[Publib] Dewey or Don't We

[BookBitch]

I put together a handout for our patrons called Where Are the Self-Help Books -- not sure how it will come through here, format wise, but here it is:
 
AGING (dealing with growing older)...305.26
 
ANGER MANAGEMENT...152.47
 
ANXIETY / WORRY / PANIC…616.8522
 
COMMUNICATION & ASSERTIVENESS…158.2
 
DEATH & DYING...155.937 & 306.9 & 362.175
 
GOT THE BLUES...616.8527
 
EATING DISORDERS…616.8526
 
FAMILY RELATIONSHIPS...306.874
 
FAMILY VIOLENCE (abuse, incest)...362.8292 & 616.857
 
MARRIAGE & DIVORCE...306.81 & 306.89
 
MEMORY...153.12
 
ORGANIZING YOUR LIFE...640.43
 
PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS...158 & 158.1 & 170
 
RECOVERY (sobriety)...616.861
 
SEXUALITY...613.9 & 616.692
 
STRESS MANAGEMENT…155.9042
 
TIME MANAGEMENT...650.1
 
WHAT SHOULD I DO WITH MY LIFE?...331.1


All of these books would be in the Self-Help section at my local Borders.  Plus handwriting analysis, interpreting dreams, etc.  And don't get me started with Travel Narratives or Memoirs.  
 
There isn't a perfect system, but bottomline - Dewey just isn't conducive to patrons who want to browse nonfiction the way bookstores are.

Stacy Alesi
Library Name *Censored*
Boca Raton, Florida
& MLIS student @ University of South Florida
 


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--- On Sun, 1/11/09, Hammock, Shannon <SHammock at riversideca.gov> wrote:


From: Hammock, Shannon <SHammock at riversideca.gov>
Subject: RE: [Publib] Dewey or Don't We
To: bookbitch at yahoo.com, "Kathleen Stipek" <kstipek at aclib.us>
Cc: publib at webjunction.org
Date: Sunday, January 11, 2009, 11:11 PM


Greetings, 

Anecdotal I know, but just today I had a guy ask me where the bankruptcy books would be. When I took him over to the section, he said something to the effect of "Yeah, that's where I thought they would be, with all the other legal self-help books. I was pretty sure Nolo would have one." Nolo must be good at advertising because everyone knows that they are for legal self-help. And I've worked in two libraries that had separate legal self-help sections, mostly Nolo type of books. 
And I've had people come to the reference desk and ask for self-help books, and when you do the reference interview, you find out they really want a book on how to help with someone who has recently been diagnosed a disease of some sort.  In their minds (and it happens fairly regularly) that is  self- help because  they are helping themselves deal with a problem. So if they are going to the self-help section in the bookstore, it's as misleading to them as if someone comes into the library and expects all "self-help" to be in one Dewey number. 
Plus, and I know this is coming from someone who works in a library, the subjects that are in the BISAC code for self-help are pretty diverse. Yeah, you have co-dependency and affirmations, but you also have handwriting analysis and dreams. Death and self-hypnosis are in there, as well as sexual instruction. I just find it interesting, but there are some interesting things in Dewey as well. And I don't think that because all those subjects are under one category that it makes them easier to browse than Dewey. If I am looking at books about death because someone close to me recently died, I am not sure how seeing a book on sexual instruction or handwriting analysis makes for a system that one would consider great for browsing. But BISAC puts them together under the self-help category. 


Shannon

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