[Web4lib] Innovation: NYT article on Dewey-less Arizona publiclibrary

[B.G. Sloan]

Forgot to mention...I found this to be a rather odd statement by the authors of the article:

"So at the 24,000-square-foot Perry Branch, there is not a hint of a card catalog. (Mr. Courtright says most people do not know what the numbers mean anyway.) Visitors may instead search for books using an automated computer system..."

As if this was the first library to do away with the card catalog and allow users to "search for books using an automated computer system"?? Wonder when was the last time the authors had visited a library?

Bernie Sloan

"Robert L. Balliot" <rballiot at oceanstatelibrarian.com> wrote: 
Greetings,

What a strangely biased article.

I think you could go into almost any newly constructed library
and find clusters of comfortable seating.  How would that be
considered an innovation?  

Not using Dewey also fails to qualify as an innovation.  
It is simply abandoning a classification system in favor of
a more simplistic one.  Can you imagine abandoning Dewey or
LC in an established Library with a couple of hundred thousand
books?

The same results can be achieved with well thought out presentations
of new materials. If you had two newly constructed and
independent libraries, I guess that you could measure actual
circulation numbers.  But, I am willing to bet that in the
long run, everything else being equal, the library with the
more advanced classification system more items will circulate 
more materials. 

And, of course, current highly publicized books get more attention. 
Duh.

I still get a thrill from going into a new library and 
smelling that new library smell. New libraries represent
endless possibilities and hope.  

*************************************************
Robert L. Balliot
1-401-421-5763
Skype: RBalliot
Bristol, Rhode Island
http://oceanstatelibrarian.com/contact.htm
*************************************************


-----Original Message-----
From: web4lib-bounces at webjunction.org
[mailto:web4lib-bounces at webjunction.org] On Behalf Of B.G. Sloan
Sent: Sunday, July 15, 2007 12:34 PM
To: web4lib at webjunction.org; lita-l at ala.org
Subject: [Web4lib] Innovation: NYT article on Dewey-less Arizona
publiclibrary


There was a discussion of innovation on this list recently...

I think the Dewey-less public library branch in Gilbert Arizona might have
been mentioned during the innovation discussion, but I wanted to point out
an article from yesterday's (July 14) NY Times. It's listed as the fourth
most e-mailed article:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/14/us/14dewey.html 

Librarians in general seem to come off as fuddy-duddies resistant to change
and innovation, e.g., "On Web sites where librarians frequently post, the
abandonment of Dewey has not been welcome. One blogger titled her entry
'Heresy!' Another called the Perry Branch's approach 'idiotic.'"

Bernie Sloan




 
       
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