DDC vs. world, Round 4, 685

A fellow blogger and colleague pointed me toward this article about DDC and how it's killing our libraries. The hook for the article is the idea that libraries should be intuitive, like the iPad (or Apple products in general), which is a nice idea but likely totally unrealistic.

The comments after this article are the best part, especially this one, which unpacks the issue properly.

DDC vs. world, Round 4, 684

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.

Travels with Alex in British libraries, Part 4: London, Day 3

In which a kind gentleman helps Alex find William Blake, we visit the old publishing 'hood of Paternoster Row, we find commonalities between the library at the National Research Council of Canada and the London Library, and we learn that "bookstore categories" for non-fiction collections isn't a new idea....
(with brief interruptions for the second fire alarm of the trip and, oh yes, theft!).

This day was my day alone in London. Kris and I parted ways for the moment, so I could meet up with the lovely Colette, a dear friend from high school now studying in Plymouth. Well, now it's Dr. Mesher, actually, since she graduated days after this visit! There is something exciting about exploring a city on your own, and I reveled in my hour before I went to meet Colette at Paddington (dear Colette deserves a giant shout-out for taking the train up to London. For the day. From Plymouth. Four days before she defended her viva. Seriously).

I secretly wanted to squeeze in a tour of Shakespeare's Globe that morning, but I thought it might be too tight. I felt badly that the day before, we'd been a stone's throw away in Southwark, at the Tate, without even laying eyes on the theatre. What kind of a daughter/niece was I? At the very least, I figured I could see it, even if the tour was a stretch, time-wise. So off I went, southwards, and quickly discovered that, um, yes, I wouldn't be making that tour...

Oh, look, it's the Globe!

Oh, look! Hordes of schoolchildren!

If there's one thing I have learned from Stratford, Ontario, it's that being in a crowd of 15-year olds can really ruin a good Shakespearean moment (Merchant, 2005, Care and me...).

The new, improved, Zen-like me sighed, dusted herself off, and decided to simply walk across the Millenium Bridge and see what caught her fancy over there. Oh, St Paul's, I forgot about you....

Thus did William Blake and I get introduced. I nipped into the Cathedral (I am pleased to announce the only revolving door I am friends with: great quote, and suitably solemn!) and just sort of breathed it all in. I'm usually good at situating myself, but I got hopelessly lost in the crypt looking for Blake. A dapper older man striding purposefully through on his way somewhere probably less crypt-like observed, "You look like you're looking for something," to which I replied, "I'm looking for Blake" (now, how often do you get to say that?) Off we went (he's in the OBE section, in case that helps you), and I hung out with him for a bit before mercifully coming above ground again (that crypt is a bit stuffy).

Up into Paternoster Square, formerly Paternoster Row (destroyed in the Blitz). Paul Collins talks about this neighbourhood magnificently in The Book of William, painting this picture of booksellers, swindlers and clergy rubbing elbows, with errand boys carrying fresh cuts of meat taking the short way past the Cathedral (which was, actually, through the Cathedral!) He also talks of the Great Fire, and how booksellers, confident St Paul's wouldn't burn, stuffing their wares into the hollows of the crypt. Of course, St Paul's went up (blame Wren, actually), and countless quartos with it. One bookseller, according to Collins, was able to read a book he'd pocketed while fleeing, by the light of the fire alone. I elected for a steamy cup of coffee instead, and then off again to the tube to pick up Colette.

She and I visited the Imperial War Museum, and again, not library-related, but they did an excellent job of exhibiting common, everyday objects to tell a story. Thanks to Megan and Mathieu for the suggestion to visit. We were enthralled by a home-made life vest made by a child's mother for his Atlantic crossing (fleeing the Blitz). The mother instructed her son to wear the vest AT ALL TIMES, even at night; he was told to never take it off. The ship was torpedoed, and few children survived, but he did. Colette and I were having a great time, banging our heads on reconstructed Anderson Shelters, until the fire alarm went off. (Fire alarm #1, by the way, was moments before Kielan and Kate's wedding). What kind of luck did I have on this trip? Actually, don't answer that.

None the worse for wear after 45 minutes out on the street, I made my way back to Paddington, parted ways with Colette, re-united with Kris, and decided to conquer the London Library, the world's largest independent library, as my final library-themed pilgrimage of the trip. Thanks to Diana, this time, for the tip to visit.

The London Library is honestly a hidden gem, tucked into rowhouses in St. James' Square (I got a few good pics, as at right, but check out some great ones on their website here; not to mention wonderful historical photos here). The lovely Suzanne, from the Reference desk, led Kris and I on a tour of the library, which is entering Phase 2 of an $8m remodelling project. I first read about the library here, and then a colleague mentioned I simply must visit it.

Part of the reason for the remodel is that the London Library never withdraws anything; as the website says, "It is a central tenet of the Library that, as books are never entirely superseded, and therefore never redundant, the collections should not be weeded of material merely because it is old, idiosyncratic or unfashionable: except in the case of exact duplication, almost nothing has ever been discarded from the Library's shelves." Imagine the backlist of periodicals! Imagine the historical children's picture books! Another policy is that the collection is almost entirely circulating; 95% of it goes out, actually. Imagine, for a minute, driving yourself nuts looking for a science textbook from the 1950s. Not being a student or faculty member at the university, you can't access their collections. You can, however, join the London Library and borrow General physics : a textbook for colleges by Oswald Blackwood, published in 1943.

