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ASSIGNMENT 3

THE ORGANIZATION OF WORLD WIDE WEB

MATERIALS USING DEWEY DECIMAL CLASSIFICATION

Submitted by

Hanem A Ibrahim

[email protected]

ILS-506

Fall 2009

Date of submitting

11/24/09
mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]


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Introduction

The Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC) is the most popular classification

in the world. This system organizes books on library shelves in a specific and

repeatable order that makes it easy to find any book and return it to its

proper place. It classifies the worlds information into a hierarchal

classification system. This system divides knowledge from the broadest to

the most specific topics. But could it be the best tool to organize the World

Wide Web (WWW) contents and create a structure suitable for electronic

information resources on the web? Thats what I am trying to figure it out

through this assignment.

Procedures

In order to explain if DDC is suitable or not for organizing the web

contents, I have to practice number building for some of these web contents

using the instructions of DDC that are available through its Manual(1) which

offers basic information to how to use this system and give examples on

classifying the difficult new areas such as the new numbers in the area of the

computer science -- one of my subject choices -- there are also the

introduction to DDC (2) which explains how to use the Auxiliary Tables, and

Relative index that helps in choosing the nearest number for any subject. I

1 Scott, Mona .L (1998) Dewey Decimal Classification: A study manual and number buildingguide.- Englewood, Co: Libraries Unlimited.

2OCLC (n.d.) Introduction to Dewey Decimal Classification .- Retrieved on November 20,2009. available at: http://www.oclc.org/dewey/versions/ddc22print/intro.pdf
http://www.oclc.org/dewey/versions/ddc22print/intro.pdfhttp://www.oclc.org/dewey/versions/ddc22print/intro.pdf


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didnt have access to the latest edition of DDC (22nd Edition 2005) but I found

a copy of this edition published in 2003, which also contains 4 volumes.

The Subject areas

1- I selected these three subjects areas : The first : Computer science and

information & general works which is represented in DDC with these

number( 000- 009)

The second one is Library and information science.(020- 029)

The third subject area is Education (370-379)

2- I tried to select the URLs that represent each broad or narrowed subject

under each one of these three subject area.

3- The URLs. I selected are not that type of word document files on the

web, or PDF format, because they will be treated like regular paper

articles, or documents with Authors and titles, but the only difference is

the that they published on the web, and for this assignment. The main

question that I need to find an answer for through this assignment is

defining the ability of DDC to be used to classify the web contents. My

concern here is to define the subject of these URLs, then decide if these

subjects could be classified using DDC system.? And make the suitable

structure for these classification.

4- I didnt do any cutter numbers to each URL because I will organize

them in hierarchical order according to the DDC numbers, and if there

is more than one subject that share the same number, I would

organize the URLs alphabetically according to the name or the title of


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these URLs. But it could be good idea to build a cutter numbers for

these URLs if we will mix between those articles and document

published on the web and the web sites dealing with the same subject

area. But since each one of these URLs I chose for each subject are for

websites dealing with each area, then there will be no need to make

any call numbers for these URLS, and even if there are more than one

URL to represent the same subject, I arranged them according to the

URLs titles alphabetically.

5- I tried to harvest a number of URLs to create an organized information

system made up of a representative sample of useful resources for

each subject area I chose.

Type of User (population)

I tried NOT to select broad subject areas that could be easily used by

elementary school libraries users, therefore I selected more specialized

subject areas that could accessed by Adults, those adults could be high

school students or college degree population, but they are not too

specialized.

The number of URLs selected per each subject area varied depending on the

complexity of the subjects. Some of these URLs are divided under the broad

subject or narrowed ones.


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The classification structure of the selected URLs in the subject

areas:

000 Computer science, information & general works004 Data processing Computer science

004.03 Data processing Computer science bibliographies http://www.faqs.org/copyright/introduction-to-computer-science-and-data-processing-by/

004.09 Computer science History http://www.cs.uwaterloo.ca/~shallit/Courses/134/history.html005 Computer programming, programs, data http://www.buzzle.com/articles/computer-programming-basics.html005.11 Special programming techniques

http://blogs.msdn.com/debuggingtoolbox/archive/2009/01/31/special-command- advanced-programming-techniques-for-windbg-

scripts.aspx005.13 Programming languages http://www.scriptol.com/programming/list-programming-languages.php005.133 specific programming language

Javahttp://www.engin.umd.umich.edu/CIS/course.des/cis400/

java/java.html005.3 programs software , firmware, middleware http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-computer-software.htm005.368.2 program for specific operating systems

