The Dickinson classification is a library classification

Library classification

A library classification is a system of coding and organizing documents or library materials according to their subject and allocating a call number to that information resource...

 scheme used to catalogue and classify musical composition

Musical composition

Musical composition can refer to an original piece of music, the structure of a musical piece, or the process of creating a new piece of music. People who practice composition are called composers.- Musical compositions :...

s. It was developed by George Sherman Dickinson (1886 - 1964), and is used by many music libraries, primarily those at University at Buffalo, Vassar

Vassar College

Vassar College is a private, coeducational liberal arts college in the town of Poughkeepsie, New York, in the United States. The Vassar campus comprises over and more than 100 buildings, including four National Historic Landmarks, ranging in style from Collegiate Gothic to International,...

, and Columbia

Columbia University

Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...

 Universities.

It is fully detailed by Carol June Bradley in The Dickinson classification : a cataloguing & classification manual for music; including a reprint of the George Sherman Dickinson Classification of Musical Compositions published by Carlisle Books (1968).