An Arizona library opens this week as the first public library in the nation to organize their entire collection without the Dewey Decimal Classification system. Librarians instead organized the collection by subject, similar to the layout at large bookstores.
The Arizona Republic offers more about the decision to try a library without Dewey . My favorite quote comes from librarian Marshall Shore: “People think of books by subject. Very few people say, ‘Oh, I know Dewey by heart.” No joke. I’m a librarian and I don’t even pretend to know Dewey by heart. With the Library of Congress Classification system, I have a fighting chance of guessing the correct floor of Coe Library, but after that I’m in trouble.
What do you think about this decision? It sounds kind of appealing, but I usually end up asking for help in bookstores to find what I need. And how will the online library catalog work? Would this be scaleable to large collections?
