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 3. CLASSIFICATION-WHAT AND WHAT FOR? Classification is not an unknown process. It is in vogue in every field of life from time immemorial and it is not peculiar to Library Science alone. It is practised consciously or unconsciously by all the people all over the world. A housewife, a business- man, a cashier in a bank, or a vendor in the street arranges the things with which he or she deals. A close observation of a vegetable market, a bangle shop, a cloth shop, the cash counter of a bank, or the railway ticket counter, will bear testi- mony to the fact that in every one of them, things are arranged and classified to suit the convenience of customers. Even in a kitchen, groceries will be so arranged that the housewife may take conveniently the things she needs for use. She will put the articles which are frequently needed in a separate or easily accessible place. In a vegetable market, all the vegetables may not always be available in a particular shop. There will be shops selling particular leafy vegetables or roots. Other shops in another row may sell saps and fruits. This kind of arrangement can be seen in a wholesale market. In a retail shop, vege. tables will be arranged in baskets within the easy reach of the shop keeper. The purpose of such an arrangement is to enable the shop keeper to respond. instantaneously to the demands of the customers