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Universal Decimal Classification

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The Universal Decimal Classification ( UDC ) is a bibliographic and library classification representing the systematic arrangement of all branches of human knowledge organized as a coherent system in which knowledge fields are related and inter-linked. The UDC is an analytico-synthetic and faceted classification system featuring detailed vocabulary and syntax that enables powerful content indexing and information retrieval in large collections. Since 1991, the UDC has been owned and managed by the UDC Consortium, a non-profit international association of publishers with headquarters in The Hague , Netherlands.

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60-505: Unlike other library classification schemes that started their life as national systems, the UDC was conceived and maintained as an international scheme. Its translation into other languages started at the beginning of the 20th century and has since been published in various printed editions in over 40 languages. UDC Summary, an abridged Web version of the scheme, is available in over 50 languages. The classification has been modified and extended over

120-422: A graphic designer . Typography concerns the design of letter and symbol forms and their physical arrangement in the document (see typesetting ). Information design concerns the effective communication of information , especially in industrial documents and public signs . Simple textual documents may not require visual design and may be drafted only by an author , clerk , or transcriber . Forms may require

180-734: A 1487 inscription on the belfry door at Piddletrenthide church, Dorset ; and in Scotland a 1470 inscription on the tomb of the first Earl of Huntly in Elgin Cathedral. In central Europe, the King of Hungary Ladislaus the Posthumous , started the use of Arabic numerals, which appear for the first time in a royal document of 1456. By the mid-16th century, they had been widely adopted in Europe, and by 1800 had almost completely replaced

240-478: A child, and having an eye to usefulness and future convenience, desired me to stay there and receive instruction in the school of accounting. There, when I had been introduced to the art of the Indians' nine symbols through remarkable teaching, knowledge of the art very soon pleased me above all else and I came to understand it. The Liber Abaci ' s analysis highlighting the advantages of positional notation

300-402: A document is copied , the source is denominated the " original ". Documents are used in numerous fields, e.g.: Such standard documents can be drafted based on a template . The page layout of a document is how information is graphically arranged in the space of the document, e.g., on a page. If the appearance of the document is of concern, the page layout is generally the responsibility of

360-400: A great level of specificity allowing equal level of detail for every religion. This section is currently vacant. Class 6 occupies the largest proportion of UDC schedules. It contains over 44,000 subdivisions. Each specific field of technology or industry usually contains more than one special auxiliary table with concepts needed to express operations, processes, materials and products. As

420-514: A mail message or a technical report , exists physically in digital technology as a string of bits, as does everything else in a digital environment. As an object of study, it has been made into a document. It has become physical evidence by those who study it. "Document" is defined in library and information science and documentation science as a fundamental, abstract idea: the word denotes everything that may be represented or memorialized to serve as evidence . The classic example provided by Briet

480-415: A result, UDC codes are often created through the combination of various attributes. Equally, some parts of this class enumerate concepts to a great level of detail e.g. 621.882.212 Hexagon screws with additional shapes. Including: Flank screws. Collar screws. Cap screws Tables for class 8 are fully faceted and details are expressed through combination with common auxiliaries of language (Table 1c) and

540-502: A series of special auxiliary tables to indicate other facets or attributes in Linguistics or Literature. As a result, this class allows for great specificity in indexing although the schedules themselves occupy very little space in UDC. The subdivisions of e.g. 811 Languages or 821 Literature are derived from common auxiliaries of language =1/=9 (Table 1c) by substituting a point for the equals sign, e.g. 811.111 English language (as

600-593: A sharp tool, e.g., the Tablets of Stone described in the Bible ; stamped or incised in clay and then baked to make clay tablets , e.g., in the Sumerian and other Mesopotamian civilizations. The papyrus or parchment was often rolled into a scroll or cut into sheets and bound into a codex (book). Contemporary electronic means of memorializing and displaying documents include: Digital documents usually require

660-414: A specific file format to be presentable in a specific medium. Documents in all forms frequently serve as material evidence in criminal and civil proceedings. The forensic analysis of such a document is within the scope of questioned document examination . To catalog and manage the large number of documents that may be produced during litigation , Bates numbering is often applied to all documents in

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720-454: A standard version of UDC has been maintained and distributed in a database format: UDC Master Reference File (UDC MRF) which is updated and released regularly. The 2011 version of the MRF (released in 2012) contains over 70,000 classes. In the past full printed editions used to have around 220,000 subdivisions. A notation is a code commonly used in classification schemes to represent a class, i.e.

