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<div class="moz-cite-prefix">From Jennie Garner in Iowa, who
graciously allowed me to share (I'm sharing on-list because I
think others might be interested):<br>
<br>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D">Great
discussion! I’ve enjoyed reading the comments/questions and
agree with some opinions written from each school of thought.
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D">And
isn’t that the beauty of libraries? Librarians are
historically flexible and generally adapt for what works in
their respective communities; we tailor our collections,
services and programs to meet the needs/desires of our users.
What works for one library may not work at all for a neighbor
even 30 miles down the road.
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D">The
boost in circulation of our nonfiction in all age ranges has
us sold that this system what works for North Liberty. In the
first few months, we had a good number of ART and ARCHITECTURE
books checked out that had never left the shelves under their
Dewey numbers.
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D">Here
in North Liberty, we found that the majority of our patrons
were requesting books by subject – “can you tell me where your
True Crime books are?” or “where are your books on dogs?”
“Parenting?” “Childbirth?”, “Gardening?” So it felt natural
for us to migrate our collection to subject-based
classification rather than assigning Dewey numbers. We have
found that using subject-based call numbers, as opposed to
Dewey, has been an intuitive and welcome switch for the
majority of our patrons (not all, we have had three patrons
state that they didn’t like it but many, many more who have
complimented the change).
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D">Staff
are seeing less requests now for “where is this section” and
people simply reading our signage (our end caps list the
subjects) and finding the material on their own quite often.
We unveiled by hanging up large posters that told the story of
the switch with actual spine label examples enlarged to 80
point size font. We try to ask if people have found what they
need and explain our system if patrons don’t understand but it
has been a very smooth and easy transition for us. There are
always patrons who come straight to the desk no matter what
title they are looking for because it’s quick and easy.
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D">But
even with Dewey and its subject-based cataloging, there is
still some subjective decision-making happening for
catalogers. You can go to our SILO online and compare several
libraries in Iowa with the same title assigned a slightly or
wholly different Dewey number and/or different subject
headings within a record as well.
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D">While
our collection is based on BISAC, it’s also localized to our
community. We have a section assigned WEDDINGS because we have
a large population of young people and a lot of interest in
this area. In the juvenile, we have DINOSAURS because it’s so
popular.
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D">It
is definitely getting harder to assign genre labels to fiction
as we see romance-fantasy crossovers, etc. We did survey our
patrons a couple times and they resoundingly responded that
they like the genre labels and separate categorization so we
do our best to assign according to the descriptions and
reviews.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D">It
works for us here. When we were first discussing this change
during a presentation about it, a librarian said that
sometimes she can’t find what she’s searching for in the
bookstore and the response from the presenter was: “Librarians
are the only ones who can’t find things in Barnes &
Noble.”
</span><span
style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:Wingdings;color:#1F497D">J</span><span
style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D">
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D">Thanks
for reading!<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span
style="font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Bradley Hand
ITC";color:#1F497D">Jennie Garner<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family:"Californian
FB","serif";color:#1F497D">Assistant Library
Director<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family:"Californian
FB","serif";color:#1F497D">North Liberty
Community Library<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family:"Californian
FB","serif";color:#1F497D">PO Box 320<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family:"Californian
FB","serif";color:#1F497D">North Liberty, IA
52317<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family:"Californian
FB","serif";color:#1F497D">319.626.5778 (w)<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family:"Californian
FB","serif";color:#1F497D">319.321.8056 (c)<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family:"Californian
FB","serif";color:#1F497D"><a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="http://www.northlibertylibrary.org">www.northlibertylibrary.org</a><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<span
style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D">Please
note that messages sent and received on this account may become
public record.</span><br>
<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">Elizabeth M. Rivera
Library Assistant
Coquille Public Library
105 N Birch St
Coquille OR 97423
541-396-2166</pre>
<br>
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