An insight into 110 years of influence of Principle of Literary Warrant on Dewey Decimal Classification system

Abstract

The present article is an endeavour to understand the one hundred and ten years of influence of the Principle of Literary warrant as introduced by E. Wyndham Hulme on the revision of Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC) through different editions in the field of library classification theory and practice. During this study, a comparison with other warrants/consensus has been undertaken whenever and wherever deemed necessary. The literary exploration was based on all the editions of DDC which are available on Internet Archive platform. The paper divides different editions of DDC into two distinct groups: one in which only veiled references to literary warrant were found corroborating Dewey‟s thinking about applicability of different consensus angle and the other where declared references to the concept by Editorial Policy Committee were encountered. The article concludes that the principle has extended its influence on the web environment of DDC as well.