Comments on: You Can’t Get There From Here (DDC Edition)

By: Kristen

Kristen — Wed, 23 May 2012 02:43:09 +0000

I work in a bookshop, so our non-fiction is all arranged by category.
Our travel section is easy to navigate as everything is in alphabetical order, but some of the other sections are a lot trickier – “Gift” is a nightmare.
There also always seems to be a category which is simply called “Non-Fiction” which contains a random mish-mash of items that can’t fit in anywhere else.
The store system makes it fun for browsers, but extremely difficult for people after a specific book, as there is no standardisation – it’s all up to how the shelver felt on the day they put the book away.

As flawed as Dewey is, combined with flexiblity and common sense, it’s still way better than store classification!

By: Cari

Cari — Thu, 10 May 2012 00:20:24 +0000

All I can say is, the last line made me giggle.

By: Brian Herzog

Brian Herzog — Fri, 04 May 2012 11:11:45 +0000

@Rich: thanks – interesting. I actually had scanned the Istanbul and Turkey pages from our MARC books to include in this post, but then thought OCLC might claim copyright violation, so I didn’t. But it’s good to see the situation in this detail.

@Marcie: Good point – I hadn’t gotten that far. I’ll have to look and see if we even have any Istanbul books in 949. It makes sense to move them to be consistent, but on the other hand, Istanbul hasn’t always been part of the country of Turkey, so I can also see leaving them separate – for some reason, having them separate in the history/geography section doesn’t bother me as much as the travel section. Hmm – I’ll have to think more about it.

By: Marcie

Marcie — Thu, 03 May 2012 18:50:44 +0000

You know, I never noticed the Istanbul/Turkey thing. Maybe because the libraries I’ve worked in haven’t collected travel books just on Istanbul but preferred to get more general books on Turkey. So are you going to collocate the history books as well? (Istanbul 949, Turkey 956)

By: Rich Allen

Rich Allen — Wed, 02 May 2012 18:08:11 +0000

Greetings everybody!

According to WebDewey,

Turkey guide books: 915.6104 (Middle East)

Instabul:

Istanbul (Turkey) T2–49618
Istanbul (Turkey)–ancient T2–398618
İstanbul İli (Turkey) T2–49618
İstanbul İli (Turkey)–Asia T2–5632
İstanbul İli (Turkey)–Asia–ancient T2–39313
İstanbul İli (Turkey)–Europe T2–49618

The problem is Dewey makes major changes over the years and old numbers obselete That’s why we bought WebDewey for $260 a year subscription.

If you want to stay current every day, there’s the 025.432: The Dewey blog:

http://ddc.typepad.com/025431/

Hope this is helpful!

Cheers

By: Brian Herzog

Brian Herzog — Wed, 02 May 2012 17:46:11 +0000

@Lori: I think that’s a great solution – although I do have a question. We have a lot of US travel books that are regional, like “the Southwest” or whatever. How do you handle those, and are they on the shelf near the states they cover? (one advantage of Dewey’s geographical grouping is keeping regions together)

@Jennifer: it sounds to me like you’re doing fine. Maybe Dewey Hell is the same place as Customer Service Heaven – you be the judge.

By: Jennifer Lutzky

Jennifer Lutzky — Wed, 02 May 2012 17:00:15 +0000

I hate to admit it, but I mess with Dewey all the time in our K-12 library. Sometimes things that should shelve together just don’t — so I make them. I’m sure I’m going to Dewey hell — but in the meantime our students can find what they need. And ultimately, that’s the point of cataloging, isn’t it?

By: Jacqueline Barlow

Jacqueline Barlow — Wed, 02 May 2012 15:50:11 +0000

Yes, people just like it better this way.

By: Lori Fisher

Lori Fisher — Wed, 02 May 2012 13:46:06 +0000

This is a big weakness in the Dewey system – mainly because it forces our users to go to multiple places to get the travel guides they need. We decided to make a “Travel Guide” section in our library last summer, and simplified the Dewey # (and added continent and either country or state). Example: 917 No Amer NH. We’ve seen triple the usage of travel guides since then, and patrons are thrilled with the ease of access. So in my opinion Dewey is still useful but needs to be modified in ways that benefit our users.