( alphabetically by name of O.S.)MS-DOS

http://www.operating-system.org/betriebssystem/_english/bs-msdos.htm

Windows vistahttp://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-

vista/default.aspx005.8 Data security

http://www.itproportal.com/security/news/article/2008/4/18/10-most-common- data-security-issues-and-how-solve-them/

http://www.websense.com/content/DataSecurity.aspx 005.84 Computer viruses

http://www.microsoft.com/security/antivirus/whatis.aspx

020 Library & information sciences

http://www.loc.gov/aba/
http://www.faqs.org/copyright/introduction-to-computer-science-and-data-processing-by/http://www.faqs.org/copyright/introduction-to-computer-science-and-data-processing-by/http://www.cs.uwaterloo.ca/~shallit/Courses/134/history.htmlhttp://www.buzzle.com/articles/computer-programming-basics.htmlhttp://www.buzzle.com/articles/computer-programming-basics.htmlhttp://blogs.msdn.com/debuggingtoolbox/archive/2009/01/31/special-command-%20advanced-programming-techniques-for-windbg-scripts.aspxhttp://blogs.msdn.com/debuggingtoolbox/archive/2009/01/31/special-command-%20advanced-programming-techniques-for-windbg-scripts.aspxhttp://blogs.msdn.com/debuggingtoolbox/archive/2009/01/31/special-command-%20advanced-programming-techniques-for-windbg-scripts.aspxhttp://www.scriptol.com/programming/list-programming-languages.phphttp://www.scriptol.com/programming/list-programming-languages.phphttp://www.engin.umd.umich.edu/CIS/course.des/cis400/java/java.htmlhttp://www.engin.umd.umich.edu/CIS/course.des/cis400/java/java.htmlhttp://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-computer-software.htmhttp://www.operating-system.org/betriebssystem/_english/bs-msdos.htmhttp://www.operating-system.org/betriebssystem/_english/bs-msdos.htmhttp://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-vista/default.aspxhttp://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-vista/default.aspxhttp://www.itproportal.com/security/news/article/2008/4/18/10-most-common-%20%20data-security-issues-and-how-solve-them/http://www.itproportal.com/security/news/article/2008/4/18/10-most-common-%20%20data-security-issues-and-how-solve-them/http://www.itproportal.com/security/news/article/2008/4/18/10-most-common-%20%20data-security-issues-and-how-solve-them/http://www.websense.com/content/DataSecurity.aspxhttp://www.microsoft.com/security/antivirus/whatis.aspxhttp://www.loc.gov/aba/http://www.faqs.org/copyright/introduction-to-computer-science-and-data-processing-by/http://www.faqs.org/copyright/introduction-to-computer-science-and-data-processing-by/http://www.cs.uwaterloo.ca/~shallit/Courses/134/history.htmlhttp://www.buzzle.com/articles/computer-programming-basics.htmlhttp://www.buzzle.com/articles/computer-programming-basics.htmlhttp://blogs.msdn.com/debuggingtoolbox/archive/2009/01/31/special-command-%20advanced-programming-techniques-for-windbg-scripts.aspxhttp://blogs.msdn.com/debuggingtoolbox/archive/2009/01/31/special-command-%20advanced-programming-techniques-for-windbg-scripts.aspxhttp://blogs.msdn.com/debuggingtoolbox/archive/2009/01/31/special-command-%20advanced-programming-techniques-for-windbg-scripts.aspxhttp://www.scriptol.com/programming/list-programming-languages.phphttp://www.scriptol.com/programming/list-programming-languages.phphttp://www.engin.umd.umich.edu/CIS/course.des/cis400/java/java.htmlhttp://www.engin.umd.umich.edu/CIS/course.des/cis400/java/java.htmlhttp://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-computer-software.htmhttp://www.operating-system.org/betriebssystem/_english/bs-msdos.htmhttp://www.operating-system.org/betriebssystem/_english/bs-msdos.htmhttp://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-vista/default.aspxhttp://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-vista/default.aspxhttp://www.itproportal.com/security/news/article/2008/4/18/10-most-common-%20%20data-security-issues-and-how-solve-them/http://www.itproportal.com/security/news/article/2008/4/18/10-most-common-%20%20data-security-issues-and-how-solve-them/http://www.websense.com/content/DataSecurity.aspxhttp://www.microsoft.com/security/antivirus/whatis.aspxhttp://www.loc.gov/aba/


