Perhaps today is a particularly slow news day, or maybe it’s because the weekend Saturday edition of the Chicago Trib typically has low circulation, but for some reason, the front page story today is about the move by some public libraries to abandon the Dewey Decimal System in favor of the sort of layout used in most bookstores known as BISAC (Book Industry Standards and Communications). If the trend ever catches on, maybe all those Border’s staffers looking for new jobs will find new careers as library shelvers.
Barbara L.
evanstonpubliclibrary.wordpress.com 
OK, here we go again. Seems like this has been tried before-dismantling Dewey in favor of some ‘consumer-driven’ (coroporate conducted?) coding which reduces information seekers to super market type ‘customers’. Maybe Dewey aint perfect, but I don’t see how blurring bookstore-coffeeshop-internet cafe-nail spa-media mall mode will help library patrons. We are not WalMarts, we’re libraries and we can help readers navigate to desired items better WITH Dewey than without Dewey, LCN, etc .
Susan M., RA