To Dewey or Not to Dewey…

There have been a few articles and blog posts written in the past few years about disbanding the children’s collection of materials and rather than using the Dewey Decimal Classification and instead going for a more “bookstore” feel with books separated by subject matter.  I’ve been intrigued with this idea, but I can only imagine the amount of work it would require to change all of the bibliographic records in the catalog as well as change the spine labels to reflect the new classification system.

But, the idea came back to me again yesterday as a patron asked for “concept” books for her toddler.  She wanted “everything” – colors, shapes, alphabet, numbers, you name it, she wanted it and was uninterested in helping us find them.  So as I was scurrying around trying to collect these books that all have different authors, I thought, wouldn’t it be great if all our concept books for young children were in one section?  Most parents (and small children) ask for books about a certain theme or topic such as “princess” books or “truck” books.  I would love to be able to send children to an area where they could find these books all together.

I’m still trying to figure out if I would include both fiction and non-fiction titles together or include picture books and chapter books together, but there is some clout for changing the way we organize the library.  Public libraries are for the public and if it could make their lives (and ours) easier, well then maybe, we should consider it.

For more information check out the blog post on the ALSC blog which also has links to other libraries who have removed Dewey from their library.