780-476: A stylus and erasing them. The use of the dust board appears to have introduced a divergence in terminology as well: whereas the Hindu reckoning was called ḥisāb al-hindī in the east, it was called ḥisāb al-ghubār 'calculation with dust' in the west. The numerals themselves were referred to in the west as ashkāl al‐ghubār 'dust figures' or qalam al-ghubår 'dust letters'. Al-Uqlidisi later invented

840-415: A subject and its position in the hierarchy, to enable mechanical sorting and filing of subjects. UDC uses Arabic numerals arranged decimally. Every number is thought of as a decimal fraction with the initial decimal point omitted, which determines the filing order. An advantage of decimal notational systems is that they are infinitely extensible, and when new subdivisions are introduced, they need not disturb

900-581: A subject of a linguistic study) and 821.111 English literature derives from =111 English language . Common auxiliaries of place and time are also frequently used in this class to express place and time facets of Linguistics or Literature, e.g. 821.111(71)"18" English literature of Canada in 19th century Tables for Geography and History in UDC are fully faceted and place, time and ethnic grouping facets are expressed through combination with common auxiliaries of place (Table 1d), ethnic grouping (Table 1f) and time (Table 1g) They are derived mainly from

960-424: A system of calculations with ink and paper 'without board and erasing' ( bi-ghayr takht wa-lā maḥw bal bi-dawāt wa-qirṭās ). A popular myth claims that the symbols were designed to indicate their numeric value through the number of angles they contained, but there is no contemporary evidence of this, and the myth is difficult to reconcile with any digits past 4. The first mentions of the numerals from 1 to 9 in

1020-425: A textbook (document form) . Or: 37:2 Relationship between Education and Religion. Complex UDC expressions can be accurately parsed into constituent elements. UDC is also a disciplinary classification covering the entire universe of knowledge. This type of classification can also be described as aspect or perspective , which means that concepts are subsumed and placed under the field in which they are studied. Thus,

1080-534: A visual design for their initial fields, but not to complete the forms. Traditionally, the medium of a document was paper and the information was applied to it in ink , either by handwriting (to make a manuscript ) or by a mechanical process (e.g., a printing press or laser printer ). Today, some short documents also may consist of sheets of paper stapled together. Historically, documents were inscribed with ink on papyrus (starting in ancient Egypt ) or parchment ; scratched as runes or carved on stone using

1140-460: A zero symbol was developed in India , using symbols visually distinct from those that would eventually enter into international use. As the concept spread, the sets of symbols used in different regions diverged over time. The immediate ancestors of the digits now commonly called "Arabic numerals" were introduced to Europe in the 10th century by Arabic speakers of Spain and North Africa, with digits at

1200-574: Is ṣifr ( صفر ), transliterated into Latin as cifra , which became the English word cipher . From the 980s, Gerbert of Aurillac (later Pope Sylvester II ) used his position to spread knowledge of the numerals in Europe. Gerbert studied in Barcelona in his youth. He was known to have requested mathematical treatises concerning the astrolabe from Lupitus of Barcelona after he had returned to France. The reception of Arabic numerals in

1260-400: Is an antelope : "An antelope running wild on the plains of Africa should not be considered a document[;] she rules. But if it were to be captured, taken to a zoo and made an object of study, it has been made into a document. It has become physical evidence being used by those who study it. Indeed, scholarly articles written about the antelope are secondary documents, since the antelope itself is

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1320-467: Is used in around 150,000 libraries in 130 countries and in many bibliographical services which require detailed content indexing. In a number of countries it is the main classification system for information exchange and is used in all types of libraries: public, school, academic and special libraries. UDC is also used in national bibliographies of around 30 countries. Examples of large databases indexed by UDC include: UDC has traditionally been used for

1380-745: The counting rod system and Suzhou numerals had been in use prior to the introduction of modern Arabic numerals, the externally-developed system was eventually introduced to medieval China by the Hui people . In the early 17th century, European-style Arabic numerals were introduced by Spanish and Portuguese Jesuits . The ten Arabic numerals are encoded in virtually every character set designed for electric, radio, and digital communication, such as Morse code . They are encoded in ASCII (and therefore in Unicode encodings ) at positions 0x30 to 0x39. Masking all but

1440-520: The Great in 1699. Reasons for Peter's switch from the alphanumerical system are believed to go beyond a surface-level desire to imitate the West. Historian Peter Brown makes arguments for sociological, militaristic, and pedagogical reasons for the change. At a broad, societal level, Russian merchants, soldiers, and officials increasingly came into contact with counterparts from the West and became familiar with

