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Bliss: The Man And The Classification, John A. Drobnicki

Publications and Research

This paper discusses the career of Henry Evelyn Bliss, founder of the Bibliographic Classification, which is currently being revised. Dissatisfied with the current classification systems, Bliss devised his own, which was based on a main class order that provided for collocation of related classes. Although not currently used in the United States, the Bibliographic Classification continues to be utilized by approximately 50 libraries in the United Kingdom. Advantages and criticisms are presented for Bliss's system, which is often praised in library science textbooks, yet seldom used as the trend in libraries has been to either the Dewey Decimal or the …