The London Library was founded by Thomas Carlyle in 1841; members included Thackeray Dickens, Darwin, Conan Doyle, Sassoon, Churchill, Christie, Sackville-West, Amis, Chatwin and ... Forster! T. S. Eliot was its president for 13 years, starting in 1952. In fact, his widow, Valerie, has donated $2.5m to the current remodelling project, and there is an Eliot Room now.

A few of my observations:

• As you can see at right above, the London Library shares a feature with the National Research Council library on Sussex in Ottawa: see-through floors! In Ottawa they are glazed glass (too many lecherous scientists looking up skirts); in the London Library, they are a kind of grate.
  
• The library has its own (we would say, "bookstore style") shelf mark and shelving system. I explained to Suzanne that many North American public libraries are eagerly adopting similar systems and that the London Library was, thus, trendsetting (albeit unknowingly)! An example from the above PDF: "In History, for example, the shelving sequence begins with H. Abyssinia and runs through all the sub-categories in strict alphabetical order, to end with H. Zululand. In Art, the sequence begins with A. Aesthetics and ends with A. Woodcarving."
• The majority of the London Library's collections are in the humanities; the Art Room grows at a rate of 68 feet/year! The library also has material in more than 50 languages.
• Deep breath: there are no fines. In fact, "books on loan are only requested for return to the library when they are wanted by another member." Oh, and they have a postal loans service, which means they will "despatch" (I had to. It doesn't come up much) "books and periodical volumes to members anywhere within Europe, for no more than the cost of the postage."
• Upon reading the pamphlet I came home with, I was almost moved to tears by this quote from John McNally: "The London Library is a dream of an institution; slim and elegant on the outside, labyrinthine within. It is the stuff of fiction, the gentleperson's Google."
• From same pamphlet, I have discovered I missed the Heron Allen Collection of the Rubdiyat of Omar Khayyam. Curses!
  

Can I just say, the members of the London Library are surely kindred spirits, because one of them begins his inscription in the suggestion book with "Three cheers for..." ("all the changes," in case you're wondering, but he goes on to lament the removal of the green chesterfield outside the Prevost room). That would be a passing Forster reference. Can I just move in, please? I'll sleep under the newspaper shelves.

We left the London Library for a short snack at Caffè Nero, and, well, you know how that ended. I tried to think of Helen Mirren's Prime Suspect, and Sherlock Holmes striding through the streets, while I was stuck in Charing Cross Police Station, just to keep myself from utter desolation, but it was not very effective. What's funny (ha.) is that while crunching through my brie and tomato pannini, I was honestly thinking, what a perfect trip. I can honestly say I saw everything and everyone I wanted to. How utterly content I am!

So there is that.

I can't end on that note, so, to close, a parting shot of the locked-tight library at Canada House (Of course I wanted to ask to get in, and of course I tried the door quite emphatically, but I wasn't sure if they'd stall/shred my temporary passport if I made trouble... eep!):

Dewey vs. world, part 1, 453, 398

No more Dewey in Darien, according to Library Journal. People are pleased as punch about it, since you asked (did you ask? Oh, you didn't? Oh well. Library Journal will tell you in a shrill tone, anyway).

They did underline the root of the dilemma, though: "the issue isn't which system is superior; it's about the user's experience." That's just it: for some (most librarians; some patrons), the issue is which system is superior. And the bigger issue is, how does a public library serve a population comprised of both people who want a superior system, and people who want ease of use.

The article also provides a good overview of the issue, touching on patron responses to DDC, surveys, and other approaches (including LibraryThing's Open Shelves Classification).

Annoyed gets annoyed re. dropping Dewey: "Garsh, Edna, there's a number on the side of this book!"

The Annoyed Librarian is up in arms about the replacement of DDC with WordThink in Rangeview. She makes a few excellent points (DDC = 10 categories; WordThink = 45, for one, and also her idea re. tossing "the genre fiction into a big pile for the addicts, and have the librarians remember where the rest of the books are" is not entirely unreasonable) and is always funny.

C3, WordThink: Call it what you will

It still spells death to Dewey. Another library throws DDC out the window.

CLA Annual Conference Day 3: farewell to Melvil, and hello to furious minute-taking

I'm looking at my notes and thinking, where did this day go? Why is there a mysterious gap in the PM? Oh, right. I was giving my session.

My day started late (thank you, Megan, for being at the Hospitality desk early so I could get that swim in!) and when I arrived, we had an extra volunteer (hooray!) so I quickly dashed off to a session I really wanted to see, "C3: Replacing Dewey for Better Customer Service," with Markham Public Libraries. As it was already in progress, I sat on the floor, bagel with peanut butter, coffee, notebook and pen in hand (bagel fell on dress, because that's what ALWAYS has to happen the day you are presenting). Luckily, I was in excellent company, discovering Darla (from yesterday's session about Halifax Public Libraries) and Lora on either side of me (yay for floor networking!)

