Bibliographic Classification: From Mimetic Representation to Isomorphic Documentality (History and Foundations of Information Science) - Softcover

Hansson, Joacim

Softcover

ISBN 10: 026255349X ISBN 13: 9780262553490

Publisher: MIT Press, 2025

Synopsis

Bibliographical classification systems are developed as tools for the retrieval of documents and information in libraries or bibliographical catalogs. Traditionally, they have also served as organizing principles for library shelving. As with most kinds of classification, bibliographic classification systems are products of their time, encoding the beliefs and values of the cultures in which they are created. In Bibliographic Classification, Joacim Hansson addresses the connection between classification and society in a new way by analyzing bibliographic classification systems not just as information retrieval tools, but as autonomous documents, using a theoretical foundation from Document Studies, Information Science, and Organizational Theory.

The book advances its argument in three case studies: the Universal Decimal Classification, read as part of progressive social movements in early twentieth-century Belgium; the Swedish SAB-system, developed in the late 1910s, read as a formulation of cultural integrity and nationalist reformulation; and Jewish bibliographic classification practice with specific focus on how to address historical Jewish identity and the Holocaust in Judaica collections.

About this title

About the Author

Joacim Hansson is Professor of Library and Information Science at Linnaeus University, Växjö, Sweden. He has published nine books, both in Sweden and internationally, including Libraries and Identity and Educating Librarians in the Contemporary University.

Edition details

• Publisher: MIT Press
• Publication date: 2025
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 026255349X
• ISBN 13: 9780262553490
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 224