The concept of literary warrant in classification was developed by Melvil Dewey, the creator of the Dewey Decimal Classification system. Dewey was an American librarian who is best known for developing the Dewey Decimal Classification system, which is widely used in libraries around the world.
Dewey believed that the organization of a library’s collection should be based on the subject matter of the materials and the logical relationships between subjects. He argued that the call number for a book or other material should be based on the content of the material, rather than the physical characteristics of the book or the preferences of the librarian.
In the Dewey Decimal Classification system, the call number for a book is based on the subject matter of the book and the specific decimal numbers assigned to that subject. The literary warrant for the call number is the authority or justification for placing the book in that particular subject category and assigning it the corresponding decimal numbers. This concept of literary warrant has been an important principle in library classification and has had a significant impact on the way libraries organize and access their collections.