The classification of literary works in the Arabic language in libraries

Abstract

This paper concisely presents the results of the author's work regarding the question of the classification of literary \workis in the Arabic language.
This classification hasn't been the object of special interest among experts in our country unti'l now. By means of surveying the historical development of classification in the Islamic scientific tradition it will be noticed that the philosophical systems of classification which vere created in Arabic by thinkers in past, haven't been sufficiently used in the process of adapting modem Westem systems of classification to the practical needs of Arabic library science.

The enclosed table shows that the Dewey Decimal Classification system and the classifications of the Library of Congress are the most »hospitable« to the Arabic—Islamic literary inheritance. The Dewey Decimal Classification has been, perhaps as a result of this the most reprasented in the libraries of the contemporary Arabic world. Keeping in mind the scope of the manuscripts and prinited works in the Arabic language in our library collections, as well as the that that we are just facing the complex work concerninig the preparation of a catalogue of this material, it becames clear how much the subject of classification is relevant to be the object of consideration.