DDC or bust?

October 2, 2007 at 7:38 am · Filed under LIS768 and tagged: BISAC, Dewey, Library2.0

How ironic it is that my mind is a jumble as I consider all of the classification possibilities we have before us? I feel as though I should be having orderly thoughts about the order of things, yet no one answer comes to mind. I fully admit that I have no real attachment to Dewey. I don’t find it overly user friendly and it doesn’t speak to me as a patron. As a future librarian, I hope, as Buckland stated “to provide convenient access to materials that people want to see where they want to see them”. So what’s a girl to do?

I think I can’t come up with an absolute because there isn’t just one. Bottomline: we must respond to our users’ needs in organizing our collections and providing access. Schneider highlights Maricopa’s use of BISAC and Phoenix’s use of BISAC enhanced MARC records. Maricopa was able to be bold because they had a clean slate with which to work. Phoenix was bold in their own way by implementing use of the more”user-centric” BISAC codes overlaid onto existing records. Both libraries are embracing the philosophies of Library 2.0 as they engage patrons for rich user experiences and as their catalogs harness the collective intelligence of their patrons, the bookstore industry, and yes, even Dewey himself. We have to keep learning from our past as we move into the future.

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