John Searle Library at Melbourne School of Theology has the Chinese Theological Collection for Chinese students, alumni, faculty, and staff. The collection contains 18,000 items, including General Collection, Reference Collection, and AV Collation. It was classified with Pettee Classification. The Chinese Department found that Pettee Classification might not accommodate items with new theological concepts and subjects. They recommended the bilingual librarian investigate the reclassification of the entire Chinese Theological Collection. After investigation and discussion, the librarian proposed to reclassify the entire Chinese collection to the Library of Congress and submitted an implementation plan. The developed proposal was approved in October 2020. The project was implemented by the librarian in November 2020. It is expected to be completed before the commencement of the new semester (2021). This paper discusses the decision of reclassification and the choice of a classification scheme for the Chinese Theological Collection in a theological library. It also will describe the implementation, review the results, and discuss what lessons we have learned from this project.
