Classifying books The smallest public library should be classified and cataloged.

This will make its resources more easily available, and will prevent the confusion and waste of labor which are sure to come if systematic treatment of the books is deferred.

Get the best advice obtainable; consider the library's field and its possibilities of growth, and let the first work on the books be such as will never need to be done over.
To classify books is to place them in groups, each group including, as nearly as may be, all the books treating of a given subject, for instance, geology; or all the books, on whatever subject, cast in a particular form--for instance, poetry; or all the books having to do with a particular period of time--for instance, the middle ages.

Few books are devoted exclusively to one subject and belong absolutely in any one class.

The classification of books must be a continual compromise.