" Taxilogie " and classification : statement and prospect

After a survey of the fields where research on classification (" taxilogie ") had been the more active since the years 70, the author studies applied classification in information science in the different countries. In that field, as well as in others, the USA have imposed their print (above all in Canada) with three instruments : the Dewey classification, the LCC and the LCSH (or subject indexing). International organizations also have created classifications and indexes (such as the FID who created the UDC). With the use of the thesaurus, the multiple online databanks seem nowadays to give more victory to alphabetic indexes than to systematical classifications. The implementation of the French TGB project (very big library) should give an opportunity to question the subject access means in all the French libraries.
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