Are there any library science theorists out there trying to improve upon the Dewey Decimal System? I mean, a system for cataloging books that dates to 1874? Structured to categorize all areas of human scholarship in order "...from the divine (philosophy and religion) to the mundane (history and geography)." It's such an old-world view of knowledge and fields of study that it would be laughable if it weren't currently holding hostage our nations' books.
Book lovers? Your thoughts?
Somehow, the general acceptance of this obsolete holdover reminds me of our Minnesota law whereby you can't sell alcohol on Sunday. WTF?
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- Dan
- Father, musician, trail runner, reader, geographer, craft beer aficionado, meditator.
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8 comments:
There is another way - the Library of Congress has a completely different system - I have no idea why it has not been more widely adopted.
This http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_Dewey_and_Library_of_Congress_subject_classification
should be some grist for the mill.
As is is, according to the Wikipedia entry on old Dewey, the system has been revised 22 times, most recently in 2004.
So get off.
It's still essentially the same. Adding categories they didn't know about in 1874 (e.g. computers) to the sub-100 catch-all doesn't cut it.
I worked in a library for four years during college. Our school used DDS. When I left, I could never understand LC at other libraries - I was too confused by it. I can't quite explain why I like the DDS, but for some reason, those number groupings work for me - I can better connect subjects with numbers than I can for the letter coding of the LC system.
Don't take my DDS away - you will disturb the lives of nerds all across America! (he said, pushing his glasses higher up the bridge of his nose)
I challenge Dan to propose a better system.
I propose we use the categories that they use on those spam search engines that pop up when you scramble the URL of common websites, such as "EPSN.com" or "startirbune.com" All books would be grouped under the following subjects: online casinos, sex, celebrities, and real estate.
I'm getting literary fiction from my library most often, which is nicely categorized under "Fiction", then by author's last initial. I've got the DDS so chiseled in that I never question jotting 353253.36323.2323D on a scrap piece of paper to find something outside fiction. I'll have to think about this.
Boy, I haven't had the DDC (rather than DDS - as is the preferred acronym) memorized since it was required in elementary school.
Perhaps it's one of the failings of an architecture degree, but my library skills are shitty. I may have a degree that required 10 semesters, but I almost never researched a paper.
I certainly could jot the number down (the act of writing I have down), but I would be using basic wayfinding to get there.
I'm find myself annoyed when in a Borders or BN looking for a book in a section that includes books by specific authors and books on more general subjects - say a cookbook. They don't seem to know how to organize them, and it certainly doesn't seem to be part of any system DDC or LC.
You guys may have crossed the line into complete nerdiness!
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