[Publib] Good-bye Dewey

[BookBitch]

--- Diedre Conkling <diedrec at charter.net> wrote:

> Doing this in book stores makes sense to me but
> there is significantly less of this reshelving
> factor.

I'm not sure why you think there is less shelving
going on in a bookstore.  I work for a very busy
public library that is just half a mile from a very
busy Borders where I used to work, and I don't see a
difference at all, other than Borders gets everything
reshelved every day, and my library cannot boast of
that!  

FYI, Borders does sticker their books and they do use
a numbering system, albeit a much simpler one than
Dewey. But customers do not have to know that to find
books, and in fact most of the information on the
stickers is somewhat coded and vague if you don't know
what you are looking at.  

Nonfiction books are sorted by topic, and then
sub-topics, then alpha by author.  There are large
signs visible through most of the store with the
broadest subject areas, then more signage at the end
of each row, and smaller shelf signs throughout the
section.  So the history section is divided basically
chronologically and by wars, then alpha within each
subsection.  From what I understand, B&N doesn't
sticker their books, but rather assigns staff to a
specific section so they all know their own books and
where they go.  When in doubt, they look it up - the
computer will tell them what section the book belongs
to, which to me seems more time consuming, although
the B&N in my town has considerably more help than
Borders does so perhaps they have the extra time to do
that.  

Either way, the end result is that it is easier for
customers to find books on their own.  And the easier
it is for them to find what they want, the more likely
they are to buy.  And that is the bottom line in any
bookstore - if Dewey was easier, believe me,
bookstores would be using it.

However, I'm not saying there isn't a place for both. 
Most public libraries would probably do well using the
bookstore model, but very large ones wouldn't.  And
any serious research is going to take Dewey or LC.  

Stacy Alesi
Library Name *Censored*
Boca Raton, Florida


    I am the BookBitch 
www.bookbitch.com 
    Win fabulous books like BABY SHARK'S BEAUMONT BLUES by Robert Fate, FREE FOOD FOR MILLIONAIRES by Min Jin Lee, or many more!