[DCRB-L] Classification numbers

[Deborah J. Leslie]

I agree with everything everyone has said in favor of a classified closed stack arrangement, except that I still maintain that the benefits are not worth the costs in any place I've ever worked, and that a properly cataloged and indexed collection should in fact provide for all the needs of both readers and staff alike.

That said, I'd like to take up Richard's final point in praise of a classified catalog and what that might mean in an automated environment. Here I'm thinking not of shelf arrangement, but subject classification based more clearly on relationships and hierarchies -- the thesaurus model. I think our readers and ourselves would be much better served by such an approach to subjects, and I wonder how much more time it would take for catalogers to apply subject headings when they must find the proper place in a whole hierarchy. Maybe more, maybe less.

But I fear are we getting a field of the DCRB-L purpose. Perhaps this discussion might be moved to ExLibris if there is more to be said on the subject. 
______________________
Deborah J. Leslie
Head of Cataloging
Folger Shakespeare Library
201 East Capitol St., S.E.
Washington, D.C. 20003
202.675-0369 (voice)
202.675-0328 (fax)
djleslie at folger.edu 
www.folger.edu

-----Original Message-----
From: Richard Noble [mailto:Richard_Noble at brown.edu]
Sent: Monday, May 05, 2003 12:20 PM
To: dcrb-l at lib.byu.edu
Subject: RE: [DCRB-L] Classification numbers


This is a point well taken: one of those things that might seem rather 
minor, until there you are with a class presentation that you just heard 
about, that will take place in a couple of hours; or an exhibition to be 
mounted yesterday and you do wonder what books of that sort look like. I 
think we vastly underplay the ways in which cataloging and the related 
arrangement of books enable us as librarians to serve readers and to manage 
our collections. The overemphasis on the catalog as a purely public 
facility leads us to underestimate the importance of the "indirect" 
services that are among the principal values that libraries add to 
collections. Classification plays a role in such services, and indeed there 
are many librarians (perhaps especially outside the US monoculture?) who 
feel that the classed catalog is a powerful but sadly neglected tool.

At 5/5/03    10:08 AM, Eric Holzenberg wrote:
>Reader browsing is not the only issue here.  It depends upon the library, 
>of course, but library staff often have access to at least some part of 
>the rare book stacks, and they also benefit from classified arrangement -- 
>this is particularly true of curators and others who create exhibitions.


RICHARD NOBLE : RARE BOOKS CATALOGER : JOHN HAY LIBRARY : BROWN UNIVERSITY
PROVIDENCE, RI 02912 : 401-863-1187/FAX 863-2093 : RICHARD_NOBLE at BROWN.EDU