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020.3 Library & information science Dictionaries

http://lu.com/odlis/odlis_c.cfm#collecdevel

025 Library operations

025.32 Descriptive cataloging

http://www.db.dk/bh/lifeboat_ko/CONCEPTS/descriptive_catal

oging.htm

025.4 Subject analysis and control

025.42 Classification

025.431 Dewey Decimal Classification

http://www.oclc.org/dewey/

0 27 General libraries

http://plgdb.freac.fsu.edu/imf.jsp?site=geolib

0 27. 4 Public libraries

027. 474 Public libraries - U.S.

http://www.publiclibraries.com/

027. 4746 Connecticut public libraries

http://www.cslib.org/

027. 47468 New Haven public library

http://www.cityofnewhaven.com/library/

370 Educations
http://www.db.dk/bh/lifeboat_ko/CONCEPTS/descriptive_cataloging.htmhttp://www.db.dk/bh/lifeboat_ko/CONCEPTS/descriptive_cataloging.htmhttp://www.oclc.org/dewey/http://plgdb.freac.fsu.edu/imf.jsp?site=geolibhttp://www.publiclibraries.com/http://tmp/svcn9.tmp/sv4kb.tmp/%20http://www.cslib.org/http://www.cityofnewhaven.com/library/http://www.db.dk/bh/lifeboat_ko/CONCEPTS/descriptive_cataloging.htmhttp://www.db.dk/bh/lifeboat_ko/CONCEPTS/descriptive_cataloging.htmhttp://www.oclc.org/dewey/http://plgdb.freac.fsu.edu/imf.jsp?site=geolibhttp://www.publiclibraries.com/http://tmp/svcn9.tmp/sv4kb.tmp/%20http://www.cslib.org/http://www.cityofnewhaven.com/library/


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http://www.ed.gov/index.jhtml

371.042 Home schools and home schooling

http://www.homeschools.org/

http://www.homeschoolacademy.com/

374 Adult Education

http://www.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ovae/pi/AdultEd/index.html

374.1 Self Education

http://selfmadescholar.com/b/category/selfeducationbasics/

375 Curriculums

375.34 Curriculums and course of study in law

http://www.valpo.edu/law/academics/curriculum.php

378 Higher educations

378.0 25 Higher educations - directories

http://dir.yahoo.com/Education/Higher_Education/Colleges_and_universities/U

nited_States/

378.203 Academic degrees-dictionaries

http://www.abbreviations.com/acronyms/DEGREES

378.3 Higher educations- student finance

http://studentaid.ed.gov/PORTALSWebApp/students/english/funding.j

sp
http://www.ed.gov/index.jhtmlhttp://www.homeschools.org/http://www.homeschoolacademy.com/http://www.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ovae/pi/AdultEd/index.htmlhttp://selfmadescholar.com/b/category/selfeducationbasics/http://www.valpo.edu/law/academics/curriculum.phphttp://dir.yahoo.com/Education/Higher_Education/Colleges_and_universities/United_States/http://dir.yahoo.com/Education/Higher_Education/Colleges_and_universities/United_States/http://www.abbreviations.com/acronyms/DEGREEShttp://studentaid.ed.gov/PORTALSWebApp/students/english/funding.jsphttp://studentaid.ed.gov/PORTALSWebApp/students/english/funding.jsphttp://www.ed.gov/index.jhtmlhttp://www.homeschools.org/http://www.homeschoolacademy.com/http://www.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ovae/pi/AdultEd/index.htmlhttp://selfmadescholar.com/b/category/selfeducationbasics/http://www.valpo.edu/law/academics/curriculum.phphttp://dir.yahoo.com/Education/Higher_Education/Colleges_and_universities/United_States/http://dir.yahoo.com/Education/Higher_Education/Colleges_and_universities/United_States/http://www.abbreviations.com/acronyms/DEGREEShttp://studentaid.ed.gov/PORTALSWebApp/students/english/funding.jsphttp://studentaid.ed.gov/PORTALSWebApp/students/english/funding.jsp


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The strengths and weaknesses of DDC

1- I have no doubt that DDC is a great tool to organize books, and also

other printed material as well as other electronic materials ( CDs.

DVDs) its way far easier than L.C classification system, but there is a

problem in using any classification system as a tool to organize

electronic resources selected from the World Wide Web especially when

dealing with such specific topics that could help users to find whatever

they want from the web based on DDC classification numbers, or any

other system.

