Cataloging & Classification

Authority control is the practice of maintaining consistent, standardized forms of names, subjects, and titles across a library catalog, ensuring that every work by or about the same person, organization, place, or topic is linked together under one authorized heading rather than scattered across multiple inconsistent variants. An author name might appear differently across different

A call number is the unique alphanumeric code assigned to a library item that indicates its subject classification and determines its specific physical location on the shelf, functioning as the practical address a patron or staff member uses to locate the item among a library entire collection. A call number typically combines two elements: a

A classification scheme is a structured system of categories used to organize library materials or information by subject, providing the underlying logical framework that determines how related items are grouped together and where they are physically located on the shelf. Every classification scheme must address the fundamental challenge that knowledge does not divide neatly into

Descriptive cataloging is the process of recording the identifying and physical details of a library item, such as its title, author, publisher, publication date, edition, and physical format, into a standardized bibliographic catalog record. This work forms the core factual description of an item that appears in a library catalog, distinct from subject cataloging, which

The Dewey Decimal Classification is a numeric system for organizing library materials by subject, dividing all knowledge into ten broad main classes represented by the numbers 000 through 999, with each class further subdivided through additional digits and decimal points to represent increasingly specific topics. Developed by Melvil Dewey and first published in 1876, the

Faceted classification is an approach to organizing information in which a subject is broken into independent categories, called facets, such as material, process, location, or purpose, that can be combined flexibly to describe a complex topic rather than forcing that topic into one fixed position within a single rigid hierarchy. The approach was developed in

The Library of Congress Classification is an alphanumeric system for organizing library materials by subject, developed by the Library of Congress in the United States in the early twentieth century and widely adopted by academic and research libraries. The system divides knowledge into broad classes represented by single or double letters, such as Q for

MARC, short for Machine-Readable Cataloging, is a standardized data format for encoding bibliographic records so that different library systems can exchange catalog data consistently, developed by the Library of Congress beginning in the 1960s as one of the earliest applications of computing to library cataloging. A MARC record represents each piece of bibliographic information, such

Resource Description and Access, commonly abbreviated RDA, is a cataloging standard that provides detailed guidelines for describing library and archival resources in a consistent, structured way across a wide range of formats and media, from printed books to electronic resources and recorded media. RDA replaced the earlier Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules, which had served as the

Subject headings are standardized terms assigned to library materials to describe their topical content, drawn from a controlled vocabulary rather than chosen freely by individual catalogers, so that items on the same subject are consistently described and can be reliably found together through catalog search. Without controlled subject headings, one cataloger might describe a book