Librarians were packed in like sardines at PLA (apparently; I wasn't there) to hear how Rangeview Library District, Colorado and the Maricopa County Library District, Arizona, tossed out Dewey in favour of "systems based on the BISAC (Book Industry Standards and Communication) subject headings."
I'm still very skeptical about this, but I do appreciate putting all poets together, regardless of nationality, come to think of it.
Dewey can also be a mess for some areas: biographies, anyone? True crime? This is reflected in the collections that have seen better circ since the changes at Rangeview: "circulation of biographies has doubled in most locations. Teen nonfiction has tripled. Also booming is test preparation. “People weren't finding that stuff in Dewey,” Rangeview's collection development manager said.
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Have to admit that though I was at PLA I did not attend this session.
ReplyDeleteIt bothers me that all these non-Dewey systems require large amounts of in-house processing and licensing fees to the libraries that "created" them.
Good signage in Dewey can go a long ways.
As to biographies, we interfile these with their subjects, and put a spine label on them to indicate a biography. Seems to work pretty well.
I agree with you about the poetry though, I've been weeding our 800s lately and if it is confusing to me (didn't I just see another book on this guy in the 810s?) I can imagine how it must be to patrons.