2- I think that DDC will be a best tool to organize the important website in

major subject heading like the websites that dealing with the basic DDC

ten divisions of human knowledge ( 000- 900) like Religion websites,

Arts, or history, but still there will be a problem in selecting the best

out from all these URLs in the web, they are millions of them.

3- I found it very hard to select between the different types of websites

contents which could be suitable to represent the selected subjects in a

hierarchical order, most of the available websites are commercial and

are not really having important information that could meet with users

needs.

4- It is also very hard to find websites that represent the specialized topics

and at the same time are not in a format of word documents or PDF

format, or blogs. There are many articles that published through the net


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and they have their URLs, but I aimed to find the website that designed

to deal with these subjects, not the articles that have been published

electronically through the web. Meanwhile it could be a good idea if we

collected all these different type of website that includes articles in

PDFs format or word document, or blogs and arranged them

hierarchical order using DDC System, it could solve the problem of

finding relevant website fast and effectively in many different topics in

too many different formats.

5- It took me a while to decide the best structure to represent the selected

URLs in these subject areas (Computer science, library science, and

social sciences) I organized them hierarchal order according to the DDC

numbers, I tried to put the subject heading for each topic as it used in

DDC schedules, or like the given examples in the tables, because not

every subject I chose are represented in the system, for example the

number 027. 47468 is representing New haven public library, I just used

the name of the subject entry , the way it is, not like the way I built the

number with (Public libraries- U.S.- Connecticut New Haven) where

027 is the DDC number for General libraries, and 027.4 is for public

libraries, -74 stands for U.S. from the geographic table (Table 2) ,

Connecticut ( -746) and finally New Haven city takes the ( -7468)

6- I didnt copy the instructions or the Notes found under each number

from the DDC schedules, like (class here library units for special

group..) or (Add areas ) I only used the note like this note (Arranged


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alphabetically) after the topics that could have many URLs which

represented by the same class number like ( Program for specific

operating systems ( alphabetically by name of O.S.) this topic

represented by( 005.368.2) in DDC, there are note that to arrange the

different name of Operating systems alphabetically so if we have MS-

Dos will come before Windows vista for example, they both have the

same number ( according to DDC 22nd edition 2003) it may changes in

the future edition to give special number for each because of the

growing literature in computer science.

7- Using DDC in creating a complex structure for different type of

information material printed or electronics, online or not is possible, but

why we use it in arranging the web resources while there are many

different searching engines that are doing the same classification for us

but not without using DDC or other classification system? Those

searching engines are using their own system to organize the website.

Also giving names for each URL are pretty much having he same idea of

DDC , for example I noticed that there are websites that include

different subjects, each one of them will be accessed through deferent

page of the main URLs name,. The URLs names or the addresses of

the different subjects are arranged on hierarchal order . for example an

URL specialized in medicine has many subject area included under the

broad subject of the main URL address, like diseases and conditions,

the order of these different URLs will be represented like follow:


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http://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/hp.asps

http://www.medicinenet.com/diseases_and_conditions/article.htm

8- The name of the web page in each subject will be extended by adding

the name of that division or subject and the type of file or document

(Format treatment) and thats pretty much the same idea of DDC but

with Arabic numeral.

9- There are some opinions (3) think that The DDC is unpractical for

organizing web pages because of the chaotic nature of the Web. They

think that It would take years to classify every web page on the

internet using the DDC. And even when this feat is complete, new

pages are springing up all the time, and old pages disappear. I agree

with them in some ways, it really impossible to classify the world wide

web contents, but at the same time DDC is the best way to do it if it will

be in the broad topic condition. It will be helpful to collect all the

important web sites according to some criteria ( like we do in book

selection) and give them the DDC numbers that suit them and make

varied lists of these selections available to different types of libraries

according to the different type of users.

3 (2008) Dewey Decimal Classification System (DDC) .- Retrieved on November 20,2009 from:

http://www.apstudynotes.org/english/bonus/dewey-decimal-classification-

system-ddc/
http://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/hp.aspshttp://www.medicinenet.com/diseases_and_conditions/article.htmhttp://www.apstudynotes.org/english/bonus/dewey-decimal-classification-system-ddc/http://www.apstudynotes.org/english/bonus/dewey-decimal-classification-system-ddc/http://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/hp.aspshttp://www.medicinenet.com/diseases_and_conditions/article.htmhttp://www.apstudynotes.org/english/bonus/dewey-decimal-classification-system-ddc/http://www.apstudynotes.org/english/bonus/dewey-decimal-classification-system-ddc/


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