1500-589: The Latin Documentum , which denotes a "teaching" or "lesson": the verb doceō denotes "to teach". In the past, the word was usually used to denote written proof useful as evidence of a truth or fact. In the Computer Age , "document" usually denotes a primarily textual computer file , including its structure and format, e.g. fonts, colors, and images . Contemporarily, "document" is not defined by its transmission medium , e.g., paper, given

1560-996: The UDC Consortium under the Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike 3.0 license (first release 2009, subsequent update 2012). The UDC tables for religion are fully faceted. Indicated in italics below, are special auxiliary numbers that can be used to express attributes (facets) of any specific faith. Any special number can be combined with any religion e.g. -5 Worship can be used to express e.g. 26-5 Worship in Judaism , 27-5 Worship in Christianity , 24-5 Worship in Buddhism . The complete special auxiliary tables contain around 2000 subdivisions of various attributes that can be attached to express various aspects of individual faiths to

1620-417: The UDC already included many features that were revolutionary in the context of knowledge classifications: tables of generally applicable (aspect-free) concepts—called common auxiliary tables; a series of special auxiliary tables with specific but re-usable attributes in a particular field of knowledge; an expressive notational system with connecting symbols and syntax rules to enable coordination of subjects and

1680-458: The West are found in the 976 Codex Vigilanus , an illuminated collection of various historical documents covering a period from antiquity to the 10th century in Hispania . Other texts show that numbers from 1 to 9 were occasionally supplemented by a placeholder known as sipos , represented as a circle or wheel, reminiscent of the eventual symbol for zero . The Arabic term for zero

1740-481: The West was gradual and lukewarm, as other numeral systems circulated in addition to the older Roman numbers. As a discipline, the first to adopt Arabic numerals as part of their own writings were astronomers and astrologists, evidenced from manuscripts surviving from mid-12th-century Bavaria. Reinher of Paderborn (1140–1190) used the numerals in his calendrical tables to calculate the dates of Easter more easily in his text Computus emendatus . Leonardo Fibonacci

1800-526: The Western Arabic numeral forms endured from the 10th century, found in a Latin manuscript of Isidore of Seville 's Etymologiae from 976 and the Gerbertian abacus, into the 12th and 13th centuries, in early manuscripts of translations from the city of Toledo . Calculations were originally performed using a dust board ( takht , Latin: tabula ), which involved writing symbols with

1860-412: The common auxiliaries of language =... (Table 1c) and so may also usefully distinguish linguistic-cultural groups, e.g. =111 English is used to represent (=111) English speaking peoples Document A document is a written , drawn , presented, or memorialized representation of thought, often the manifestation of non-fictional , as well as fictional , content. The word originates from

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1920-442: The communal use of Arabic numerals. Peter also covertly travelled throughout Northern Europe from 1697 to 1698 during his Grand Embassy and was likely informally exposed to Western mathematics during this time. The Cyrillic system was found to be inferior for calculating practical kinematic values, such as the trajectories and parabolic flight patterns of artillery. With its use, it was difficult to keep pace with Arabic numerals in

1980-626: The concept of United Kingdom can be used to express 911(410) Regional geography of United Kingdom and 94(410) History of United Kingdom . Concepts are organized in two kinds of tables in UDC: The vacant class 4 is the result of a planned schedule expansion. This class was freed by moving linguistics into class 8 in the 1960s to make space for future developments in the rapidly expanding fields of knowledge; primarily natural sciences and technology. Common auxiliaries are aspect-free concepts that can be used in combination with any other UDC code from

2040-646: The creation of a documentation language proper. The Universal Bibliographic Repertory itself has developed into a remarkable information resource. In the period before World War I it grew to more than eleven million records. The catalogue and its content organized by UDC can still be seen in Mundaneum in Mons, Belgium (in 2013 recommended for inclusion in the UNESCO Memory of the World Register ). UDC

2100-477: The existence of electronic documents . "Documentation" is distinct because it has more denotations than "document". Documents are also distinguished from " realia ", which are three-dimensional objects that would otherwise satisfy the definition of "document" because they memorialize or represent thought; documents are considered more as two-dimensional representations. While documents can have large varieties of customization, all documents can be shared freely and have

2160-593: The existing allocation of numbers. For ease of reading, a UDC notation is usually punctuated after every third digit: In UDC the notation has two features that make the scheme easier to browse and work with: UDC is an analytico-synthetic and faceted classification . It allows an unlimited combination of attributes of a subject and relationships between subjects to be expressed. UDC codes from different tables can be combined to present various aspects of document content and form, e.g. 94(410)"19"(075) History (main subject) of United Kingdom (place) in 20th century (time) ,

