However small a library may be, it should have its contents arranged according to a systematic classification, assembling as nearly as possible in one place all the books on one subject. The advantages of exact classification extend to every department of a library's work, but to none more than book-selection, shelf arrangement and cataloguing. It has been the custom in the past in a majority of English municipal libraries not to classify the books at all, but merely to arrange them in six or ten broad divisions—A.B.C., etc., and number the books consecutively in each division regardless of topic relationship. The effect of such a plan is simply chaos, and no library so arranged can give full effect to its stores of knowledge or adequately serve its users. In recent years many new and a few of the older large libraries have adopted exact classification, and gradually all others must fall into line. Many good schemes have been devised for the close classification of books on shelves and in catalogues, and each has virtues and advantages of its own. It is manifest
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