Went to the town lending library today for the first time since covid and headed to the 900 section per usual. No more 900 section but instead they had overhead signs like a book store; History, Cooking, Fiction etc. I asked the Gen Z librarian what happened to the Dewey Decimal System and was met with a slack jawed stare Grumble grumble.
The march of time Dave. I've now reached the point with things like this that I can't tell if we're marching towards a better future or backwards to mediocrity. Kind regards, always, Jim.
No more car magazines either. I was hesitant to point out to Mr Gen Z that their magazine app wouldn't be compatible with my pondering routine.
It all comes from lack of Latin teaching. PRO (eg progress) should mean forwards, but nowadays can indicate any old direction! Chris
Dave I am sorry I had to google the Dewey System What with the lack of me being an academic re WW2 books I am now a dunce on the Dewey System. I will have to review my notes to see what I am actually useful for. PS:I last visited a library circa 1968
But surely the books are still numbered on the spines as per Dewey? Otherwise how else can you find anything? My library uses both Dewey and the notices such as you describe, so you can swiftly go to History and then find subdivisions, such as local history, but all ordered in best Dewey style.
I suppose it had to happen. ‘Embrace’ the change! About ten years ago, I received a telephone enquiry from someone who sincerely described himself as a ‘Knowledge Agent.’ The answer to my first question was: “We used to be called librarians ...” Joy a few days ago was a piece from a local authority Resilience (formerly Emergency Planning) staffer regarding Covid volunteers. I learned that “We are working locally to create pathways for brokering volunteers into local and national opportunities.” Being unsure what “brokering volunteers” etc meant in English, I received a scripted explanation that it: “Connects volunteers with local volunteer involving organisations and offers bespoke support services to volunteers and organisations to facilitate positive volunteering experiences with the most impact.” After penning that down, I asked if ‘impact’ was a term of convenience for those who are unable to differentiate between ‘effect and affect?’ I got my own back later on the ‘how did we do survey,’ referring “to implied requirements for an adaptive process for heuristic reasoning and meta-systematic absorption of exponential polynomial semi-decidable default assumptions to deliver a satisficing result when smart-handling pink-sky non-monotonic behaviours.”
I know that I’m meandering far from the original topic………but I with you on all this “NEW” phraseology. Watching the SpaceX launch yesterday (and finally a successful landing) they kept talking about the previous flights had 'rapid unscheduled disassembly' WTH is that (I ask myself……never out loud, don’t want people to think I’m an idiot)…….quick google, and “IT BLEW UP” was the answer……so now I’m ready to spout knowledge the next time I see something “blown up” (which I hope I don’t have to see)
Dewey was a chemist But Dewey ain't no more 'Cause what Dewey thought was H2O Was H2SO4 ---American folk rhyme
One for Clive: " An Essex Dialect Dictionary" by Edward Gepp, M.A., Late Vicar of High Easter, Essex, second edition, revised thoughout and greatly enlarged, 1923. Ex- Essex County Library.
Dewey numbers are completely gone in our branch. They added labels on the spines with the author's last name like the ones on fiction books and they are in approximate alphabetical order by section as defined by the overhead signs. They messed up the fiction section too. The fiction book spine labels now all have a category above the author's last name and are shelved in separate sections by category and then alphabetically in the section. Categories are things like Action, Mystery, African-American, Sci-fi, etc. Who knows what section to find someone like Michael Critchton or even Hemingway? I want my library run by this guy again
Don tin hat afore postulating how "fair dinkum" may have arrived into Austrailian language use (from here to there or there to here?) Excuse me a moment, chains are a clanking. Kind regards, always, Jim.
Crikey I really did no know. Therein lies the rub I am a one trick pony I assumed like my books Libraries have a "rough whereabouts are they " system and you get pointed in the general direction. Do they still have fines for late returns? As and aside For many years I have observed Tare Weight on lorries/trucks/containers and took it as read. Tare weight sometimes called unladen weight, is the weight of an empty vehicle or container. By subtracting it from the gross weight (laden weight), the weight of the goods carried (the net weight) may be determined. Tare weight - Wikipedia.
Hi Clive, You might find this interesting. I miss these too. Vintage card catalogs at the library - and how we used them
Sorry, rather off thread. I recently had to look at current RN Branches. Some were easy Stores Accountants are now Logisticians (Supply Chain) and Cooks and Stewards are now Logisticians (Catering Services). But where are Radio Operators? Are they now Abovewater Warfare Tactical or are they a Communications Information Systems Specialist? And who's a Cryptologic Technician? Not an EW rating as there is still an EW Branch. Tim
Been looking for my school leaving reference, but like much else, I can't find it. It is probably where my brains are, lost them a while ago! One paragraph says something like: 'in his final two years he was the school librarian during this time he reclassified the books'. That would have been the Dewy Decimal system, now, only seventy years on they have abandoned it, Oh Dear!
Surely the definition of progress is embracing new innovations and abandoning those things that are no longer useful. Good riddance to the DD system - I never understood it. Why use numbers to categorise books that are primarily made up of letters and words?
