casual and unhelpful. This has beendemonstrated in an article appearing inthis very issue under the title Tower of Babel(Paper J).

37 Sayers and the Notational Plane

But Sayer s was the fir st to build the theoryof classification in the notational plane. Thisis equivalent to saying that he was the firstto build a theory of classification in thethird sense. As he was the designer of atheory of classification and not a designerof a scheme of classification, his theorywas conditioned rnostl y by the s chern es ofclassification current at the time of hisbuilding the theory. They were all mainlyenumerative schemes. The theory ofSayers was as good as it can be as aninterpr etati ve explor ation.

38 Sayers and Analytico-SyntheticClas sification

The '3.nalytico-synthetic type of classificationgained position in the centre of thought only inthe fifties of the present century, though CChad appeared as its proto-type as early as thetwenties. It was too late for Sayers to re-build the theory of classification, so as tornak e it a descriptive formulation of ananalytico-synthetic scheme as well. But even

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in this matter, he did the best possible fora man of his advanced years. For as soon asedition 1 of Prolegomena to library classifica-tion, establishing a generalised theory suitedto enumerative as well as analytico-synthetic clas sification appear ed, he incor-porated some of its theory in the new editionsof hi s own books and also gave an appreciativeaccount of it in the Year's work in librarian-ship. This is a measure of the remarkableresilience, open-mindedness, and urge tokeep his theory of classification abreast ofthe times. That he was for a dynamic theoryrather than a static theory of classificationis demonstrated by the following wordshe used in his preface to edition 2 ofProlegomena (1957):

"It is not within my space to say in whatways it over -rode many of the obstacles toreal understanding of the art of analysingand assembling books; that the student willdiscover by rewarding study of the bookitself".

4 UNIVERSAL DECIMAL CLASSIFICATION

41 The First Builders

Donker Duyvis was primarily a classifica-tionist and not a grammarian of classificatorylanguage. Even as a classificationist he didnot have full freedom to design a schemede novo. On the other hand, he had a handicap.For he inherited a scheme. That scheme wasthe UDC. He inherited it from Henri LaFontaine and Paul Otlet, both of Belgium.They had been joint predecessors inadopting the DC as the core for UDC. Theywere its first builders.

42 Sponsor

UDC had the IIB (International Instituteof Bibliography) as its sponsor. A worldaccurnulation of 12 million documents,consisting of books and articles in periodi-cals - macro-thought and micro-thought!Annual rate of increase, a hundredthousand books and a million articles!How to keep track of this ever-swellingflood? How to keep every intellectual workerfed exhaustively and expeditiously with

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just the documents relevant to the workengaging his thought at the moment? Toconsider this, an International Bibliogra-phical Conference was held in Brussels in1895. The outcome was the founding ofthe liB. The Governm ent of Belgium ~otedthe funds. The Palais Mondial became itshome.

43 Genesis

The primary object of the llB was tomaintain in cards an ever -up-to-dateuniversal bibliography of all documentsbooks as well as articles. The arrangementof the cards was naturally a formidabletask. Minutely classified subject arrang-ment was rightly hit upon. Then came thesearch for a scheme of classification.DC was then in its fourth edition {1894}.It had already extended to 593 pages. Itspure notation of Arabic numerals appealedto La Fontaine and Otlet. Of cour se, thehospitality of the decimal fraction notationalso should have been an important recom-mendation. There was then no otherscheme as widely used as the DC. Andthe IIB adopted it. Even in 1895, itbegan to bring out French versions of DCin easy instalments. In 1924, DonkerDuyvis became the secretary of the Inter-national Committee for UDC. The fir stedition of UDC came out with the titleManuel de reporterie bibliographiqv.euniverse1le.

