“The Prelinger Library is a small privately owned “public library” in San Francisco with the unique philosophy that browsing library stacks can reveal new knowledge, if the books are arranged for browsing. This is counter to most public libraries who rely on computer terminal searching, databases and the Dewey Decimal system to atomize books and subjects, with stack browsing a sort of random after effect. Now a (real) public library in Arizona has joined the revolution and claims to be the first public library in the nation to drop the Dewey Decimal system. Instead, books will be shelved by topic, similar to the way bookstores arrange books. The demise of the century-old Dewey Decimal system is overdue, county librarians say: “People think of books by subject. Very few people say, ‘Oh, I know Dewey by heart.’ “”
(via MetaFilter which has some great discussion about the role of classification systems in libraries and bookstores)
- JH
June 17th, 2007 at 11:50 am
Thanks for posting that short article, Jason! Just a few thoughts on first reading on a Sunday morning under cloudy Alberta skies…
The implication with this article on the Prelinger Library is that you don’t need a classification system to find stuff. The library’s website doesn’t have an online catalogue at the moment, and given that it was set up four years ago, it might be safe to assume that they aren’t using any sort of classification system. I double-checked some pictures in an article about how the library is actually organized (http://www.home.earthlink.net/~alysons/LibraryOrg.html) to see if there were any spine labels I could peek at, but there weren’t any. It seems to be a purely-browsable collection.
Yes, LoC subject headings are flawed. Yes, Dewey is flawed. Yes, for a mostly-art collection (which the Prelinger Library houses), Dewey would be really hard to use. Yes, LC classification is flawed. And this gets us back to that newish debate about if we need classification systems at all, and if we need subject headings at all.
In March of 2006, Karen Calhoun wrote a study for the Library of Congress on “The Changing Nature of the Catalog and Its Integration with Other Discovery Tools” (http://dspace.library.cornell.edu/handle/1813/2670) in which she proposed getting rid of subject headings in library classification systems. Thomas Mann wrote a scathing critical review of her study a month later, and his piece is an excellent read (http://guild2910.org/AFSCMECalhounReviewREV.pdf). Please read at least these two studies before you call a staff meeting to downsize the cataloguing department.
I think there has to be more emphasis on overhauling the classification systems we already before we throw the proverbial LC/Dewey baby out with its (pretty dirty) bathwater. Can we start with the “Indians of North America” subject heading? I see it almost every day and it’s makin’ me snakey. : )
-SIO
June 29th, 2007 at 3:42 pm
In addition to the great reads pointed out in the above comment, check out this D-Lib article by Karen Markey that gives a good discussion on the merits of the catalogue in a Googlized world, while also noting improvements that are needed to make catalogues relevant to library users.
The Online Library Catalogue: Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained?
-PC-