Author: jessamyn

Good thing there’s a new NYT login because you’ll need it to read about uber-paranoiac John Ashcroft ragging on librarians. How dare he? I think what ALA says is right on. [ NYT ]

Some responses to the batty Mr. Ashcroft. ALA, Wisconsin, Ohio, Bernie Sanders, Virginia & California, so far.

The travels and travails of one of the world’s smallest dictionaries. [ thanks dsdlc ]

Please note that just because whitehouse.org is not representing an official branch of the government, they are still pretty damned funny. Please see: Terrorist Reading Lists. [ thanks erica ]

But what if I wrote a book on quiddich… what’s that DDC?
Let’s not forget that old favorite, faceted classification. They use it on the web, you know.

Then there’s the Weine System, an adaptation of the DDC for Judaica. See also David Elazar’s Classification for Libraries of Judaica. Dewey, sometimes accused of anti-semitism, files all Jewish books under 296.

I fixed the link to Rachel’s accidental systems librarianship page. And look, she’s reviewed our book.

Cotton classification system. Not to be confused with this cotton classification system.

More on the Cotton Library and here.

I know you already know what a genius Rachel Singer Gordon is. She’s written a great piece on Systems Librarian Impostor Syndrome. For more on accidental systems librarianship, see this reference page. [ lisnews ]

I’m trying to pick up the Dewey Decimal System really sort of quick-like since I’m a bit embarassed that I managed never to pick it up in library school. This page is currently my favorite crib sheet, though this one is a close second.

And do weblogs belong in the 040’s?

Great letter to Adelphia in Library Juice. Have you seen their ads conflating their high-speed service with the library [only better, no card!]? I feel the same way about this stuff as I did about Google Answers. It’s fine to have both services, but the people with the for-fee service seem to need to try to explain why they are better than the for-free service. And in reality, it’s just apples and oranges. Adelphia, you are not the library. Google Answers, you are not librarians. Why pretend you are? I think it’s the strength of our reputation, don’t you? [ juice ]

I’ve been getting interested in alternate classifciation schemes. The Warburg Institute Library has its own brand. Four sections: Action, Orientation, Word, Image.

Is protecting the rights of users and supporting free access to ideas one of the fundamental values of librarianship? I sure think so. [ commonsblog ]

Soon to be a new favorite of mine: Ref Grunt, pullquotes from life at the reference desk. [ blogsource ]