44 Role of Donker Duyvis

The second edition was begun in 1927.It was completed in 1933. In this edition,it carried the name Classification DecimaleUniverselle. The decisive role played byDonker Duyvis as builder of UDC wi1l beseen if we remember that he became Secretary-General of the I I B in 1924. Thus, thebuilding of UDC was a1l primarily his enter-prise. During the long stretch of 35 yearshe had applied himself assiduously to promotethe continuous expansion of UDC and itsextensive use a1l through the world. He hadpromoted several committees of subject-

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specialists to expand the schedules in theirrespective subjects. At present completeeditions in six languages have started publi-cation. About 40 abridged editions exist infifteen languages. The second edition hadthe full impress of Donker Duyvis in thenatural sciences. The social sciences andthe humanities were left to the care ofLa Fontaine and Otlet. They merely r e »

produced the schedules of the fir st edition.But in the schedules of the natural sciences,Donker Duyvis made drastic changes. Inthe later editions he made changes in theschedules of the social sciences also.According to his own estimate, the thirdedition had retained intact only a third ofthe fir st edition. That is a measure ofDonker Duyvis as a classificationist. Onthe organisational side, he had been respon-sible for the laying down of a strict pro-cedure for the further development of UDC.The PE notes is an important stage in thisprocedure. Between December 1956 andAugust 1958 Donker Duyvis wrote his lastwill and testament, as it were, in regardto the future of the UDC which was his life'swork. It came out in the form of six articlesin the Review of documentation with the titlePolicy of revii?ion of the Universal DecimalClas sification.

45 Donk er Duyvis and the Idea Plane

Donker Duyvis had clear notions in the ideapl.ane -sans sentiment of any kind. For in thevery first article on policy he wrote, "It isobvious that the superstructure of the UDCis out of date and the general concepts asworked out by Melvil Dewey cannot be leftuntouched. Nevertheless I might stress thatan improvement of the general structureof the classification should be made bypersons who see the classification as a realuniversal survey of the totality of objectsof human knowledge and activity". In the samearticle he wrote with the catholicity of atrue classificationist. "The UDC has beenpreponderantly "western" in outlook fromthe beginning in spite of the fact that itstwo creators La Fontaine and Ot le t were"universalists" or "encyclopaedists" par,excellence. This means for instance that

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Christian religion is considered as the onlyone which is to be taken seriously, whereasHinduism, Buddhism, Taoism, Shintoism,Islam, etc., are dealt with as a kind ofsuper stition. But religion is not the onlyfield in which UDC shows too much itswestern origin. The same appears inregard to eastern philosophy which is notadequately treated in the section on philoso-phy, based only on western and classicdoctrines. Even the demarcation betweenphilosophy and religion is far more difficultwith regard to eastern and esoteric doctrinesthan to western concepts. The socialsciences in UDC hardly take into account thestructure outside the western countries.Thus the chapter on economics takes noaccount of the various forms of communismas taught in the countries "behind the ironcurtain", nor of eastern forms of socialstructure. In UDC only Roman law hasbeen de a.It with adequately. Germanic lawis poorly treated and the various easternlegal systems which correspond witheastern concepts of ethics and morals arenot represented at all in UDC". In the sixtharticle Donker Duyvis referred to myconcept of "depth classification" as a"further evolution of multi -dimensionalclassification". At the end of the article,he gave a chart picturing the featuresresulting from the analysis of a documentin the idea plane as in step 3 of myscheme for practical classification. Amajor contribution of Donker Duyvis asa classificationist is the schedule of analyticalsub-divisions in many basic classes.

46 Doriker Duyvis and the Verbal Plane

The catholicity of Donker Duyvis was asremarkable in the verbal plane as in the ideaplane. In his paper on the Polyglot approachto information in international documentation(Rev doc 24,1957,105-106), he wrote"Although more than half of all scientificpublications appear in English, more andmore the less common languages are beingused in the pure and applied sciences.Clearly it is not possible to guide artificiallythe linguistic streams of scientific publica-tions into one single curr ent, not even in

V 8 N 3 Sep 1961

three (English, French, and German)as wasthe case before the war. Some five languageswould suffice for the time being and beforelong an or ienta.l language will be necessaryin ad~ition. As a more or less objectivechoice I would suggest languages which arespoken as national ones in at least threecountries. These are (in alphabetical order)

English in various countries of the BritishCommonwealth and in the USA,

French in Belgium, France (and overseascountrie s) and Switzer land,

German in Austria, Germany, and Switzer-land,

Russian in the countries of the Soviet Union,

Spanish in most countries of Latin America,and in Spain".

