Page 224 - DLIS002_KNOWLEDGE ORGANIZATION CLASSIFICATION AND CATALOGUING THEORY

Unit 11: Chain Procedure

Notes

Case Study Some Suburban Libraries begin Turning Away from
the Long-time Classification System

S core one for the library’s bookstore-style layout. And shed a tiny tear for the Dewey
decimal classification system, long the standard in the industry.

A handful of pioneering suburban libraries are transitioning from the librarian-loved but
misunderstood Dewey to the type of organization system used by booksellers. The new
layout groups books by subject rather than number, uses signs to highlight contemporary,
popular categories, and displays books by their covers.
Critics say the new system is a nightmare for anyone trying to find a specific book that
doesn’t fit into an obvious category. Supporters counter that the system does what libraries
should be doing: encourage people to read more books.
A library in south suburban Frankfort is among a small number of libraries nationwide
that have switched entirely to the new format. Other libraries in Darien, Oak Park and
Westmont are using it for parts of their collections, and Deerfield officials are considering
it for the future.
Rakow, which is part of the Gail Borden Public Library District in Elgin, was designed to
embody the new system when it opened in 2009.
Rakow is relatively small, with 32,000 items, but it attracts some 400 patrons a day who
check out about 21,000 items a month, more than similar-size peers. Every fiction genre
has a higher percentage of books checked out at Rakow than at Elgin’s main library, and
nonfiction gets checked out at almost twice the rate as at the Dewey-style main library.
Part of the increase is attributable to Rakow stocking only the most popular, newer books,
officials said, but the new system’s appeal also plays a role.

Rakow uses a “de-emphasized” or “mash-up” system, in which books are grouped by
category under large signs reading “In the News” for current events, or “New & Hot” for
best-sellers, but are filed within each category by the Dewey numbers on the spines.

“For us, we can definitely say this appeals to people,” Rakow library Director Margaret
Peebles said. “They can pick up a book they wouldn’t have found otherwise.”
Still, Dewey remains by far the dominant system for organizing books. More than 200,000
libraries in 135 countries are estimated to use Dewey, making it the most popular book
classification system in the world.
Named after the man who created it in the 1870s, librarian Melvil Dewey, the system
groups all knowledge into 10 categories numbered 000 through 900, then subdivides
further for each subject, moving from general to specific.
Dewey goes deeper and broader than bookstore headings, classifying books much more
specifically, with 27,000 categories, compared with about 3,000 in the bookstore system,
known as Book Industry Standards and Communications, or BISAC.
Long ago, most public libraries stopped using Dewey to group fiction books, instead
putting them in alphabetical order by the author’s last name. The new wave of non-Dewey
classifications extends that concept to other popular subjects like diet and health or
gardening, and sometimes pulls together books Dewey would keep far apart.
Contd....

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