Morning Notes: Kick It, Mrs. Mac Edition
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THE DEWEY WRAP?
2012 trend alert! More and more, librarians are moving away from the Dewey Decimal Classification System, leaving people who like to make fun of libraries disappointed (curiously, most library comedy seems to come from the mocking of Dewey – have you noticed this?). It’s also left me wondering what I will do with my favorite cassette if this movement becomes widespread:
A couple weeks back, The Digital Shift blog had a recent article on the topic, showing how one library is going about the switch. Click here to read.
THE ULTIMATE ARC
In the past I’ve joked about how in the future, advance reader copies won’t be advance enough, and librarians will start looking over authors’ shoulders as they write. Well, this is basically going to happen now. UK author Silvia Hartmann will let readers watch her write a novel in Google Docs next month. That’s guts. Click here to read.
(Thanks to GalleyCat for the link)
CHICKEN SOUP FOR THE … STOMACH
In literal news, the Chicken Soup for the Soul franchise of books is branching out into actual soup. Seriously. Click here to read.
(Thanks to GalleyCat for the link)
IT’S HEAVY
If you’re interested in keeping tabs on the race for Newbery, be sure to add Heavy Medal to your websites to check list. Written by two Newbery committee veterans, the site features the best in-depth analysis of Newbery contenders around. Click here for their first post of the fall, featuring three front-running books. Click here to read.
(Thanks to Kathy for the link)
THE MOST LOVED, VISUALIZED
I thoroughly enjoyed this infographic about some of the most loved children’s books. Click here to view.
(Thanks to @PWKidsBookshelf for the link)
Filed under: Morning Notes, News
About Travis Jonker
Travis Jonker is an elementary school librarian in Michigan. He writes reviews (and the occasional article or two) for School Library Journal and is a member of the 2014 Caldecott committee. You can email Travis at scopenotes@gmail.com, or follow him on Twitter: @100scopenotes.
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Is moving away from the Dewey Decimal System really a trend? Are other libraries aside from the one cited doing it?
I wasn’t convinced that the Alexander Central School’s new classification system was sufficiently more user friendly to warrant deviating from the standard Dewey Decimal System. I’d be interested to hear more about why they think it’s more user friendly. They have addressed the main issue that arises for me with the Dewey Decimal System — that space books are separate from space travel books. However, that hardly seems like sufficient reason to ditch Dewey.
It’s not very widespread yet, but I have been hearing about and talking to more and more librarians who are trying new ways to classify. Some are moving away from the standard Dewey library practice of arranging picture books alphabetically (that includes Fairy Tales, Folk Tales, traditionally kept in nonfiction). Darien library has tried that with success: http://www.alsc.ala.org/blog/2012/07/ala12-i-want-a-truck-book-reorganizing-your-picture-book-collection/
Van Meter (IA) is also moving to a different classification system in their school library: http://vanmeterlibraryvoice.blogspot.com/2012/08/so-we-ditched-deweywhat-comes-next-for.html
I’m a new elementary liarraibn and stressing about orientation, what to say to the whole staff week one and orientation stuff. I’d read that less is more in orientation, but then this post really clicked for me. You’re so right. All the info they need is on my shiny new website and The clerk and I will be there to teach everything else IN CONTEXT. Whew. What a load off my shoulders. Now to figure out the lessons (I have two 45-minute specials a day, sigh). Thanks! I’m adding you to my feed reader NOW!
Thanks, Travis. I do not have a strong opinion one way or the other on this, but I find it interesting. I love thinking about ways to encourage kids to feel comfortable scouring the nonfiction shelves for books about subjects they love. On the other hand, I think our local public library’s efforts to rearrange books to attract casual browsers make it much more difficult to locate specific books. E.g. book bins where fiction books are only alphabetized by first letter of an authors’ last names, fiction novels separated by genre, various series and types of books pulled out of the general classification system and stuck on separate shelves…