In Discord over Dewey, an article in the Wall Street Journal online for July 20, 2007, Andrew Lavalee describes a branch library in Arizona which has dispensed with the Dewey Decimal classification and labeled the book spines with English words, such as “history” or “weddings.” There is still an online catalog, but no call numbers. The library looks and is arranged much like a chain bookstore, and apparently has been popular.
This piece of news leads me to opine that one size doesn’t necessarily fit all libraries. Perhaps all collections don’t automatically and with no consideration for their users NEED a classification system. Do small libraries with small collections designed primarily for leisure reading need to be arranged by call number, just as the collections in large research libraries are?
Even in large libraries, there may be individual collections which have not been classified because of size or type of materials. That fact alone refutes the argument that classification is always necessary as a finding tool.
Perhaps it’s time to rethink our desire to standardize, and consider fitting the arrangement of our collections to the kinds of users that our libraries attract.
By
Michele Seikel
Cataloger, Assoc. Prof. of Bibliography
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5 comments:
This post makes me shudder. What's next, arranging books by color?
"Yes, all the books on depression are blue, of course. Right over there, next to the empty encyclopedia shelves. We've got Wikipedia to meet your biography needs."
A new Director of an organization visited the library of the institution and ordered the librarian to remove the books from the top shelves because he was short and did not like to use steps to reach the boooks on top shelf. He also suggested to arrange the books by size and color to look good on the shelves. This is a true story that was told by a librarian.
I just read a listserve comment today that addressed this concept. The person said that, "maybe this library has been successful in getting patrons to ask the librarians questions". Meaning that there will be more need for librarians to help people find specific items. This kind of arrangement is great for browsing, but what if you want a very specific, obscure title?
What such smaller libraries are really looking for is less close classification, and good signage. This might be another example of how LCs changes haven't helped people, because I think they don't provide proper places to cut the number any more.
NICE POST....
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Britney
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