Posted
7/15/2007 05:01:00 PM
by Douglas
Librarians make The Times again. This time for abandoning the classification system that helped me find books since I was in the second grade. Dewey?
We don't.Trying to build popularity, many public libraries across the country have been looking more like big chain bookstores, offering comfortable easy chairs, coffee bars and displays of the latest best sellers.
But the new library in this growing Phoenix suburb has gone a step further. It is one of the first in the nation to have abandoned the Dewey Decimal System of classifying books, in favor of an approach similar to that at Barnes & Noble, say, where books are shelved in “neighborhoods” based on subject matter.
It was Harry Courtright, director of the 15-branch Maricopa County Library District, who came up with the idea of a Dewey-less library. The plan took root two years ago after annual surveys of the district’s constituency found that most people came to browse, without a specific title in mind.
Interesting that the private sector once again showing the man how to get it done. I just had no idea there was so much exciting news going on in the world of lie-berrys.