[Publib] Re: Good-bye Dewey

[Joe Schallan]

> We don't expect our customers to learn dewey,
> we just expect them to be able to count.

Expecting our patrons to be able to count
is probably expecting too much.  Most of
them clearly do not understand the concept
of the decimal -- they think that
782.10269 comes after 782.14 because
10,269 is a "higher number" than 14.

Decimals and fractions constitute advanced
mathematics for most Americans.  I take
them to the shelf.  (For this and many
other reasons, taking them to the shelf is
always best.)

America's rampant innumeracy is well covered
in the classic on the subject by John Allen
Paulos -- Innumeracy: Mathematical Illiteracy
and Its Consequences, New York : Hill and Wang,
c2001 (1989).

-- Joe Schallan
   Phoenix