Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC) at the Swiss National Library

The Swiss National Library adopted the DDC as its classification scheme for its open access stacks collections and the structure of its national bibliography, Das Schweizer Buch, in 1999. The paper explains why the library decided to adopt the DDC and how the decision was made. The factors leading to the decision are explained, namely the use of theDDCin Europe and the decision taken by libraries in Germany to translate and adapt DDC 22 in German. The article also describes the implementation process of the DDC and the results so far attained at the Swiss National Library.