Decimating Dewey: introducing a bookshop arrangement for shelving the nonfiction collection.The main areas of interest to borrowers in a suburban public library service centre on the domestic and the personal: their health, their homes, their holidays, their money and their leisure. While Dewey is a satisfactory method of linking a catalogue record to an item on the shelf, it does not facilitate browsing See browse. in the areas of most interest to public library users. In 2005 Bayside bay·sideadj. Situated very close to or on the shore of a bay: bayside cottages. Library service did not use Dewey in the traditional sense to determine shelf order in its redeveloped Beaumaris For the suburb of Melbourne, see . The Royal Borough of Beaumaris (Welsh: Biwmares) is the former county town of the island of Anglesey and is located on the shore of the eastern entrance to the Menai Strait - the tidal waterway separating Anglesey from the coast of branch. The result was six new nonfiction non·fic·tion n. 1. Prose works other than fiction: I've read her novels but not her nonfiction. 2. The category of literature consisting of works of this kind. collections which combine Dewey sequences within subject areas that are meaningful to a contemporary Australian Australian pertaining to or originating in Australia. Australian bat lyssavirus disease see Australian bat lyssavirus disease. Australian cattle dog a medium-sized, compact working dog used for control of cattle. audience. The success and user acceptance of the reorganisation Noun 1. reorganisation - the imposition of a new organization; organizing differently (often involving extensive and drastic changes); "a committee was appointed to oversee the reorganization of the curriculum"; "top officials were forced out in the cabinet has resulted in Bayside deciding, in principle, to implement the same at its other branches. Edited version of a paper presented at the Alia ALIA Australian Library and Information Association ALIA Associate of the Life Assurance Association (UK professional qualification) ALIA Automated Logistics Information to the AOC (US DoD) 2006 Perth Perth, city, Australia Perth, city (1991 pop. 1,018,702), capital of Western Australia, SW Australia, on the Swan River estuary. Fremantle is Perth's port. biennial biennial, plant requiring two years to complete its life cycle, as distinguished from an annual or a perennial. In the first year a biennial usually produces a rosette of leaves (e.g., the cabbage) and a fleshy root, which acts as a food reserve over the winter. conference It seems to be a truth universally acknowledged by public libraries that if a book has a number on it, and the catalogue record for that book has the same number on it, then library users will be able to join the dots and locate the book that they want. It is also a truth universally acknowledged by anyone who has worked on a reference desk that this is not the case and that many people find navigating (networking, hypertext) navigating - Finding your way around. Often used of the Internet, particularly the World-Wide Web. A browser is a tool for navigating hypertext documents. the nonfiction collection difficult--and some find it impossible. Why do people have so much trouble finding things in libraries? Their difficulty may be partly caused by having to negotiate a large collection in order to find the small part in which they are interested. Research shows that the larger the collection a user has to deal with the higher their chance of suffering information overload A symptom of the high-tech age, which is too much information for one human being to absorb in an expanding world of people and technology. It comes from all sources including TV, newspapers, magazines as well as wanted and unwanted regular mail, e-mail and faxes. . (1) Observational research on shopping behaviour also indicates that shoppers have extremely limited tolerance for obstacles placed between them and the object they desire. Their time is precious and they are not willing to work too hard for something they may be able to get more easily elsewhere. (2) The collection project undertaken at Bayside Library Services was designed to * increase use of the nonfiction collection * save borrowers' time by grouping related items together * promote the junior nonfiction collection by incorporating it into the total package of the children's library. Background The City of Bayside The City of Bayside is a Local Government Area in Victoria, Australia. It is located in the southern suburbs of Melbourne. It has an area of 36 square kilometres. In 2006, it had a population of 87,936. is one of Melbourne's smaller municipalities with just under 90,000 residents, extensive water frontage and some of Australia's most expensive real estate. People who live in Bayside are older, wealthier and better educated than the average for metropolitan Melbourne Melbourne, city, Australia Melbourne, city (1991 pop. 2,761,995), capital of Victoria, SE Australia, on Port Phillip Bay at the mouth of the Yarra River. Melbourne, Australia's second largest city, is a rail and air hub and financial and commercial center. . Bayside is part of safe Liberal ie Conservative seats at both state