461 The Canons

The substance of my Canon of Context andCanon of Enumeration is well sensed by DonkerDuyvis in his Polyglot edition of UDC (Rev doc26, 1959,75-77). But this sense of his doesnot seem to have led him to depend on thesecanons and make the terms in the schedulesof UDC sufficiently trim and one-worded tomake them fit for use in subject headingsderived from the class number by ChainProcedure.

47 Donker Duyvis and theNotational Plane

Donker Duyvis had always felt concernedwith the defects in the notational plane, takenover by UDC from DC. In his policy paper 2,he says, "When the second edition of UDCwas prepared it was one of the preoccupationsof (his) to try and keep the classification awayfrom the famous bed of Procrustes (the tendencyto stretch a section of classification over tensubdivisions). In order to make numbersas short as possible, Melvil Dewey for sub-ordinate notations used numbers which froma notational point of view were of equalrank". To put it in my terminology, DCtelescopes arrays rather too freely withoutfor seeing the need arising in due cour se for

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the digits of both the arrays having to beused.

471 Starvation Principle

Donker Duyvis formulated the StarvationPrinciple for the notational plane. Accordingto this, if an isolate number or an array-isolate number is rendered unusable il1 itsoriginal sense for want of literary warrant forthe isolate idea or the array-isolate ideaconcerned, the number is to be kept unusedfor a certain period - say ten year s -andthen used to represent some other idea.This principle however involves overlookingthe Canons for Filiatory Sequence/ and theCanon for Consistent Sequence.

5 SAYERS: INFLUE)JCE AS A TEACH:SR

Perhaps, the most productive impact ofSayer s on the cour se of the evolution oflibrary science and service should be tracedto his work as a t ea ch er , He was not a teacherby profession. He had not taken a formalcour se of training in the art and science ofteaching. But nature had endowed him withthe ability to teach effectively. He had aninborn knowledge of the method of teaching.He had the enthusiasm to radiate his ideasto the point of infection. He had the elo-quence to communicate his ideas with convincingclarity. He had the command of language toentertain without the incidence of boredom.He had the conviction of a missionary. Hismethod of teaching was all his own. Indeed,his teaching often brought to my mindVat syaria+s verse, "No rules, no set procedurefor one sailing on the crest of insight andenthusiasm" .

51 Method of Teaching

Though successful with his own innate methodof teaching, Sayer s did not have a closed mindabout the way to teach. Many a night, I used towalk with him to the Warren Street Tube Stationafter the class ended at 21 hours. On mostof these days, he would engage me in aretrospective review of his performance in

the class. He would tell me in effect"You are a trained teacher. You have beena full-timed teacher for seven years. WasI right to-day in the way I taught such andsuch a point?" The tone of his askingthis question was not one that meant thatI should say "yes ". On the contrary, itwas tuned to a pitch of sincerity that oftencompelled me' to suggest alternative waysin which it might have been better. Heaccepted most of such suggestions. Hewould accept some of them straight away.Others he would accept only after a discus-sion of the why of them on the basis ofthe fundamental psychological principlesof teaching.

52 Defect due to Ma s s Teaching

Evidently Sayers had been subjected tomass teaching in his school days. Perhapsthe principle of individual instruction wasnot known in those days. It may be thata stray born-teacher practised it here orthere. It has to be remembered that aformal th eor y of individual instructionhad yet to be consciously developed byJohn Dewey. Indeed, Dewey's pioneer workon individual instruction -School and societycarne out only in 1896, - the year in whichSay er s left school. Further, this remarkablebook took more than a generation to permeateeven among the teaching profession. It isno wonder then that Sayers continued onlythe mas s method of teaching. Moreover,most of the students had alr eady workedin libraries and had accepted withoutquestion schedules of DC and the way theywere used in practice. Thus there was nochallenge from the students. They acceptedtheir minds had been sealed. That was duealso to the fact that the library professionhad not yet begun to attract intellectualsof a high order during the days of his teach-ing. Indeed, there were few univer sity menin his classes of the earliest years. Thisaccounts for the delay in the theory ofclassification being seized and cultivatedso as to yield new results. In spite ofthis social factor, Sayers was remarkablysuccessful as a teacher of classification.If he could have practised individual teaching

