John Cotton Dana

“ It requires less space to shelve the books; uses simpler symbols and fewer of them; can be expanded, without limit and without confusion or waste of labor, in both catalogs and on shelves, or in catalogs alone; checks more thoroughly and conveniently against mistakes; admits more readily numerous cross references; is unchangeable in its call-numbers, and so gives them in all places where needed, as given in no other system; in its index affords an answer to the greatest objection to class catalogs, and is the first satisfactory union of the advantages of the class and dictionary systems. ”

“ Though the user knows just where to turn to his subject in the tables, by first consulting the index he may be sent to other allied subjects, where he will find valuable matter which he would otherwise overlook. ”