and federal levels of government. More than 95 per cent of the population speaks English 1. English - (Obsolete) The source code for a program, which may be in any language, as opposed to the linkable or executable binary produced from it by a compiler. The idea behind the term is that to a real hacker, a program written in his favourite programming language is at home, although there is a small transient A malfunction that occurs at random intervals and lasts for a short duration such as a spike or surge in a power line or a memory cell that intermittently fails. See spike and power surge. transient - 1. population of international executives and embassy staff making use of high cost rental accommodation. There are four branches somewhat unevenly spread throughout the municipality MUNICIPALITY. The body of officers, taken collectively, belonging to a city, who are appointed to manage its affairs and defend its interests. , with three main branches each open seven days a week. The service lends about 2000 items per day and averages 1500 visitors each day. It has an 88 per cent satisfaction rating in the council's annual survey of residents and 70 per cent of residential properties in the municipality are home to at least one current library member. On the whole, Bayside library users are highly literate. They are articulate articulate /ar·tic·u·late/ (ahr-tik´u-lat) 1. to pronounce clearly and distinctly. 2. to make speech sounds by manipulation of the vocal organs. 3. to express in coherent verbal form. 4. and confident, and demand and appreciate good service. In 2003 the library received a Victoria state government Living Libraries grant to extend the Beaumaris branch library which was then housed in a small, purpose built, 1960s community complex with restricted opening hours opening hours open npl → heures fpl d'ouverture opening hours open npl → Öffnungszeiten pl and only one fulltime staff member. It was cramped cramped adj. 1. Uncomfortably small or restricted: cramped living quarters. 2. Difficult to read, especially for being crowded into a small space: cramped handwriting. , crowded and crammed cram v. crammed, cram·ming, crams v.tr. 1. To force, press, or squeeze into an insufficient space; stuff. 2. To fill too tightly. 3. a. To gorge with food. with books. The new library is 75 per cent bigger and, reflecting the contemporary idea of libraries as people places, has only one third of the floor space devoted to the collection with lots of room available for study and seating. There is a designated children's area, which is big enough to have all the junior collections housed on lower, bright blue shelving shelv·ing n. 1. Shelves considered as a group. 2. Material for shelves. 3. An incline; a slope. shelving Noun 1. material for shelves 2. and has plenty of room for storytimes and other children's activities. The shelving in the children's part of the library is on wheels to allow the space to be easily reconfigured. In 2002 John Stanley John Stanley could be
Collection issues at Bayside Surveys of library users during the last few years have shown consistently that more people come to the library to borrow books than to use any other service or facility, and that the adult fiction and adult nonfiction collections are the most popular parts of the collection. Prior to the introduction of the new genre collections at Beaumaris all branches had a single sequence adult fiction collection filed alphabetically al·pha·bet·i·cal also al·pha·bet·ic adj. 1. Arranged in the customary order of the letters of a language. 2. Of, relating to, or expressed by an alphabet. by author surname SURNAME. A name which is added to the christian name, and which, in modern times, have become family names. 2. They are called surnames, because originally they were written over the name in judicial writings and contracts. . Genre stickers were used to identify ten main styles of popular fiction. Each branch had a biography collection and an Indigenous collection which was separate from the rest of nonfiction. Adult and junior nonfiction was interfiled with junior nonfiction having a separate collection name in the catalogue and being identifiable on the shelf by a J before the call number. All items in the nonfiction, biography and Indigenous collections are classified using Dewey. At the two biggest branches, Brighton Brighton, city (1991 pop. 134,581) and district, East Sussex, SE England. The largest and most popular resort in S England, Brighton also has engineering works and factories that manufacture office machinery, machine tools, electrical apparatus, vacuum cleaners, and Sandringham Sandringham (săn`drĭngəm), village, Norfolk, E England, near the Wash River. Sandringham House, with its large estate, was purchased in 1861 by Edward VII, then prince of Wales. , space constraints CONSTRAINTS - A language for solving constraints using value inference. ["CONSTRAINTS: A Language for Expressing Almost-Hierarchical Descriptions", G.J. Sussman et al, Artif Intell 14(1):1-39 (Aug 1980)]. and a previously prevailing philosophy of packing the library with as many books as possible, have resulted in nonfiction shelving that is up to two metres high. The John Stanley report urged the