Dewey-free system at the library: your thoughts.

[AdamYJ]

I thought I might get some of you folks to weigh in on this subject. I know there are even some librarians who come to this board.

It seems that one of the local libraries is opting to embrace a "Dewey-free" organization system that's modeled after the system used at big bookstores. Everything will be put in broad subject categories and then organized by author's last name.

Now, personally, I find this troubling. The fact is that they're using a system patterned after places like Barnes & Noble, which is a place that I have the hardest time finding anything aside from the graphic novels. My local B&N has seen fit to move the folklore and mythology section three times in the last couple months. Hopefully, the library will keep things more stationary. At least in the Dewey system, you can just follow the numbers. I'm also baffled as to how using the catalog will work in this new system.

Your thoughts.

[Expletive Deleted]

For public libraries and school media centers, it doesn't bother me too much. There's nothing sacred about Dewey. With the bookstore model, the point is to make the collection more browsable. If that's works for your patrons, more power to you. It'd be a disaster in a library with a large collection or one where known-item searching is more important than aimless browsing, but most public library branches don't really fall into those categories.

Converting to an entirely different shelving/cataloging system for that kind of marginal benefit seems like a waste of time, money, and effort, but I don't have any moral objections to it.

[Roquefort Raider]

I don't really mind, as any good logical system could take the place of Dewey. I wouldn't be bothered if, suddenly, biographies no longer started with the same number as geography books. (Our public library doesn't use Dewey, and things still work fine).

What I would frown upon is an arbitrary system like the one they have at our local video store. New releases in one section, ordered first according to a vague date of release (really new, sorta new, and not quite ready for the old stuff section); then according to genre, more-or-less; then alphabetically. Old releases are arranged by arbitrary classes such as "drama", "comedy", "foreign" and the like, except for films that end up in a class all their own for no obvious reason other than they have some arbitrary commonality: Woody Allen movies, James Bond movies, Nouvelle Vague movies, Nicole Kidman movies... It is a bloody mess.

[The Black Guardian]

I don't really see that significant of a difference, to be honest. Bookstores are using a "broad category with many smaller categories" system, and that's pretty much what Dewey is. Only Dewey has numbers. Meh... big deal. If it means the broad categories at the library will be organized by some kind of popularity, then so be it. Once I familiarize myself with a bookstore (usually takes a single visit), I don't have any problem finding a book (if it's available).

As long as it's not the Library of Congress system... Hate that system!

[AdamYJ]

Once I familiarize myself with a bookstore (usually takes a single visit), I don't have any problem finding a book (if it's available).

You mean they don't constantly move sections on you? At the bookstores I go to, they're constantly rearranging where the different subjects are. So, while the books may be attached to a specific subject area, the subject areas could be anywhere in the store depending on where they've decided to put them. The thing is that at least with a numbered system like Dewey, I can at least check the catalog and then follow the numbers to find the book I want.

[Michael P]

Bookstores move sections around for arcane reasons related to corporate and managerial nonsense that libraries don't really have to worry about, so I doubt that would be a factor.

And I'd imagine the catalog would work like the search system at Barnes & Noble: It will tell you what section the book is in, and possibly give you a little map.

[K'Nort]

The problem in many chain bookstores isn't BISAC (their category system). It's the incredibly high proportion of books that are in assorted 'new arrivals' and 'staff recommendations' sections rather than with that subject. When I go to the local B&N, it frequently takes a staff member several minutes to find anything I ask for because the computer (which only the staff can access, not customers) just says 'display' and they have over a dozen displays going at any given time.

I'm a librarian. A cataloger, even. If moving away from Dewey actually helps patrons, then it's worth it. It doesn't affect us much on the back end. Well, it doesn't affect me at all because we use Library of Congress, but same principle there. For people who are mostly browing rather than looking for something specific (ie, public libraries but not universities), it's probably fine. Certainly worth testing here and there.

[supamike]

I didnt even know people still went to the library.

[K'Nort]

I didnt even know people still went to the library.

They're pretty well bursting at the seams these days. If you don't have a home computer (and a remarkable number of people actually don't) and you lose your job, that's where you have to go to fill out new job applications and to apply for govt benefits. Both realms have automated.

[supamike]

Last time i went to the library was in High School.And they were using the card in the back with names wrote on it.Or maybe they had just switched to scanning them out.

[The Black Guardian]

You mean they don't constantly move sections on you?

Not constantly. The B&N has been here 12 years and has only moved sections three times; Borders even fewer times.

[mgs]

They're pretty well bursting at the seams these days. If you don't have a home computer (and a remarkable number of people actually don't) and you lose your job, that's where you have to go to fill out new job applications and to apply for govt benefits. Both realms have automated.

yeah, they're used kinda like a local college or university if you don't have access to one near you. local services to sign up for local people.

[AdamYJ]

I didnt even know people still went to the library.

You shoulde check out your local public library. It's a valuable public resource for both information and entertainment. Different groups and programs meet at libraries. There are also probably a number of resources there you wouldn't have considered in the past. Stuff ranging from entertainment like CDs, DVDs and graphic novels to important resources like tax forms and English as a Second Language resources (libraries are actually pretty big with people new to this country). Check it out and feel free to ask the reference librarian a question if you've got one.

[Donald M.]

Bookstores are arranged the way they are because they want you have to search for what you're looking for on the theory that it makes you more likely to find and buy something you didn't specifically intend to.

Since profit isn't a concern for libraries, modeling them after retail businesses shelve their books seems, at best, misguided.

[K'Nort]

Bookstores are arranged the way they are because they want you have to search for what you're looking for on the theory that it makes you more likely to find and buy something you didn't specifically intend to.

Since profit isn't a concern for libraries, modeling them after retail businesses shelve their books seems, at best, misguided.

Ideally, that would be true. But the trend in many communities is to 'run libraries like a business' in order to avoid all that infamous govt waste. And frequently the biggest sign of success or failure in public libraries is number of items checked out per year. Keeping in mind that it's elected city council etc setting and judging these criteria, not anyone with training. So encouraging people to spend more time wandering around and make more impulse picks is increasingly crucial to the libraries as well as to the bookstores.