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or if he were a full-timed teacher withopportunity for tutorial work and intimatediscussion with small student groups, thetheory of classification would certainly haveprogressed more widely and more rapidly;for he had r emar kable innate power s for tutor ialwork and group discussion and even individualdiscussion. In my year, perhaps I was theonly one who had spent the longest number ofhours with him in individual discussion. Ihave enjoyed his ability in this method ofteaching. On occasions, his informaldiscussion with me - for it was never in theclass room or in the college; it was mostlyin Q'df wa lk s - used to remind me of the9@§ €I' i~H13fl b @tw~ @fl thJ! t@a€h@f am! in@~Y¥lH {13Yfl§ in tR@ ~@f! ~i€tYf@§ !f! tR@

~J~_~l1l§Ri!@§,

~ OONKER OlJYVUi AND MIS OTHERMEAi OF iER VIeE

Ai an ~mlinur in ~hg,rli!til gf plI,ttilnt§,Denker DuyvllJ wu na,tunUy highly ap-preciAtive of thli! benefitlJ of IJta.ndardiu-tion. Shortly after he became the Secretary-General of the IIB - that iI, Ihortly after19Z4 - he took part in a meeting of theInternational Institute of Intellectual Co-operation (the predecessor of Unesco).He then stressed the importance of standardsfor paper and format of book. But an oldconservative librarian vehemently opposedthe idea and protested against all booksbeing published in one regimentated stan-dard size. However, Donker Duyvis wonthe day after Marie Curie set forth herar guments explaining the value and thescope of standardisation. Donker Duyvis hasgiven an exhaustive account of his views onstandards for library work, in his paperStandardisation as a tool of scientific manage-ment (Lib trends 2, 1953-54, 410-27).After World War II, Donker Duyvis tookprompt steps to bring the FID into closerelation with the ISO (International Stan-dards Organisation). Now ISO/TC46 hascharge of documentation standards and ISO/TC37 of documentation terminology. Theestablishment of the Insdoc can be traced

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back ultimately- though remotely - to thisstep of Donker Duyvis.

62 Documentation

Donker Duyvis had striven hard to have anexhaustive bibliography of bibliographiesbrought out periodically. The Index biblio-graphies has been the result. As a chemist,he had competence to go into the details ofphoto-copying. He had devot ed considerablethought to it. He did his best to promotetheir use and to get suitable standards estab-lished for micro-films and reading apparatus.

Dl'lftil;f3f Puyvj§ hag in§till{!hv@ly f@H *hatth@ v~hJ@ §f tn@ €pt:i§ting !I€hf3mIHI nf €h~§§i=fi~g,HQft p§YlA h@ iml'lfovect if th~r@ WtH'tl ilIi€HH'r4iI1ilH9ft Qf tRtl Elg@l1{:if;l§ f3n~ila€Hl in q~§i~nin~Elnd Elllplyill~ 1;!1Eluifi~~hpn, HI! Will! Elfirmbl;l!if;1VIH' in WtHIJ ft@ (:alhc;l nm\lm~diml'ml!ic-mEll~hllHliH~EltiQn". It WAIi thil! whif;!h mlld@ him!ItlflliHl the PQttlntiality Qf the J'/l.f;!@t AnalYlLilidelJigned in Indill. a.nd now boing widely.tudied. both at the international level and innational Ieval a, He wa. deeply intereltedin the setting up of a body to have charge ofthe general theory of classification a. asupporting or ganisation for the developmentof UDC and other schemes. In the 1951conference in Rome, he succeeded in theformation of FID/CA (Committee on GeneralTheory of Classification). He threw a bigresponsibility on me by asking me to havecharge of it as Rapporteur-General. Thevarious new concepts developed under theauspices of the FID/CA -Zone Analysis,Sector Analysis, Rounds, Levels, Telescop-ing of Arrays, Telescoping of Facets, theSeparation of the work in the Idea Plane,Notational Plane, and Verbal Plane respectively,the taking of a reduction in the number ofschedules to as few seminal schedules aspossible, the whole methodology of researchin classification - during the last elevenyear s have laid the foundation for the de signof versatile schemes of classification. Iam now able to see an endless vistas ofsystematic investigation lying ahead of us.

