Library location can affect a book’s visibility

During class discussion this week for LIS 5250, one of the ideas that came up was books that formerly sat unused on a shelf suddenly being checked out by students. One thing I took to heart when reading the CREW manual was the idea that it was acceptable to move books to a different (but still relevant) location that got better visibility.

Scapegoated while working at JOANN’s

In September 2017, I walked away from a part-time job with JOANN Fabric and Craft Store in Santa Rosa, California. I chose to leave after being singled out and scapegoated, for being held responsible and threatened with write-up for long lines at checkout during a heavily-advertised sale.

Dewey classifications govern books and blog

As of two years today ... my family’s home library has been classified and arranged according to the Dewey Decimal System, with each book assigned a number based upon the book’s subject (or by genre and era in the case of the 800s, literature).

Shown here, books from my library science courses, arranged in order numerically.

Since then, of course, I’ve extended this classification to subject-tagging on my blog. It seemed thematically appropriate, with my emphasis on librarianship, and was a natural progression from organizing books in numerical order by subject.

Blog posts classified with Dewey numbering

This week I’ve been researching Dewey Decimal classifications for the subject tags in my blog. It seemed thematically appropriate, with my emphasis on librarianship, and is a natural progression from organizing my own books in numerical order by subject.

My family’s books, organized by Dewey system

Like living in a library: My project this week was to label and then shelve my family’s books in order according to the Dewey Decimal system of classification, with each book assigned a number based upon the book’s subject. Shown here, the books for my library studies are arranged in order numerically.

Great cataloging aid: OCLC Classify

OCLC Classify is a great cataloging aid; I searched for a book in its database this morning.

The site displays the classification numbers that are most frequently assigned to that book in both Dewey and Library of Congress classification systems.

My thanks to Lorcan Dempsey on Twitter for informing me about this resource.

Toastmasters ad lib Dewey-shelved books

For the Table Topics exercise on Thursday at our local Toastmasters meeting, I had the speakers pick a number between 1 and 999. I gave them the corresponding classification under the Dewey Decimal System and they had to describe a book, real or imaginary, that might be shelved under that category.

I noticed that 020 corresponds to “Library Science” so I went looking for books today while at the Lakeport library. I checked out a few that looked interesting: The Library in America: A Celebration in Words and Pictures by Paul Dickson, Getting Political: An Action Guide for Librarians and Library Supporters by Anne M. Turner and Free For All: Oddballs, Geeks and Gangstas in the Public Library.