Library Schmibrary

This article from the New York Times made it's way into my inbox via the ALA newsletter, and I just have to wonder, what are they thinking? A library in Arizona has done away with Dewey (call numbers on books, that is) and shelved according to Barnes & Noble. Apparently this is supposed to make younger patrons happier, since they can now just browse through based on subject.

But, ahem, that's what Dewey was designed to do. Only now, instead of browsing your way through a small collection on a specific topic, you have to wade through EVERYTHING. Okay, this may work out okay for this pissant little library in the middle of nowhere, but how can any substantial library even begin to serve its patrons this way? I get annoyed enough at my local branch because all the novels are in alphabetical order (how am I supposed to stumble upon more 18th century novelists when they could be a hundred linear feet apart?). I've actually scanned the LC shelves at my old college library for new authors and then tried to look them up individually in the public library catalog. Even a big Barnes & Noble has a paltry collection in political science or biology. An average urban library can have dozens of shelves where a store has only a couple.

And that's where the problem lies. Book stores are about brand new books. Libraries are about collections that have been developed over years. Sure, some library patrons are fine with whatever serendipity presents them, but others actually want to find something specific, and for those people, trolling one segment of a number is far better than wandering through everything under the sun.

The problem with the Dewey Decimal System is not that it is outdated (because it's more than adequate for what most public libraries need), but that it presents people with a visual reminder of their own ignorance. If you don't understand Dewey, it doesn't actually hamper your ability to pick up a book as you saunter along, but it does remind you that you don't really understand why it was shelved where it is.

I guess that those of us who can't stand the thought of wandering around trying to find a single volume can always make the library staff do it: I'll pick mine up at the Patron Request shelf. Lets think of it as a bit of job security for paras.