A Few Brief Comments from Gary

Things to think about as you read the NY Times article linked below:

1) What does this new arrangement say, if anything, about browsing and serendipity in an age when most things (electronically) are searched for? Is browsing a human trait that has received the short end of the stick in the past decade or so?

2) People (including librarians) often forget that classification schemes (like Dewey; folks, it’s not the only scheme) also have subject information embedded in the letters or numbers that make up the number placed on the spine of the book. In the physical world, classification was a major part of “marking and parking” books. Now, it can do so much more. In other words, items can have more than one number and users using one of many OPACs can virtually browse shelves of libraries near and far.

3) In the case of Dewey, a synthetic system, class numbers can easily be constructed to a highly specific level. Of course, LCSH also adds more access points. We are currently seeing faceted searching coming onto the scene. I think it’s a brilliant development if used correctly and good metadata, including classification, is provided. Both Siderean (see it used at LII.org) and Endeca (see it live at NC State University Library, example search results page). More about the project at NCSU here. Kudos to Andrew Pace and the rest of the team. It’s a demo that is both interesting and useful.

4) Personally, I think finding books in a bookstore, especially a large one, is a challenge. In smaller stores, however, it’s often the case that the owner-operator knows his or her collection. Which is similar to a reference librarian “knowing the collection” vs. always beginning a search by entering keywords into a computer. More on this topic soon.

Now, on to the NY Times story.

Dewey? At This Library With a Very Different Outlook, They Don’t

Trying to build popularity, many public libraries across the country have been looking more like big chain bookstores, offering comfortable easy chairs, coffee bars and displays of the latest best sellers.

But the new library in this growing Phoenix suburb has gone a step further. It is one of the first in the nation to have abandoned the Dewey Decimal System of classifying books, in favor of an approach similar to that at Barnes & Noble, say, where books are shelved in “neighborhoods” based on subject matter.
…
Many users of Perry, a 30,000-item branch surrounded by new subdivisions and by farmland ready for development in an area the Census Bureau calls the nation’s fastest-growing, seem very attracted to the new style.

But the attraction is hardly universal. On Web sites where librarians frequently post, the abandonment of Dewey has not been welcome. One blogger titled her entry “Heresy!” Another called the Perry Branch’s approach “idiotic.”

Source: New York Times

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 17th, 2007 and is filed under Libraries and Librarianship, Search News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.