2220-645: The growing field of ballistics , whereas Western mathematicians such as John Napier had been publishing on the topic since 1614. The Chinese Shang dynasty numerals from the 14th century B.C. predates the Indian Brahmi numerals by over 1000 years and shows substantial similarity to the Brahmi numerals. Similar to the modern Arabic numerals, the Shang dynasty numeral system was also decimal based and positional . While positional Chinese numeral systems such as

2280-482: The indexing of scientific articles which was an important source of information of scientific output in the period predating electronic publishing. Collections of research articles in many countries covering decades of scientific output contain UDC codes. Examples of journal articles indexed by UDC: The design of UDC lends itself to machine readability, and the system has been used both with early automatic mechanical sorting devices, and modern library OPACs . Since 1993,

2340-424: The lawsuit so that each document has a unique, arbitrary, identification number. Arabic numerals The ten Arabic numerals 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9 are the most commonly used symbols for writing numbers. The term often also implies a positional notation using the numerals, as well as the use of a decimal base, in particular when contrasted with other systems such as Roman numerals . However,

2400-595: The main UDC tables they can be used as follows: 2(075)=111 Religion textbooks in English, 51(075)=111 Mathematics textbooks in English etc. In order to preserve the precise meaning and enable accurate parsing of complex UDC expressions, a number of connecting symbols are made available to relate and extend UDC numbers. These are: UDC classes in this outline are taken from the Multilingual Universal Decimal Classification Summary (UDCC Publication No. 088) released by

2460-568: The main classes or with other common auxiliaries. They have unique notational representations that make them stand out in complex expressions. Common auxiliary numbers always begin with a certain symbol known as a facet indicator, e.g. = (equal sign) always introduces concepts representing the language of a document; (0...) numbers enclosed in parentheses starting with zero always represent a concept designating document form. Thus (075) Textbook and =111 English can be combined to express, e.g.(075)=111 Textbooks in English, and when combined with numbers from

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2520-559: The numerals was accelerated by the invention of the printing press , and they became widely known during the 15th century. Their use grew steadily in other centers of finance and trade such as Lyon. Early evidence of their use in Britain includes: an equal hour horary quadrant from 1396, in England, a 1445 inscription on the tower of Heathfield Church, Sussex ; a 1448 inscription on a wooden lych-gate of Bray Church, Berkshire ; and

2580-406: The other documentalists increasingly emphasized whatever functioned as a document rather than traditional physical forms of documents. The shift to digital technology would seem to make this distinction even more important. David M. Levy has said that an emphasis on the technology of digital documents has impeded our understanding of digital documents as documents. A conventional document, such as

2640-429: The primary document." This opinion has been interpreted as an early expression of actor–network theory . A document can be structured, like tabular documents, lists , forms , or scientific charts, semi-structured like a book or a newspaper article , or unstructured like a handwritten note. Documents are sometimes classified as secret , private , or public. They may also be described as drafts or proofs . When

2700-505: The right to do so, creativity can be represented by documents, also. History, events, examples, opinions, stories etc. all can be expressed in documents. The concept of "document" has been defined by Suzanne Briet as "any concrete or symbolic indication, preserved or recorded, for reconstructing or for proving a phenomenon, whether physical or mental." An often-cited article concludes that "the evolving notion of document " among Jonathan Priest, Paul Otlet , Briet, Walter Schürmeyer , and

2760-454: The same concept can appear in different fields of knowledge. This particular feature is usually implemented in UDC by re-using the same concept in various combinations with the main subject, e.g. a code for language in common auxiliaries of language is used to derive numbers for ethnic grouping, individual languages in linguistics and individual literatures. Or, a code from the auxiliaries of place, e.g. (410) United Kingdom , uniquely representing

2820-455: The subjects envisaged are already listed and coded) into one which allows for synthesis (that is, the construction of compound numbers to denote interrelated subjects that could never be exhaustively foreseen); various possible relations between subjects were identified, and symbols assigned to represent them. In its first edition in French " Manuel du Répertoire bibliographique universel " (1905),

2880-496: The symbols are also used to write numbers in other bases such as octal , as well as for writing non-numerical information such as trademarks or license plate identifiers. They are also called Western Arabic numerals , Western digits , European digits , Ghubār numerals or Hindu–Arabic numerals . The Oxford English Dictionary uses lowercase Arabic numerals for it, while using the fully capitalized term Arabic Numerals for Eastern Arabic numerals . In contemporary society,

