Many of you have probably heard the story of the public library in Arizona that has scorned the Dewey Decimal System and any other formal classification system. This library, the Perry Branch of the Maricopa County Library District near Phoenix, has decided to do away with Dewey. In case you haven't heard the story, the gist is that they have decided to organize their materials by subject. Of course this is how Dewey works as well, but here's the difference:
there are no numbers present in the call numbers, just a description of the subject. The motivation is to make the library more like a bookstore, which apparently the public feels more comfortable in than libraries. What does this actually look like, though?
I spent a little time on the library's website trying to get an idea of what these call numbers might look like. Here's what I found:
Fiction books use simply the author's last name and are organized by genre.
3001: the Final Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke is shelved under CLARKE, but this isn't so radical for fiction collections, is it?
Here's where things get a bit different: nonfiction.
A book called 101 Ways to Use Your First Sewing Machine has the call number CRAFT.
One called Working in Music and Dance is labeled BUSINESS CAREER.
One more. The Everything Music Reader is filed as MUSIC HOW TO.
This library and has received a huge amount of flak from its peers in the profession, though patrons haven't even noticed the change according to Marshall Shore, adult services coordinator (Whelan, 2007).
Here are some of the responses from library professionals, submitted as feedback to the article in School Library Journal, Arizona Library Ditches Dewey.
From Gary Green (UK): " It's a brave move and can see both the benefits and drawbacks...Im [sic] my library authority we've been shelving non-fiction stock in topics for over 20 years. Within these topics we shelve by Dewey number. It works well, although we do have the odd dilemma!"
From Heather Moss (Baltimore, MD): "I wish I could visit the Perry library and see how this works for myself. I just played with their website and it seems like it would be difficult to find things. For instance, if you look up the cookbook called Vegan With a Vengeance, the Perry branch has it shelved under the very generic heading "Nonfiction Cooking." If all of the cookbooks were shelved alphabetical by author in my public library, it would be a recipe (hardy har) for disaster. I am trying to keep an open mind about Perry trying something new, but I fail to see how it's an improvement."
From Deborah Stafford (Germany): "Using Dewey does shelve books by TOPIC, that is the whole idea of Dewey! For a library not to know that is unexcusable. All they had to do to make it more user friendly was to replace the Dewey number signs with topic signs. It is all a matter of signage."
From Isobel Williams (Australia): "How is shelving under "Topic" different from Dewey? Except that you have made up the topics?"
Another interesting article reporting on this library was published in the NY Times: Dewey? At This Library With a Very Different Outlook, They Don’t
What do YOU think about this?
11 comments:
It sounds as if it would be a very hard system to address more and more specific topics. If you have a large number of books simply labeled crafts it could take you a long time to find the one you are looking for. If you use author name after this to organize, then how do you group craft books by specific topic. I too would like to actually visit the library, as I am sure there must be more to the classification that what it sounds like here. Also I can see if each library comes up with its own classification system joint OPACs could be a nightmare. I like the suggestion that Dewey be used with topic signage, that way each library could make their library collection more user friendly to their specific clientele without creating a cataloging nightmare.
What troubles me about modeling libraries after bookstores is that bookstores are organized to maximize sales. They would probably prefer that you don't find what you are looking for too quickly, so that you have to walk around the store first where something else might catch your eye before you eventually find the subject category you're after. More money for them. Librarianship has (I would hope) a higher goal.
Bookstores also push the current popular culture items because that will maximize sales. There is nothing wrong with this for a bookstore but we certainly don't want this for a library. It's mission is entirely different and all fields of study, all groups and communities need to feel represented. Library budgets are always strained and only so much can go to current popular culture. Which brings up an interesting question concerning individual cataloging for each library. That would involve a certain amount of original cataloging for each item and certainly you would have a hard time outsourcing catloging to established vendors. And as I stated in my previous post it would wreck havoc with shared OPACs.
Carol, Sharon, thanks for your comments. I agree, bookstores and libraries have different agendas.
I thought it was very interesting that the library's patrons didn't seem to notice the change.
I am enjoying reading your blog. I agree with what others have said. I don't see this as a better solution, unless the library is very small. Can you imagine a large central library arranged like a bookstore? You would never find anything! The Dewey system is already arranged by subject. Librarians need to educate the public more on how it works, and why we need it. Or if the Dewey subject divisions are no longer valid, then the library community needs to come up with a better system. But all libraries need to adopt it, if there is a change - there needs to be uniformity and standardization so libraries can work with each other. That librarian interviewed on utube seemed to be suggesting that each library could have their own classification system, unique to them, which doesn't sound like a good idea (maybe I misunderstood him, but that's what I thought he was saying).
I love the idea. Anything to make our library more user friendly. We as librarians love Dewey or other classification systems because we know them - for some patrons it is very intimidating. I would love to hear more from the patrons to see if they like it better!
I personally like the Dewey system, and I think it is a great way to categorize books by subject area. I think that libraries should keep the Dewey system unless they can come up with a more user friendly system. There are other ways in which public libraries can make the library a place to hang out. One way is to concentrate on the service aspect of the library in order to create a welcoming environment.
I don't know if modeling libraries after bookstores is a great idea. Each and every time I walk into a bookstore I need help trying to find a specific book. What happens if you have a book that falls into multiple categories? Where would you place it then? How would you organize the shelves in this library? As a school media specialist, this sounds like extra work & a headache. I could see the poor children, just wandering around the media center without a clue.
http://nasai-organizeinfo.blogspot.com/
I'd love to see an amalgamation of both systems - keep the Dewey numbers on the spines so the librarians don't have to wear straight jackets to work, yet use shelving in way so that it's browser friendly and will make sense to the patron even if they're not looking at the Dewey number!
I'm glad you brought this up, Amy. This is actually what I have done in my upper school library (serving 6th-12th graders). The call numbers have stayed the same, but I've organized the fiction by genre, for easy browsing (each book has a genre sticker to eliminate the nightmare that shelving by genre could be). The biographies I also pulled out and created a separate section for.
Students love being able to browse, and our library is small enough that if they can't find a particular book they're looking for, they can ask me, though this doesn't happen often.
My advocacy would be, keep Dewey or LC, just create section labels ("Sports,"Literary Criticism," etc.) to enable browsing by topic without a need to search the catalog.
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