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I wonder if I would ever have been put on thistrack and could have got the chance tospend my years after retirement ever bathedin the delight of these problems but forDonker Duyvis having pulled me out of myshell and brought me into relation with theco-thinkers in the world.

7 REMINISCENCES ABOUT SAYERS

71 Realistic Approach

I joined the School of Librarianship in Londonin Oct 1924. The syllabus was over -weightedwith non-professional subjects such as Englishliterature, French, German, Sanskrit, andArchives. I felt that it would be wasting mytime in Great Britain to take the classes inthese subjects. Sayers was the first personin the staff to agree with me. He pleadedwith the Director saying in effect "He holdsa first class degree in English literature;he is highly competent in Sanskrit; Frenchand German he can learn at Madras; heneed not come to England for it; Archivesand Epigraphy, he will have little chanceto need as a university librarian". Mainlydue to his pleading I was exempted from allthese subjects. I could just take only theprofessional subjects and use all other hoursin field work observing as many librariesas possible. But the red tape initiated asusual at the lowest phlegmatic clericallevel in the Univer sity of Madras reachedLondon objecting to the dropping of theFrench and the German classes. Hereagain Sayer s gave a dignified reply justify-ing the advice he had given me.

72 Genuine Wish to Help

In those far-off days, there were very fewbooks on Library Science. I finished studyingpractically all those in the library of theUniversity College by the end of November.When Sayers found this, he told me that Ishould thence forward go out and study theactual working of libraries of differentkinds. At that time, the Third Rural LibraryConference convened by the Carnigie UnitedKi.ngdorn Trust was held in London. It was

96

attended by representatives of librarians,library authorities, and the Trust. Sayerstook me as a guest to the conference.He introduced me to most of the librarianspresent and asked them to help me in everyway when I would go round the country on alibrary study tour from January onwards.This foresighted and unsolicited action ofSayer s was of immense help to me. Indeedit is no exaggeration to say that the facilitiesI enjoyed to study the working of nearly100 libraries at different stages of develop-ment had equipped me for my work in Indiathan even the formal classes.

73 Initiation into Library Work

Before starting me on the study tour oflibraries, Sayers allowed me to work in theCroydon Library System. The scheduleprepared by him enabled me to work ineach of the sections of Central Libraryand in two of the branches. The monthspent in Croydon filled my mind with thenecessary apperceptive mass to makefull use of my visit to several libraries.Whenever I changed from one departmentto another and from the Central Libraryto a branch, Sayers gave rrie a preciseorientation talk. These talks enabled meto eliminate every kind of wastage andlearn the rope as it were in the quickestand effective way possible.

74 Open Mind

In spite of his long experience and hisposition in the library profession, Sayerswas always ready to learn. During theperiod of my apprenticeship, I used toattend his library talks to adults and hisstory telling to children. Both his talksand story telling were lively and persuasive.It made me de scribe to him the IndianKalakashepam method of story telling whichinterspersed music and action with narra-tion. On the next story telling day, heproduced a Kalakashepam in little. When thestory mentioned putting a child to sleep,he gave a lullaby song. He introduced manyother action-songs in an apt way.

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75 Continuing Affe ction

Ever since 1925 Sayers had been inregular correspondence with me. The letterswere scintillating with affection. Theyradiated appreciation and encouragement.His account of my works in the successiveissues of the Year's work in librarianshipwas a stimulus to me. In every visit ofmine to London from 1948 onwards, hemade it a point to spend at least half aday with me. It happened that in 1948 Iwas a member of the faculty of the UNESCOSummer School for Public Librarians. Thelast week of the School was spent in London.Mr Lionel MaColvin spoke on "Faith of aLibrarian". I was in the chair. Sayerswas present. He expressed filial satisfactionin finding two of his students on the platform.