2940-457: The system could handle larger numbers, did not require a separate reckoning tool, and allowed the user to check their work without repeating the entire procedure. Late medieval Italian merchants did not stop using Roman numerals or other reckoning tools: instead, Arabic numerals were adopted for use in addition to their preexisting methods. By the late 14th century, only a few texts using Arabic numerals appeared outside of Italy. This suggests that

3000-516: The terms digits , numbers and numerals often implies only these symbols, although that can only be inferred from context. Europeans first learned of Arabic numerals c.  the 10th century , though their spread was a gradual process. After Italian scholar Fibonacci of Pisa encountered the numerals in the Algerian city of Béjaïa , his 13th-century work Liber Abaci became crucial in making them known in Europe. However, their use

3060-628: The time in wide use from Libya to Morocco. In the east from Egypt to Iraq and the Arabian Peninsula, the Arabs were using the Eastern Arabic numerals or "Mashriki" numerals: ٠, ١, ٢, ٣, ٤, ٥, ٦, ٧, ٨, ٩ . Al-Nasawi wrote in the early 11th century that mathematicians had not agreed on the form of the numerals, but most of them had agreed to train themselves with the forms now known as Eastern Arabic numerals. The oldest specimens of

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3120-570: The use of Arabic numerals in commercial practice, and the significant advantage they conferred, remained a virtual Italian monopoly until the late 15th century. This may in part have been due to language barriers: although Fibonacci's Liber Abaci was written in Latin, the Italian abacus traditions were predominantly written in Italian vernaculars that circulated in the private collections of abacus schools or individuals. The European acceptance of

3180-532: The use of counting boards and Roman numerals in accounting. Roman numerals were mostly relegated to niche uses such as years and numbers on clock faces. Prior to the introduction of Arabic numerals, Cyrillic numerals , derived from the Cyrillic alphabet , were used by South and East Slavs . The system was used in Russia as late as the early 18th century, although it was formally replaced in official use by Peter

3240-543: The written numerals available are from Egypt and date to 873–874 AD. They show three forms of the numeral "2" and two forms of the numeral "3", and these variations indicate the divergence between what later became known as the Eastern Arabic numerals and the Western Arabic numerals. The Western Arabic numerals came to be used in the Maghreb and Al-Andalus from the 10th century onward. Some amount of consistency in

3300-689: The years to cope with increasing output in all areas of human knowledge, and is still under continuous review to take account of new developments. Albeit originally designed as an indexing and retrieval system, due to its logical structure and scalability, UDC has become one of the most widely used knowledge organization systems in libraries, where it is used for either shelf arrangement, content indexing or both. UDC codes can describe any type of document or object to any desired level of detail. These can include textual documents and other media such as films , video and sound recordings, illustrations , maps as well as realia such as museum objects. The UDC

3360-457: Was a Pisan mathematician who had studied in the Pisan trading colony of Bugia , in what is now Algeria , and he endeavored to promote the numeral system in Europe with his 1202 book Liber Abaci : When my father, who had been appointed by his country as public notary in the customs at Bugia acting for the Pisan merchants going there, was in charge, he summoned me to him while I was still

3420-659: Was at the time himself setting up a bibliographical agency in Zurich, the Concilium Bibliographicum . A means of arranging the entries would be needed, and Otlet, having heard of the Dewey Decimal Classification , wrote to Melvil Dewey and obtained permission to translate it into French. The idea outgrew the plan of mere translation, and a number of radical innovations were made, adapting the purely enumerative classification (in which all

3480-637: Was developed by the Belgian bibliographers Paul Otlet and Henri La Fontaine at the end of the 19th century. In 1895, they created the Universal Bibliographic Repertory ( Répertoire Bibliographique Universel ) (RBU) which was intended to become a comprehensive classified index to all published information. The idea that the RBU should take the form of a card catalogue came from the young American zoologist Herbert Haviland Field , who

3540-506: Was largely confined to Northern Italy until the invention of the printing press in the 15th century. European trade, books, and colonialism subsequently helped popularize the adoption of Arabic numerals around the world. The numerals are used worldwide—significantly beyond the contemporary spread of the Latin alphabet —and have become common in the writing systems where other numeral systems existed previously, such as Chinese and Japanese numerals. Positional decimal notation including

3600-642: Was widely influential. Likewise, Fibonacci's use of the Béjaïa digits in his exposition ultimately led to their widespread adoption in Europe. Fibonacci's work coincided with the European commercial revolution of the 12th and 13th centuries centered in Italy. Positional notation facilitated complex calculations (such as currency conversion) to be completed more quickly than was possible with the Roman system. In addition,

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