The WebJunction class that I took was called Shelving with Dewey. I thought this class was very informative and I enjoyed it a lot. I personally have always been familiar with Dewey, specifically the 000-900 major subject areas, but not as much on how to shelve with it. I’ve always been one to just ask a librarian for help, but I suppose if I’m going to be that helpful librarian someday, I should be a bit more knowledgeable about it. ;)
The course started out with a lot of background information on Melvil Dewey himself as well as how his classification system came to be. They then describe how it works, going into more detail about the call numbers and how they differentiate within each hundreds designation, tens designation, and into decimals. I thought they did an excellent job explaining how to shelve numerically with the call numbers and alphabetically by author’s last name. They even described how mentally adding 0’s to the end of a call number with a decimal can help you keep everything in order. The class also illustrated how to shelve fiction alphabetically by the author’s last name and special sections based on your library as well as shelving biographies, reference books, and juvenile books. What was really cool though was they had 5 different shelving simulations where they gave you 8 different call numbers to put in the correct order. I thought those were super helpful, as shelving is something you need to master through practice. Overall I thought this was a great course, especially for someone not as familiar with Dewey.
Shelving is something I've had woefully little experience with, so this does indeed seem like an informative class to take. Mentally adding zeros to the end of the call number with a decimal sounds like a helpful trick to remember.
ReplyDeleteThis is something that I think I'll look into taking. I don't work in a library so I don't know the Dewey system too well. I can find the books OK but I don't know what subjects go with what numbers (which is something I think I'll need to know!!!) This sounds like a course that would really benefit me!
ReplyDeleteI agree that this is a class I think I should also take. I've had shelving experience, reading the spines and placing them in the appropriate order. I definitely need more practice with what class number goes with what designation, so I can direct people to correct section when I'm asked, "Do you have anything on psychology?" You'd think it's be a bigger part of the curriculum, actually...
ReplyDeleteShelving is one of my favorite things to do. I think it has something to do with the fact that I'm a perfectionist. I like to have everything in order. Sounds like a good course.
ReplyDeleteI also want to take this class. I did shelve at the library but would like to get more help in knowing how to direct patrons to the right section on a particular subject as well. I am not sure if the class specifically helped with that. Let me know please.
ReplyDeletePeople are always coming in the library with no knowledge of Dewey. We always help them find what they are looking for. I think it would be helpful for just about anyone using a library to have at least a basic knowledge of Dewey. The simulation of shelving sounds really cool and helpful.
ReplyDeleteI like the trick about adding the zeros, I plan I trying that. I think I will take this one to brush up on dewey to be able to help patrons better.
ReplyDelete