76 Grandpa

In June 1954, I visited England along with mywife. One day Sayers carne down fromCroydon and met us at lunch in Chaucer House.In accordance with Indian tradition my wifewished to serve food to hi:m before she couldeat. But Sayer s insisted on his serving herfirst saying "In England ladies are servedfirst". After lunch we three spent sometime together. He was telling her withgenuine joy about my student days with himin 1924 and my later development. Butweighed with age his eye lids slowlybecame heavy. My wife addressed himgrandpa and said, "You have been so kindto us. You have entertained me with sweetr errnrn s cen ce s , But it is cruel for us totax you over much. You should now rest for awhile". Sayers replied, "I can rest onevery day. But I can meet you child onlyto day".

77 Naming the Library Chair in Madras

In December 1956, I was in Great Britainvisiting the Library Schools and teaching inthem. As usual, Sayers met me at lunchone day in the Chaucer House. I confided inhim the action taken by :my fa:mily to establish

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in the University of Madras a Chair in LibraryScience. "How do you name it? ", askedSayers. "Sa r da Professor in Library Science",I said, "in the name of my wife". He replied,"It is, no doubt, proper for you to do so.On the day I spent a few hour s with you bothin 1954, I realised how helpful she has beento you, looking after all the family matter sherself, and releasing you totally to pursueLibrary Science. But that name of the Chairwill not have much meaning to the librarians.Your name should be associated with it".I said that I had made up mind that it shouldbe named after her. He then pleaded, "Whynot you follow the English tradition of a ladycarrying also her husband's name and callthe Chair Sarada Ranganathan Professor ofLibrary Science? I am' sure your wife toowill like it". When I narrated this conversa-tion with Sayers, my wife did like it. Thatis how the Library Chair in Madras carne tobe named.

78 Unending Interest in Classification

The last occasion of my meeting him was inMay 1957. I had gone to attend the DorkingConference which was largely devoted to facetedclassification and information retrieval. Ispent the first night with Mr A J Wells, editorof the BNB. From his house I telephoned toSayer s. He said "I am glad to hear your voiceagain. When did you corne? What had br oughtyou now?" I mentioned to him about theDorking Conference and asked him if he wouldcorne. He was first hesitant on the ground ofhis having had no invitation. I told him thathe could come on my invitation or even on noinvitation as nobody wants an invitation to goto a church or a temple. Sayer~ responded tothi s idea with extraordinary agility. Then Wellstold Sayers that he wa s driving me to Dorkingand that he would collect him in his house fromCroydon. But Sayer s said" Don't take thetrouble to drive all the way to my house" andadded that he would be waiting at a particular

• spot in the normal car route at the specifiedtime. He was precise and punctual in joiningus at Croydon, When he entered the car he wasbeaming with joy at the opportunity to go to anInternational Conference along with two of hisold students. He was glad to meet the overseas

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librarians who had corne to Dorking. For hehad seldom been abroad and met them in theirown home countries.

