Do Provenance-Based Classification Schemes Have a Role in Libraries and Information Centres? The Case of Classifying Government Publications

Libraries and information centres use often multiple classification schemes for organizing their collections. In Canadian full depository libraries government publications can be organized in collections using a government publishing office’s own notation, knowledge organization notation, or other notational scheme designed especially for government publications. Provenance-based schemes such as CODOC are attractive for their universality and for workrelated purposes that may be influenced by financial challenges. However, libraries that use multiple notations for government publications may open the potential for intellectual disruption to information retrieval practices in either physical or virtual browsing.