library service to focus on identifying and then meeting the needs of the different groups using it. It was quickly obvious that neither adults nor children were particularly well served by the interfiled nonfiction collection, especially as the junior collection was aimed at primary school children up to age 12. As the library provided both junior and teen fiction collections which were kept in special areas designed for use by those groups, it was felt that the collection arrangement discriminated against children who preferred to read nonfiction--and we know from research and observation that it is boys who have a preference for reading about facts or things that are true. (3) It was decided that separating the adult and junior nonfiction collections allowed the library to promote the junior nonfiction as a browsing collection where children could find things that they want to read, rather than just resources for their school assignments. What the literature says The main driver behind rearranging nonfiction material into subject groups that differ from Dewey is to promote browsing in the nonfiction collection. Most of the literature around browsing centres on fiction. Even a recent book on using retail practices in public libraries did not mention collection arrangement. (4) The underlying principle of the Dewey Decimal Classification Dewey Decimal Classification or Dewey Decimal System System for organizing the contents of a library based on the division of all knowledge into 10 groups. Each group is assigned 100 numbers. (DDC See VESA DDC. ) is to promote subject access through coding with expandable numbers. It seems to have been accepted as unquestionable by most Australian public libraries that DDC does in fact do this and, furthermore, that in order to maintain the logic of the numerical numerical expressed in numbers, i.e. Arabic numerals of 0 to 9 inclusive. numerical nomenclature a numerical code is used to indicate the words, or other alphabetical signals, intended. sequence it is necessary to shelve shelve v. shelved, shelv·ing, shelves v.tr. 1. To place or arrange on a shelf. 2. books in their sequential order--regardless of whether that arrangement suits either the borrowers or the space available for storage and display. The logic of the DDC subject arrangement is not always compatible with the creative vision of authors or their publishers and it is all too easy for books to be 'lost' in the collection. In the literature about readers' advising there is strong emphasis on how a book may appeal to a reader analysing mood, pace and use of language rather than subject, setting or plot. The example below from Joyce Joyce - A distributed language based on Pascal and CSP, by Per Brinch Hansen. ["Joyce - A Programming Language for Distributed Systems", Per Brinch Hansen, Soft Prac & Exp 17(1):29-50 (Jan 1987)]. Saricks shows how the traditional subject access tools of subject headings and Dewey numbers fail to adequately convey those characteristics of a book that would make it of interest to a reader David Laskin's Children's blizzard, a gripping account of the deadly storms that raged across the Midwest in 1888, turns up in my library system in 977 or 978 (history) and in 551.55 (weather). That's not unexpected. What troubles me is that neither the cataloguing nor the subject headings do anything to suggest the power of this historical story--adventure/survival against the elements, pioneer life and all the adversity, the lives of the immigrant families Laskin follows, and the details of the weather and the history of forecasting. Classification and subject headings only hint at this book's broad appeal, and I can think of dozens of readers, fans of both fiction and nonfiction, who would appreciate it. How do we move the book outside its Dewey box? (5) One library which tried to answer Saricks's question was the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh The Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh is the public library system in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Its main branch is located in the Oakland neighborhood of Pittsburgh, and it has 19 branch locations throughout the city. which began a genrification plan in the late 1980s. Under this scheme some fiction and nonfiction were shelved together in related categories. The new collections were * Mystery/True crime * Thriller/Espionage * Science fiction, Fantasy, Horror/occult, Paranormal paranormal, adj 1. outside the realm of normal experience or scientific explanation. n 2. collective term for anomalous phenomena. * Western/History of the American West * Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (pĕnsəlvā`nyə), one of the Middle Atlantic states of the United States. It is bordered by New Jersey, across the Delaware River (E), Delaware (SE), Maryland (S), West Virginia (SW), Ohio (W), and Lake Erie and New York fiction/State and local history * African-American fiction/Biography, History, Civil rights * Romance/Relationships, True romance. Loans increased by 30 per cent in the first year. (6) An even more radical scheme for organising the collection has been developed at the London Borough of Sutton The London Borough of Sutton is a London