Jumble

I can think of six second hand bookshops within an hour’s travel of where I live. Four of them are a delight and I have spent many happy hours browsing their shelves. And buying books of course. The other two look like someone has broken in overnight and done the following, according to my Chambers:

Mixed confusedly, thrown together without order, shaken up, jolted, mixed together, been agitated, floundered. i.e. in a Jumble.

bookshop chaos

Which is just about acceptable in one of them but the other is a danger. You have to go one way round and turn sideways to get along the passages, always with the threat of something falling on your head.

I’m not sure about the next bit but they both have no rhyme or reason in what you may find. You get Enid Blyton next to piles of the Geographical Magazine which I have sometimes found intriguing. But not if you want to search for a particular subject or author.

Which has got me thinking about how the others and indeed libraries actually do organise their books. I’ve heard about the Dewey system but what is it?

The following is from an article by Janine Ungvarsky and published by EBSCO in 2022:

‘Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC)
The Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC) is a way of organizing books in a library so that related topics are shelved together. The system identifies each book by its subject in such a way that adding a book to a grouping does not require renumbering books. It is the most widely used library-organizational system in the world and is constantly evolving as content is added.

Origins
The Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC) system was invented in 1873 by Melville Dewey (1851-1931), then a student assistant at the Amherst College library in Massachusetts. Dewey, who later became a founder of the American Library Journal and the organizer of the first conference for librarians, published his classification system in 1876.

order

Prior to this, a library numbered each book in its collection according to its location on the shelves. A book always had the same number in a library but not necessarily in other libraries, and books on related topics were not usually shelved together. This system made it possible for patrons to locate individual books, but they had to look up each book individually in a master file. The system also made it more difficult for patrons to find books on related subjects.

Dewey revamped this system, numbering books in relation to each other in a way that put books of like topics together. Other libraries adopted his system, creating the first standardized means of locating books in any library.

Structure of the DDC
Under the DDC, books are first grouped into general categories, or classes, and given a three-digit Arabic number based on the overall subject matter. 

These are the ten broad categories for classification:
000—is the most general and includes reference works such as encyclopedias and periodicals. It also includes computer science topics, something that did not exist when Dewey created the system.
100—is dedicated to works of philosophy and psychology, occultism, and parapsychology.
200—includes works related to religion.
300—includes all social sciences, such as anthropology, sociology, political science, law, economics, education, communication, and customs.
400—is dedicated to language, specific languages, and linguistics.
500—covers natural sciences and mathematic topics.
600—includes all technology.
700—is dedicated to the arts (fine and decorative arts, music, and performing arts) as well as sports and games.
800—is dedicated to literature and includes prose, poetry, and drama.
900—encompasses history and geography.

The first numeral in the three-digit number defines a book's general classification. The second numeral indicates a division of that classification, and the third further classifies the book within its division. For example, the 900 classification is for books about history and geography, while the 910 classification is for books about geography and travel. Books starting with 920 are about biography and genealogy, and books starting with 930 are about the history of the ancient world. The third number further classifies a book—a book with the number 931 is about the history of ancient China and a book with the number 932 is about ancient Egypt.

Dewey's system added decimal points to provide more refined classification. In this instance, the decimal point is more like the period in a sentence than a mathematical device; it signals a pause in reading or copying the number. The portion of the number to the right of the decimal point can have as many digits as necessary to allow for a detailed classification of the book's subject matter. For example, a book about caring for dogs is classified as 636.7, with the first "6" representing the broad class of technology, the "3" representing agriculture and related technology, the second "6" serving as the notation for animal husbandry, and the "7" after the decimal point indicating that the book is about dog care. Additional numbers after the decimal point could be added to define different facets of dog care.’

DDC organised library shelves

Well, I found that fascinating.

I thought I’d have a go at a short effort (not haiku) jumbling the definitions of Jumble:

Jumbled Jumble

Agitate, shake without order
throw confusedly, jolt,
flounder together

Thanks for reading, Terry Q.

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Libraries gave us power..........

This week we are talking about authority and I am resisting the temptation to write a rant about petty-minded or even sinister aspects of it. Instead I would like to look at a much-maligned institution in our society – the Local Authority.

It is fair to say that local councils attract a reasonable amount of criticism, derision, suspicion and sometimes anger – hardly surprising when you consider the wide range of services for which councils are responsible, that directly and personally affect people’s lives. Given that councils are responsible for services as diverse as parks, housing, planning, sewerage, roads, child protection, transport, sports centres, cremation and burial, schools, street cleaning, libraries, social services, swimming baths, environmental health, to name but a few, there is much potential for things to go wrong. People who are adversely affected by bad decisions, lapses in judgement and other failings are naturally quick to make their feelings known. Whilst headlines will always be made by poor planning decisions, the deaths of abused little children, the paucity of rural bus services etc. I think we often overlook and fail to appreciate the consistent and reliable way in which local services are delivered to us by councils every day of our lives - the civilizing but unglamourous aspects of life that we take absolutely for granted.

I will single out the library service as a case in point. Against a background of central government’s stringent cuts, large scale closures and having to justify their very existence in the face of those who think they are an unnecessary anachronism in a digital world, libraries continue to provide an extraordinary range of opportunities for self-enrichment, and not just in the provision of books.

In recent months I have been lucky enough to attend the following library-sponsored events: a Murder, Mystery and Martinis evening with crime writers Peter Robinson and Ann Cleeves sharing insights into how they go about their craft; a talk by the brilliant Sophie Hannah on her new novel and anything else people wanted to ask her; a book launch event with debut novelist, Emma Healey, now riding high in the book chart (no. 2 for the last few weeks) with ‘Elizabeth Is Missing’; Music and Mince Pies at Moor Park, where my little granddaughter Amelie was playing the violin with her primary school orchestra; taken part in Haunted Tales at Central Library, with the Dead Good Poets; a puppet workshop, in conjunction with Horse and Bamboo’s production of ‘Hansel and Gretel’ at the Grand, at Palatine with my granddaughters. Saturday will see me at the book sale at Central Library – yes, I know I’ve just offloaded a large number of books, in the course of moving house, but I am a hopeless case!

I haven’t even mentioned the reading groups, storytelling sessions, knitting groups, job skills group, literacy and numeracy groups, jigsaw group, meditation and positive thinking group, basic computer skills groups, the bank of PCs, enabling those who do not have access to the internet at home.  And all the others activities that take place in our local libraries. I think the library service enriches our lives and provides cultural and social opportunities for all ages. Oh and did I mention books? You can any request any book and they will procure it for you, at modest cost.

To finish, here is an untitled poem written by Alan Gibbons for the Voices for the Library group, which campaigns against library closures.

I wonder, do we need
Another boarded-up building
In the High Street,
Another plywood or shuttered cataract
Bearing blind, sclerotic witness
To ignorance, wordlessness, decline?
I wonder, do we need
Another abandoned recess
For the tide of crisp packets and Styrofoam trays
To lap and rustle and slap
Against another closed door,
Another back turned
Against the tired, poor, excluded
Yearning to be free?
I wonder, do we need
More rows of empty bookshelves
To make way, one day
For the commodities to define you,
Tell you that if you fill your eyes with purchases
And stuff your ears with products
you can shut out your own humanity?
I wonder, can we still speak and sing,
I wonder, can we turn the page and bring
To all our new generations
A sense that to be human
Is to talk, debate and argue,
Discuss, discover and yearn?
So many questions-
But if they lock this door for good
Who will provide the answers?

By Alan Gibbons

Thank you for reading,
Sheilagh

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