Dropping Dewey

Huh. A public library in the States is becoming the first to drop the Dewey Decimal System. Interesting. I have to say, I’m a “browser” myself and I always found Dewey constricting when moseying along the racks.

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  1. I’m sure it’ll work… for a while. Sorry, but I’m inclined to disagree. But that’s for the residents near the library to discover for themselves.

  2. I think that’s good for a bookshop, but for a library? When I go to a library I want to be able to find what I’m looking for, and having to search the whole, say, “craft” section for a stitch dictionary is just irritating. I LIKE being able to follow the numbers until I find 167.859SMI or whatever.

    My local library has taken to putting paperback fiction in stands. It’s in alphabetical order, but only as far as the first letter. And that annoys me enough. I want to be able to see, immediately, every book they have by a certain author and not have to hunt through five stands for the rest of a series.

    That turned into a little bit of a rant, there. Tiredness does that to me.

  3. I guess maybe my real issue is with signage. I just don’t like having to refer to a friggin’ map to find books. I had a card at the University of London library when I was there as a student, and it was the most confusing library ever. I could never find anything that I wanted, much less discover new things I might be interested in.

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