James Duff Brown
Encyclopedia
James Duff Brown was a British librarian, information theorist, music biographer and educationalist. Most of his life was spent in London.
for the Metropolitan Borough of Finsbury
. He devised three classification systems: Quinn/Brown (1898), Adjustable classification (1898) and Subject Classification (1906). The latter system was for municipal libraries and was informed by his advocacy of open shelf access of books in the UK. Indeed he was [t]he pioneer of this new system [while he was librarian] of Clerkenwell, where the first experiment in open access was launched in May, 1893. This was referred to as "safe guarded open access". Alongside his classification work, he produced a standard textbook on librarianship (the Manual of Library Economy). He further contributed to theoretical journals and also produced correspondence courses in librarianship "upon which most British librarians depended for their professional studies until the 1930s". As Librarian in the Metropolitan Borough of Islington
he largely built up their collection and service.
Clare Beghtol notes He tried to bring all works on a concrete topic together notationally so that, for example, "at E917 for Coffee must be collected everything related to coffee, regardless of standpoint, form or other qualification but it must not be put under such headings as Tropical Agriculture, Beverages, Crops, Foods, Drugs, Ethics, Bibliography, Customs, or any other general head."
Biography
He was born in Edinburgh, but after beginning his library career in Glasgow, he subsequently moved to London, and worked in ClerkenwellClerkenwell
Clerkenwell is an area of central London in the London Borough of Islington. From 1900 to 1965 it was part of the Metropolitan Borough of Finsbury. The well after which it was named was rediscovered in 1924. The watchmaking and watch repairing trades were once of great importance...
for the Metropolitan Borough of Finsbury
Metropolitan Borough of Finsbury
The Metropolitan Borough of Finsbury was a Metropolitan borough within the County of London from 1900 to 1965, when it was amalgamated with the Metropolitan Borough of Islington to form the London Borough of Islington.- Boundaries :...
. He devised three classification systems: Quinn/Brown (1898), Adjustable classification (1898) and Subject Classification (1906). The latter system was for municipal libraries and was informed by his advocacy of open shelf access of books in the UK. Indeed he was [t]he pioneer of this new system [while he was librarian] of Clerkenwell, where the first experiment in open access was launched in May, 1893. This was referred to as "safe guarded open access". Alongside his classification work, he produced a standard textbook on librarianship (the Manual of Library Economy). He further contributed to theoretical journals and also produced correspondence courses in librarianship "upon which most British librarians depended for their professional studies until the 1930s". As Librarian in the Metropolitan Borough of Islington
Metropolitan Borough of Islington
The Metropolitan Borough of Islington was a Metropolitan borough within the County of London from 1900 to 1965, when it was amalgamated with the Metropolitan Borough of Finsbury to form the London Borough of Islington.-Boundaries:...
he largely built up their collection and service.
Ideas
His work in classification attempted to deal with the problem of the shelf arrangement of interdisciplinary works, and how to ensure that works on the same topic would be found in the same place. Part of his attempt to deal with this was to create synthesised notation (a rarity among classification systems in his day) to allow composite classmarks to be created.Clare Beghtol notes He tried to bring all works on a concrete topic together notationally so that, for example, "at E917 for Coffee must be collected everything related to coffee, regardless of standpoint, form or other qualification but it must not be put under such headings as Tropical Agriculture, Beverages, Crops, Foods, Drugs, Ethics, Bibliography, Customs, or any other general head."
Publications
- 1886: Biographical Dictionary of Musicians
- 1893: Guide to the Formation of a Music Library
- 1897: British Musical Biography
- 1898: Manual of Library Classification and Shelf Arrangement
- 1903: Manual of Library Economy (7 later eds.)
- 1906: Manual of Practical Bibliography
- 1906: Subject Classification (1st ed. 1906 ; 2nd ed. 1914 ; 3rd ed. (rev. by J. D. Stewart) 1939)
- 1907: The Small Library: a guide to the collection and care of books
- 1910: Characteristic Songs and Dances of All Ages
- 1912: Library Classification and Cataloguing