The National Library of Medicine Classification Scheme (NLMC) was developed in 1946 utilizing basic ideas from Eileen Cunningham's Medical Library Classification, a classification scheme developed from the viewpoint of teaching medicine. Three classification schemes have been developed for the organization of pharmaceutical literature: (1) Eli Lilly Company, (2) Sheppard Library at the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy, and (3) Lloyd Library, University of Cincinnati. There is no evidence in the literature that these classification schemes are kept up-to-date. Since the NLMC is the only up-to-date classification scheme available in the United States for the organization of health sciences literature, it would be an important contribution to determine how adequate the system is for organizing health sciences literature other than medicine. The purpose of this study was to examine how the structure of the NLMC accommodates pharmaceutical literature, to determine its adequacy in organizing this body of literature, and to contribute seminal knowledge on the history and development of this classification scheme. / The basic tools used in the study were a list of disciplines of the pharmacy field published by the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy (AACP), the NLMC, the Medical Subject Headings (MeSH), six bibliographies representing the recommended resources necessary to support the pharmacy discipline, and CATLINE. The six bibliographies were merged using the computer program Pro-Cite to generate a database named Asklepios. The study was limited to an analysis of the NLMC classification numbers assigned to bibliographic records of monographs representing the body of literature on pharmacy. The study population was 1,979 records. In the NLMC pharmacy literature is accommodated in subclass QV 701-835 Pharmacy and pharmaceutics. The research revealed five fundamental categories provided in the NLMC for pharmacy literature. Ten fundamental categories were identified in the published pharmacy literature. The analysis revealed that the structure of the NLMC brought together 42 percent of the literature, 41 percent was scattered throughout the classification scheme, and 17 percent was classified in the Library of Congress Classification. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 55-09, Section: A, page: 2618. / Major Professor: Doris H. Clack. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1994.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_77241 |
| Contributors | Lopez-Ramirez, Elsa Maria., Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text |
| Format | 272 p. |
| Rights | On campus use only. |
| Relation | Dissertation Abstracts International |
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