borough in outer southwest London. History The borough was formed in 1965 by the merger of the Municipal Borough of Sutton and Cheam with the Municipal Borough of Beddington and Carshalton Urban District which had previously been Library which has grouped materials together by colour. No written reports on the Sutton Sutton, outer borough (1991 pop. 164,300) of Greater London, SE England. It is mainly residential, but plastics, chemicals, radio components, and paper goods are produced. The areas of Sutton were mentioned in the Domesday Book. arrangement are evident, but its catalogue is accessible at www.sutton.gov.uk/ education/libraries/catalogues.htm What Bayside did The collection arrangement adopted for the Beaumaris library is based on the following principles * Create nonfiction collections for areas that are popular with adults and where Dewey separates similar subjects * Separate the most popular areas of adult fiction--but interfile romance and family saga For the Icelandic family sagas, see . The family saga is a genre of literature which chronicles the lives and doings of a family or a number of related or interconnected families over a period of time. ; science fiction and fantasy * Keep the entire junior collection together in the children's part of the library. The cataloguing procedure for Beaumaris had to be as simple as possible, as Bayside employs an outside cataloguing agency. Initially it was thought that the Dewey number would determine the collection and that the Dewey classification would be the final arbiter. However it soon became clear that the collections had to be the determining factor, otherwise they would not make sense. For example, a guide to the museums of Paris was purchased and catalogued with a number for museums (069) placing it in the general nonfiction collection. However the countries collection has been specifically designed to keep information which people visiting a country might need, together--language kits, accommodation guides and travel guides. It did not make sense for the guide to museums to sit elsewhere. We realised that the collection must take precedence The order in which an expression is processed. Mathematical precedence is normally: 1. unary + and - signs 2. exponentiation 3. multiplication and division 4. over the number. The existing biography collection provided the template (1) A pre-designed document or data file formatted for common purposes such as a fax, invoice or business letter. If the document contains an automated process, such as a word processing macro or spreadsheet formula, then the programming is already written and embedded in the for the new collections. Items were identified by a coloured sticker with the name of the collection in large block capitals using language that was as close as possible to the name of the collection displayed in the catalogue. We chose not to use any other prefixes or codes as we felt the Dewey number provided enough coded information for users to deal with. Each collection has its own colour and the coloured stickers are also used in signage displayed at the end of each shelf. Appendix 1 outlines the new collections used at Beaumaris, showing how Dewey numbers from different parts of the collections have been combined. How the collections were received The new collections were launched in conjunction with the redeveloped library. There was some disgruntled dis·grun·tle tr.v. dis·grun·tled, dis·grun·tling, dis·grun·tles To make discontented. [dis- + gruntle, to grumble (from Middle English gruntelen; see feedback from borrowers who liked the old ways better, including the collection, the space and the fact that the old library was used by many less young people. There was some unexpected attachment to the single Dewey sequence and one borrower was outraged that the library was dumbing down dumbing down dumb n → Verdummung f, Qualitätsverlust m the collection. In fact the notion of dumbing down was exactly the intention, as we wanted to make the library easier for everybody to use--not just a highly educated elite. Part of the thinking behind the rearrangement re·ar·range tr.v. re·ar·ranged, re·ar·rang·ing, re·ar·rang·es To change the arrangement of. re was that when a borrower wants to find information about their recently diagnosed disease they do not want to have to jump over any more intellectual hurdles. The library's role is to make it easier for people to access the information and recreational materials that they want. There has been a great deal of informal positive feedback given over the desk, and only three written complaints about the collection have been received from a membership of over 10,000. After the new Beaumaris library had been open for one year the collection was formally reviewed and all staff were asked to give feedback. Although some staff based at other branches did not like the arrangement, all the Beaumaris staff were in favour. Some suggested small changes which have been implemented, based on their ideas. For example the leisure collection was originally called Leisure and Sport. It was felt that this was not an obvious place to look for books on opera or other areas of the arts. As the sticker says only 'Leisure', this was an easy change. Some staff wanted more collections, but the size of the total collection (30,000 items) means that this is not tenable ten·a·ble adj. 1. Capable of being maintained in argument; rationally defensible: a tenable theory. 