[Web4lib] RE: [lita-l] Innovation: NYT article on Dewey-less Arizona public library

[Lynn Reynish]

I'm an AUTOCAT subscriber - though I don't know how representative I am. From what I remember, it actually didn't cause as much of a stir as some might expect (given that some think that cataloguers are anti-change Luddites). I think that most of the subscribers were more concerned about the LC Working Group discussions and related matters. Other subscribers should feel free to correct me.

Also, I have to take issue with your claim that Dewey is an inventory system. That is one aspect of a classification - but that is not all it is.

Lynn


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Lynn Reynish
ILS Librarian
Regina Public Library
lreynish at reginalibrary.ca
-----Original Message-----
From: web4lib-bounces at webjunction.org [mailto:web4lib-bounces at webjunction.org] On Behalf Of K.G. Schneider
Sent: Sunday, July 15, 2007 9:26 PM
To: lita-l at ala.org; web4lib at webjunction.org
Subject: [Web4lib] RE: [lita-l] Innovation: NYT article on Dewey-less Arizona public library

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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The reporter didn't make that stuff up, and you can peruse the PUBLIB archives for more examples of the same. (I can't seem to get access to AUTOCAT, no matter how many times I try to register, so I can't speak for that list.)

It was disappointing to me that most of the reaction on the PUBLIB list was about how it was not going to work... before the project even launched. The general trend of most posts are now, "Well, it would work under very limited circumstances, BUHHHHHHHHHHT..."

I didn't know we had so much invested in Dewey. Me, I thought it was an inventory system.

Karen G. Schneider


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