Africana in LC and DD classification schemes: a need for an Africana scheme?

Abstract

The article examines in some detail the provisions made for African subjects in the Library of Congress and Dewey Decimal Classification schemes, two schemes in general use in Africa. It notes some gross inadequacies of these schemes in classing African subjects, especially in the social sciences and humanities. It suggests extensive modifications of existing schemes rather than attempting to devise an entirely different scheme for Africana, but such modifications should be concerted, and not left to the whims and caprices of individual classifiers.