Okay, it's time to bore the non-librarians.
Just because something's new (to me, at least) doesn't make it all that fascinating. I've been trying to pick out the more interesting things, but this time, alas, I inflict the workaday upon you. I've been pushing an update of the Dewey Decimal Classification numbers on our computer books to DDC 22 because the collection is shelved rather haphazardly according to (as far as I can tell) the numbers of at least two previous editions and some weird in-house number decisions. Part of the reason the old numbers just aren't doing the job is that the nature, scope, and popularity of the field of computing changes *fast,* and library classification... doesn't.
Think about it-- DDC 21 was released in 1996. DDC 20 was released in... 1989? Who the heck knew in 1989 that I'd have to find someplace to squash about 500 extremely popular titles on something called "the World Wide Web"? Anyway, it's taken until DDC 22 for Dewey to really get its act together on classifying works on computers, and I'm trying to neaten things up a bit into a decent browsing collection, since it *is* an area we collect heavily in. But of course, before I can figure out where to put books on "QuarkXPress," "Crystal Reports," and "Linux Fedora Core," I have to figure out what %&*$ category they fit in besides "ummmm... programs! I'm pretty sure they're all programs. Except that last one, that's an OS." Well, that would narrow everything down to 005, at least, but that would hardly improve browsability. That's still three full shelves' worth of titles to wade through.
(Bored yet? I haven't even gotten to the good part!)
So today I learned that QuarkXPress is a desktop publishing program like the more easily-identifiable Microsoft Publisher (moved in DDC 22 from 686.2254 to 005.52 to snuggle with works on word processor programs). (It has nothing to do with cheese, alas.)
Crystal Reports is (duh!) a rather nifty-looking report-generating program that's supposed to work with all kinds of proprietary database programs. At the moment I'm trying to decide whether it'll get better exposure if I leave it up in 651.7802 with "business reports" (as in, the paper kind) or put it in 005.72 with the database books.
And as for Linux, which probably seems the most duh-worthy subject here... the problem (for me) was figuring out what *type* of OS Linux is. (Thank God it wasn't a database, for those numbers are the stuff of non-techie nightmares... object-oriented, parallel, hypertext... there's a different number for every type of database out there, and little guidance to match up the generic with the brand name. Sorting out types of OS was bad enough, thanks.) Does Linux belong in the more general number of 005.43 with the Unix books because it's not a computer-specific OS (and by "computer" don't think IBM vs. Dell vs. Apple-- think mainframe vs. microcomputer vs. handheld)? Does it belong around MS Windows books at 005.4326 (I think? I'm doing this off the top of my head, here-- anyway, the number for user interfaces and windowing systems, specific to microcomputers). Or how about around the Mac books at 005.446 (operating systems for specific microcomputers-- since, as far as I know, the software doesn't come without the hardware)?
Yes, such are the exciting decisions of which a cataloger's job is made. I mean... the book about Linux Fedora Core has pictures of a pretty desktop and everything-- stability aside, is it really that different, OS-wise, from Windows? I'm still semi-agonizing over this one and I think I'm going to have to survey what we have again, but I think it deserves the more general number. After all, Linux doesn't *rely* on that interface. You can go commando-- um, command-line if you prefer, and as people are getting it to run on Ataris it's certainly not computer-specific. (The reason Windows got the "interface" number in the first place is because it started out as just that-- the interface between MS-DOS and the user... nowadays it's inextricable, but it still gets the number. Go figure.)
Posted by gris at July 21, 2004 11:53 PM