8 REMINISCENCES ABOUT DaNKER DUYVIS

81 First Contact

Eighth Oc tob e r 1947 marks a turningpoint in my work. I was then in theUniversity of Delhi at the invitation ofSir Maurice Gwyer. A letter arrived fromthe FID asking for a memorandum on"Classification and International Docu-mentation". At that time, I knew nothingmore of either of FID or of UDC than whatwas gathered from the introduction in theDecimal clas sification of Dewey and achapter in the Manual of classification of Sayers.Nor did I know till then anything about the writerof that letter - Danker Duyvis. Three typedcopies of my paper were sent to DankerDuyvis within a month thereafter. I wrotesaying that he might keep one copy for hisfile and circulate the other two copies amongthose interested in the subject in the UnitedKingdom and the United States of Americar e spe ctrve ly, There was a prompt reply say-ing that it was not a paper merely for the fileof FID or for pr ivate cir culation to a fewand asking for permission to have it publishedin the Review of documentation and alsoas a special publication of the FID. Thespirit of the letter endeared him to me.On 30 December 1947 he followed it upwith an invitation to attend the Conferenceof the FID to be held at the Hague in June 1948.I had to regret my inability to accept theinvitation due to financial reasons. ThisI wrote in January 1948. The perseveranceof Danker Duyvis was first brought to myattention in March that year. For he seemsto have moved the Unesco and the BritishCouncil in the matter. The invitation of theBritish Council was handed in by its represen-tative in Delhi who called on me on 29 April1948. Thus it was Danker Duyvis who broughtabout the third stage of my career in generaland the second stage of my work in the fieldof library science.

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82 Second Contact

It was 2 p IT'. 16 June 1948. I entered thePatent Office at 6 Wi,llem Witsenplein, theHague. A tall, well-built, handsome figurewith a broad face, enlivened with a broad.smile greeted me. It was Donker Duyvis.He immediately introduced me to La Maistre,the President of the FID, who was in hisroom. A copy of B'r a dfor d+s Documentationand of my paper were on the table of Donk erDuyvis. We immediately plunged into theneed for redesigning the foundation of classi-fication. Though neither India nor myselfhappened to bea member of the FID at thattime, these two gentlemen invited me toattend the meetings of the Committee for UDC.It was in one of these meetings that theOctave Notation - now being called theprinciple of Sector Notation - formulatedin India was approved in principle. DonkerDuyvis was the foremost in supporting it.He also arranged for my addressing theconference on "Comparative Cl.as s ifi ca.ti on "on 18 June 1948. The address and thediscussion lasted to a little rn or e .than twohours. This was a new experience to me.The brotherly affection of Donker Duyvis hadalways been a solace to me. When thedelegates of the Conference went on excur-sion, he would not let me go along with theoth er s in the bus. He insisted on my travel-ling with him in a car. I can never forgetthe meticulous way in which he attended tomy comforts. Nor can I for get the highintellectual level of our discussion on FIDin general and classification in particular.His abandonment to these two causes wasinde ed unique.

83 World Congress

At the World Congress of 1955 in Brussels,I found Donker Duyvis to be very ill. But hisrnind was quite alert. In the session onclassification he himself took the chair. Iwas asked to speak first. It was then thatI developed the concept of the "Number ofdigits for a Single sweep of the eye" andof the "Quantum of digits for retention inmemory". I suggested three digits asthe optirrmm and six as the rnaximurn. I

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inferred from these two concepts that a classnumber should be normally broken up by adistinctive symbol such as a punctuationmark after about every three digits. Ifurther said that the postulate of five funda-mental categories and the facet analysisbased on them usually led to a class numbermade of several facets each with about threedigits, that this implied perhaps some intrinsicquality in the present mode of human thinking,and that it happened that the CC respectedthese conjectures using sementically significantseparating symbols instead of a dummy dotas in UD.C. After my talk, Donker Duyvisfelt too weak to stay and asked me to takethe chair. He told me later that he feltthat there was much in my conjectures andthat a systematic investigation should be setup by the FID with the help of Unesco or somefoundation to verify them. It is these incipientideas that were later expounded by me andformulated as a series of research problems.A list of these problems was presented at

K84

the Warsaw Conference of the FID in 1959.Some pilot projects have been alreadystarted in India in pur suit of them. I amglad to learn that the FID is inclined totake them up in full measure.

84 Dorking Conference

In 1955, shortly after the World Congressin Brussels, Donker Duyvis asked me for as ch errre for an international study of the newconcepts in classification brought into vogueby Colon Classification and its associatedliterature. I suggested an InternationalSeminar of about a month's duration. Even-tually he passed the idea on to the Classi-fication Research Group and the ASLIB ofLondon. These organisations took up thesuggestion with enthusiasm. The resultwas the International Conference onClassification for Infor ma.ti on Retrieval heldin Dorking, England, from 13 to 17 May1957.

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