Henry Evelyn Bliss

Henry Evelyn Bliss (January 29, 1870 – August 9, 1955) was the author of a classification system he called Bibliographic Classification which is often abbreviated to BC and is sometimes called Bliss Classification. He was named one of the 100 most important leaders in the field of library and Information science in the 20th century by American Libraries in December 1999, which praised his “subject approach to information” as “one of the most flexible ever conceived.” His classification system was generally disregarded in favor of other more established classification systems such as the Dewey Decimal System created by Melvil Dewey and the Library of Congress Classification system, causing “more than one author” to label him as a, “prophet without honor.” Although Bliss was an American, his system was more popular in British libraries than in American libraries. A second edition of the system has been developed in the United Kingdom in 1977. Several volumes have been published.

Life Henry Bliss was born in New York City. The son of Henry H. Bliss and Evalina Matilda Davis. He became the deputy librarian of City College of the City University of New York, now known as the City College of New York, in 1891, where he worked until he retired in 1940. He rejoined however in 1937. Bliss was emphatic about the fact that “good classification, ‘dignifies the library as an embodiment of knowledge.’” Grace O. Kelley, writing in 1934 said, “a field of investigation is here presented which… would go far toward lifting librarianship to a plane of scholarship easily ranking with other disciplines which glory in the possession of subject matter which they can call their own”

Legacy and lasting importance Bliss is often overlooked in the history of Library Science in favor of such giants as Melvil Dewey and S.R. Ranganathan. However, it is important to remember that “his work represents a major step along the way to the modern classification scheme.”

Publications 1929 The Organization of Knowledge and the System of the Sciences 1933 The Organization of Knowledge in Libraries