So, down with Dewey. I think Debbie was saying (I couldn't see any more than the tops of heads, so forgive me!) that after 120-odd years, we haven't yet managed to educate the public about DDC. For instance, Markham stopped in on a local conference of engineers, and asked them the #s for Canadian history and cookbooks; no one could identify them. Markham decideed they needed to think like a customer, developed a new, bookstore-style category system, and abolished call #s more than 4 digits long (kept Cutters, though). More on the details below, but feedback showed that people thought that the new organisation of the collection (adult non-fic only at first, then juv. non-fic) made browsing easy, made finding items faster, and was well-labelled and intuitive. A 2009 customer service survey compared Thornhill Branch (still Dewey-ing) with Markham Village (C3-ing) and showed that at Thornhill, 87% of people found what they needed, compared to 100% at Markham Village. When asked, "is it easy to find items in the non-fiction collection?" 78% of respondents in Thornhill said yes, compared to 96% of respondents in Markham Village. Pages (for non-librarians suffering through these library-heavy posts, that's what we call staff who shelve the books) stated they were more confident in assisting patrons, observing that they could at least navigate patrons to the right place in non-fic, and then they could get a librarian to assist further.

I think there's a lot to discuss here, about best serving our patrons and about the difference between a public and, say, an academic library. As Pat, a Markham Village circulation supervisor, and Dewey lover ("I dream in Dewey"), put it, "There is no reason for a public library to go to 16 decimal points." Damn straight.

Not convinced? More stats. Most larger public libraries now print up something we mostly call a "pull list" every day (sometimes more than once a day). The pull list is a list of items put on request by patrons, which pages then pull from the shelves to put on hold for them (still with me? Sorry you asked yet?). On average, it took 4.6 minutes in Markham Village for pages to complete searches for pull list items, whereas it took Thorhill pages an average of 16 minutes (if you're a scientist, and really want to know, they ran 4 separate tests and averaged out). In case you're checking, that's a 346% productivity gain. Think what library staff could do with that time! They could tidy and stage the branch before opening, fill displays, .... For shelving items, they also did 4 tests and averaged, but I didn't manage to right down the average before they went to the next slide. Suffice it to say, the first three tests took Thornhill 115, 115, and 85 minutes to complete (time reflects time it takes to shelve an entire sorted book truck), and Markham Village did the same size truck, this time unsorted, in 25, 21, and 15 minutes.

When Markham Village started looking at applying C3 to children's non-fiction, they had some work to do, and also some fabulously helpful changes to make. ALL THE CINDERELLAS ARE TOGETHER. How smart is that? Instead of 398.2, then filed by author. Seriously, people just want Cinderella. Where lots of work came into the equation was with super-specific children's non-fiction titles, such as I want to be a cowboy, or Joey has pink eye (says Lora, "poor Joey!).

Incidentally, they made Joey up, Lora! I could only find this record, which is nevertheless a good example of how item records are different with C3.

My notes abruptly stop there, because I left the session early to check on Hospitality Desk staffing. I remember MPL staff also discussed staff reluctance, Tech Services concerns (they dedicated a team for a few weeks - Lora, do you remember how many weeks - to the project), and that they are discussing copyrighting the C3 categorisation system.

Throughout the presentation, they did little pop quiz questions about Dewey, to see if we knew some of the more complicated numbers. It was rather humbling! One was, I think, something like: 941.0850924. Ya, try it. Not so easy, eh?

I held down the fort at Hospitality for awhile after that session (lots of people wanted to get to The Bay), helped Padma (one of the lovely speaker's for Terri's session, "Bringing Your Library’s “Cool” to the Information Community") find Terri (they had never met. I used Facebook to show Padma a picture of Terri. It was a fun use of Facebook for Reference, sort of. Also, Padma was lovely and charming, and I'm sorry I didn't make it to her session), dashed off to my own session, then lurked in the hallway for awhile being braindead.

My day ended taking the minutes for the CLTA AGM. A representative from ALA, Mary Ghikas, spoke about how Friends of Libraries U.S.A. (FOLUSA) and the Association for Library Trustees and Advocates (ALTA) merged to become an expanded division within ALA, now called the Association of Library Trustees, Advocates, Friends and Foundations (ALTAFF). We need to get rid of some acronyms. Lina, you had a good idea for that.... Anyway, CLTA Vice-President Betty Thomas spoke about the financials and plans for 2009, including more outreach, communications and marketing. I knew I had to leave early, so I handed over minute-taking duties, and just as I was trying to slip out unobtrusively, Jan thanked me personally for helping (I also do the CLTALK newsletter), which was very kind and sweet of her, not to mention not necessary! But very much appreciated.

Then I went off into the metro by myself, which fills me with joy to be home and out on my own in my city, and cavorted with friends.

Speaking of cavorting with friends, I am now off to meet a dear friend and her 2-month old daughter, so I will recklessly not proofread this for a third time. Ha!