2. at present. The new collections appear to be giving the users what they want, either because we put the most popular books into the new collections or because they are easier to access and browse-or perhaps both. Items in the new collections are more heavily borrowed than those in the general fiction and nonfiction collections at the Beaumaris branch, and the Beaumaris stock has a higher circulation rate than that at any other branch. As the collections were launched as part of a new library package, it is hard to determine which improvements in usage are due to which changes. Since the library has opened, membership has doubled and loans have increased by 70 per cent. There is nothing in the lending figures, staff comments or user feedback--except for the three letter writers--to indicate that the previous system was preferred. Drawbacks The major drawback DRAWBACK, com. law. An allowance made by the government to merchants on the reexportation of certain imported goods liable to duties, which, in some cases, consists of the whole; in others, of a part of the duties which had been paid upon the importation. is that the new collections have made the cataloguing and processing workflows more complex and highlighted the need for consistency in the somewhat subjective area of allocating genre labels to fiction--family saga has proved particularly challenging. The process of reorganising the collection has brought more than a few incorrectly catalogued or processed items to light and caused the library to look more carefully at the stickers and numbers being used. As these are tools designed to assist users, being forced to look at the collection with fresh eyes has been valuable. Where to from here? Bayside has decided, in principle, to extend the new collection areas to all branches. Feedback from borrowers, staff and the lending figures all indicate that the collection rearrangement has made it easier for both adult and junior library users to locate items they want, or to find items which they do not know they want, but are happy to take home and read. For the library service, either scenario is a worthwhile and pleasing outcome. Appendix 1 Adult fiction The Beaumaris fiction collection is divided into five genre collections and the general fiction collection. The stickers for the genre collections are listed below. All other styles are shelved in the general fiction and are stickered as required. Each book has one sticker only--that of the most dominant style. If the dominant style is not easily determined then do not sticker. Any book that cannot be easily characterised into one of the genres below goes into the adult fiction collection.
Collection Sticker Notes
Crime The crime fiction collection covers a variety
of forms of writing about people operating
outside the law, or the consequences of people
operating outside the law.
Cap and Detective/mystery--involves investigation. The
magnifying novel consists of clues that lead to a final
glass solution. The detective may be police, private
investigator or amateur. Uncovering clues is
the driving force of the plot. Includes
forensic and psychological plots.
Gun Thriller/action--fast moving plot and larger
than life characters--thrills, spills and
daring feats. Adventure or danger is the
driving force of the lot. Includes espionage.
Romance Heart Love story is the primary story line
and dominates other story lines. Follows
conventions of romance fiction. Has a
happy ending. (Check last page)
Family Family Follows the life story of the central character
saga group with focus on her/his family. Primarily
concerned with minutiae of daily life and
everyday struggles. Usually set in the UK.
May be historical, but family saga takes
precedence over historical.
Fantasy Sea dragon Based on impossible scenarios, may include
magic or the supernatural.
Science Planet Based on scientific 'fact' and more or less
fiction follows the laws of nature.
Adult nonfiction collection There are 8 nonfiction subject collections at the Beaumaris branch. All other items are shelved in the general nonfiction collection. The collection codes can be used to reduce the call number if possible eg no need to use 092 on biographies. The content of the book is the primary determinant determinant, a polynomial expression that is inherent in the entries of a square matrix. The size n of the square matrix, as determined from the number of entries in any row or column, is called the order of the determinant. of the collection. It is intended that the new collections will encourage browsing and that books should be grouped together if they have related content, regardless of call number. The catalogue can be used to ascertain the exact location of any item.
Collection Dewey Numbers Notes
Art and craft 700-710 All aspects of creative work
730-779 including pure and applied arts,
books about artists and books on
how to do art/craft. Photography,
digital photography and IT
applications devoted to creative
pursuits go here.
