This book addresses the history, theory, and practices of the organization of recorded information. Chapter 1, "Organization in Human Endeavors," looks at the basic human need to organize and how it is approached in various environments. Chapter 2, "Retrieval Tools," is concerned with the formats and functions of basic retrieval tools that have been developed. Chapter 3, "Development of the Organization of Recorded Information in Western Civilization," discusses the history of basic organization principles that have developed over the centuries. Chapter 4, "Encoding Standards," chapter 5, "Metadata: Description," and chapter 6, "Metadata: Access and Access Control," deal with creation of metadata, covering how records are encoded, what is a bibliographic/surrogate/metadata record, and choice of access points. Chapter 7, "Verbal Subject Analysis," covers subject approaches to organizing information, while the topic of chapter 8, "Classification," is theory of categorization and how this translates into classification. Chapter 9, "Arrangement and Display," is devoted to theory and practice in the arrangement of physical information packages. Chapter 10, "System Design," covers how system design relates to the organization of information. An appendix outlines a way to use the subject analysis concepts presented in chapter 7. Contains a glossary of terms and an index. (AEF)