Adding Topical Meanings

The third way that numbers can be created in DDC is by adding part of one notation from the schedules to the base number from another notation. This is sometimes done, though less often than adding notations from one of the tables to a base number. Usually, the digits taken from one section of the schedules have particular topical meanings, and adding them to the base number from another section adds the same meanings to the new section. The best way to understand how this can be done is to look at examples from the schedules that use this method of number building.

One example comes from the section of the schedules dealing with Elementary Education. Notation 372.1 has the subject designation of ‘Organization and activities in elementary education’. This has a subsection .11--.18 that is defined as ‘School organization as activities in elementary education’. Please look this up in the schedules.  It can be found on page 311 of the 13th Abridged Edition.

When looking at the notes given under this .11--.18 section, the user learns that types of activities can be specified by adding notations from the 371 section of the schedules to a base number 372.1. We will look at how that is done step by step.