Dewey! Dewey! Dewey! and an Ironic Day

Chapter 5: The Dewey Decimal System! Finally, something I had background knowledge for. I thought it was really cool how the call numbers could expand as needed and still keep up with changes over time. I was a bit confused about Schedules vs. Tables, though (78-80). My favorite quote: "The process of adding a number as directed is fairly simple as long as the directions are crystal clear (81)". Yep. Crystal.

The folklore, poetry, short stories, etc. section is a great topic for elementary school librarians. The kids have to be taught specifically where poetry is, for example. As long as we have good signage, they find the poetry just fine, but they don't understand why it's in the nonfiction section. The explanation about the change in the view of children's literature made sense, though. I do have to say, I like graphic novels in their own little section; some kids go on a graphic novel binge, and this way they're so easy to find. The last point in chapter 5 (89) was a good one; you can change call numbers on your own, but as we're getting more connected, standardization may be more necessary.

                                          No catalog police!


And then... irony!

Here I was reading (and moaning) about cataloging, and I got a call to substitute for the middle school librarian I observed earlier in the semester. We talked on the phone in the morning, and since she didn't have classes coming in, she wanted to know if I wanted to do some cataloging for her! How perfect is that? The first book must have taken me 25 minutes. The more I did, the quicker I got. I did have three books out of the three shelves that didn't have any information in the system, so it was helpful to know that I could've pulled out our book to help me look for/create the information. And I was the one thinking we'd never need the information in this book. That'll teach me!