Many research papers and books have been published regarding selection, and it is a topic of significant interest in academic circles. However, almost all of the published research addresses post-war debates - particularly those in or after the 1970s - and there has been a sense that his torical research including previous periods is being overlooked. Recognizing this issue, the purpose of this paper was to identify descriptions relating to selection in popular education books and research papers published in the pre-war period (particularly the Meiji period) in the field of library science and closely related fields. These descriptions were then used to clarify what sort of debates were engaged in at the time. There were many descriptions in library science books taking the position that selection should be done while, comparatively speaking, taking into consideration the perspective of the user. However among popular education books, there were many which stressed the view that citizens should be guided in the best direction by the best books. Thus, in a word, it was found that there was a diverse debate regarding selection in the Meiji period.

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In this study, we investigated the major classification schemes proposed during the initial phase of the development of the concept of facet (from the fourth quarter of the 19th century to the first halt of the 20th century), with the aim of exploring the spread of the concept and factors that have influenced it. We considered three types of classifications: (1) classification that first used the term "facet," i.e., the Colon Classification (CC); (2) classificatios which have notation consisting of independent elements, i.e., the Universal Desimal Classification (UDC) and the Bibliographic Classification (BC); and (3) classifications which have notation consisting of a single element, i.e., the Deway Decimal Classification (DDC) and the Expansive Classification (EC). As a result, we confirmed that early editions of the DDC already featured the use of the term "facet" to refer to the totality of subclasses of a class based on characteristics. In addition, we found that with the third edition of the CC, the ambit of the original concept was expanded to include notations consisting of independent elements, synthesis, and centered headings.

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