Biography Books should be primarily about
the subjects life (rather than
their work) and about the subjects
whole life (cradle to grave, or
cradle to present if they are
still alive). If it is just about
a period of their life eg during
WWW2, or a group who did something
special together but then
dispersed it should go into the
nonfiction collection.
Computers 001-005 All books to do with IT hardware
and business 650-659 and software (unless about art or
330-339 design) and business, accounting,
economics and finance.
Countries 430-499 Foreign language learning--AC and
647 if ACID need to be put in manually
accommodation if necessary.
guides Travel guides and tourism
900-919 Geography
Health and 130 Includes psychology, medicine,
well being 150-159 alternative medicine, diet,
610-619 pregnancy, childcare, nutrition
649 and exercise. Focus should be
300s as predominantly on health ie a
appropriate medical condition. Also
646 if on include sociology material if
grooming it has a health focus eg the
health of certain groups.
House 580-590 Include here all aspects of
and garden 630-635 homemaking including architecture,
640-648 building, interior design,
(there may gardening and cookery. How to
be some books specific to house or garden
exceptions) go here eg building a shed,
690-699 creating storage; otherwise
712-719 decorative crafts go to Art
740 and crafts.
Indigenous As designated All material about the Indigenous
population of Australia and the
Torres Strait Islands. Include
works on Indigenous artists.
Indigenous takes precedence over
all other categories eg Biography,
Art and Craft. Books for the
Indigenous collection will be
identified on the invoice as the
Bayside Indigenous Advisory
Committee provides advice on
selection.
Leisure 769.56 Stamp collecting
780-799 Organised sport, cinema,
theatre, music, indoor
games.
General Philosophy
nonfiction Religion
Law
English language
Science
Technology
Literature
History
References (1) Baker, S Will classification schemes increase use? RQ 27(3) 1988 pp366-376 (2) Underhill, P Why we buy." the science of shopping New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of , Simon and Schuster 1999 (3) Maloney, J Paper presented at the Alia 2004 biennial conference 2004 (4) Woodward, J Creating the customer-driven library: building the bookstore model Chicago, American Library Association American Library Association, founded 1876, organization whose purpose is to increase the usefulness of books through the improvement and extension of library services. 2005 (5) Saricks, J Thinking outside the genre and Dewey boxes Booklist 1 March 2006 (6) Cannell, J and McCluskey, E Genrification: fiction classification and increased circulation. In K Shearer ed shearer person whose occupation is shearing sheep. Guiding the reader to the next book New York, Neal-Schuman 1996 Sarah Hopkins Hopkins, city (1990 pop. 16,534), Hennepin co., SE Minn., a suburb of Minneapolis; inc. as West Minneapolis 1893, name changed 1928. The city manufactures machinery, computer and electronic parts, steel products, air pollution equipment, ophthalmic lenses, tools, Collection Services Librarian (1) A person who works in the data library and keeps track of the tapes and disks that are stored and logged out for use. Also known as a "file librarian" or "media librarian." See data library. (2) See CA-Librarian. Bayside Library Service Victoria Sarah Hopkins BA(Hons) MA(Lib) has been the collection services librarian at Bayside Library Service for the past four years. Prior to that she was a reference and liaison librarian at Deakin University .*R1 refers to Academics' rankings in tables 3.1 - 3.7 in the report. R2 refers to Articles and Research rankings in tables 5.1 - 5.7. No. refers to the number of institutions compared with Deakin. . Library where she sat in on focus groups with undergraduate students who said things like 'why can't we have all the books we need kept together?' Sarah saw quite competent members of the university community struggle with complexities of the library's collection. When she came to be in charge of a collection and saw borrowers still battling to make sense of the library, the temptation Temptation Terror (See HORROR.) apple as fruit of the tree of knowledge in Eden, has come to epitomize temptation. [O.T.: Genesis 3:1–7; Br. Lit. to institute changes was too great to resist. Address: Bayside Library Service 14 Wilson Street Brighton Vic 3186 tel(03)95915914 fax(03)95928064 shopkins@bayside.vic.gov.au |
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