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All hail the Dewey Decimal System. This helpful classification created by Melvil Dewey, an American librarian, has been with us since 1876. Since then, libraries have had a system of placing non-fiction books on shelves clustered by subject rather than organized in the not-so-helpful way by height and date of acquisition.
Mr. Dewey divided the world into ten classes (philosophy and psychology; language; science; literature, etc.), which were again sorted into ten divisions and within each division, ten sections.
So neat. So tidy.
And so helpful when one is meandering about the library stacks looking for nothing in particular but hoping for Surprise and Delight.
At the downtown public library, I often troll the 800s (Literature, rhetoric and criticism), and yesterday I was specifically nosing about in the 808s (Rhetoric and collections of literature) and discovered the following:
Essays of the Masters (808.84 ESS) is a collection edited by Charles Neider of essays by masters of world literature, not professional essayists. So we have W.H. Auden writing "What I Believe"; Franz Kafka musing on early aviation efforts; D.H. Lawrence visiting a busy Mexican market; and Oscar Wilde entertaining us with his impressions of America. I do so love a book of essays.
Magic & Madness in the Library (808.8394 MAG) is edited by Eric Graeber and contains descriptions of libraries featured in works of fiction. To wit, among others, we have Edith Wharton's look at a room full of first editions in House of Mirth; take our after-luncheon coffee in the library featured in Crome Yellow by Aldous Huxley; and tour the twelve-thousand volume library on the submarine Nautilus in Jules Verne's Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea. There are some nifty woodcuts of libraries and bookish things by Frank C. Eckmair. Very fitting, if you ask me.
Ah, what delights are to be found in the stacks. Thank you, Mr. Dewey. Without your system who knows if I would have ever discovered these two books that once would have been set upon the shelves years apart and now are so conveniently shelved so closely together.
Yes indeed Belle ..All Hail Dewey!
ReplyDelete"Magic & Madness in the Library" looks interesting, must seek it out. I know I have plugged this before somewhere Belle and now bring it up again while we are praising the library "The Library at Night" by Alberto Manguel .....a brief history of the critical role libraries have played in our civilization. It is a magical read in Mr. Manguel's inimitable style.
Tullik, I have reserved a copy of "The Library at Night". I know you have mentioned it before and I wrote down the title but didn't get any further than that. Now I will get my hands on a copy, I would love to spend the night in a library!
Delete"Magic & Madness" is indeed fun. Who knew libraries were mentioned so often - and so lovingly - in fiction!
When I was in my teens, a neighbor who volunteered at our local library recruited me as a volunteer. I loved shelving the books in their Dewey Decimal places. So structured! I had some bookmarks with the Dewey Decimal system on them, but I love the chart you posted. If only life were as clear as the Dewey Decimal System!
ReplyDeleteYes, Joan, we do love a bit of order! I too worked in a library during my high school years and found the non-fiction books so much easier to shelve than the fiction. Somehow I spent a lot of time reciting the alphabet in my head trying to get the fiction books in the right spot.
DeleteNowadays, I find I do most of my browsing in the 100s, 700s, and 800s with occasional forays into the world of the 900s.
Ah, the pleasures of roaming the library with no plan in mind. These are some delightful finds, and I hope to track down a copy of Magic and Madness in the Library. Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteI have been reading 'Magic & Madness' this morning, Kathy. It is fun to visit these imagined libraries. Some are real, but the visitors are imaginary. Quite a treat for we bookish sorts.
DeleteI miss the Dewey system. It was the system of my childhood and I still remember it. When I was at the University of Minnesota in the late 1980s they were in the process of switching to the Library of Congress system. I remember the social sciences library even had their collection split into two, with most of it still in Dewey and the rest in LOC. As a result, I still don't understand how the LOC system works. It seems needlessly confusing to me.
ReplyDeleteI am with you, Thomas. I can't make any sense of the LOC system. I suppose anything with the word "Congress" in it would be confusing (smile). I will stick with Mr. Dewey, although I think most university libraries use the LOC system. Thanks for chiming in.
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