So other libraries have topics?

[depechemodefan]

annoying woman: aw
librarian who hates her: me

aw: where do you have the new non-fiction books?
me: depending on the call numbers, they will be on the second and third floor. For ex, if the call number is 001-499, it will be on the second floor, on the right hand side.
aw: no, that's not what I mean. Does it go by topic?
me: the topic is based on the call number. If you were looking for computer books, they will be ... (she gives an eye-roll now)
aw: no, you dont' understand. Does your library go by topic?
me: the topic is classified by call number...
aw: are you going to let me finish? I've been going to libraries and all of them go by topic. This is the most backward library, I've been going to libraries since 1960....
me: ma'm, I don't care if what other libraries youv'e been to, all libraries are different...
aw: are you going to let me finish? All other libraries label their shelves by topic. It's impossible to talk to you (she gets her purse off the desk, but the clapse undoes -is undoes a real word?- and it almost spills her stuff.)
me: if you are asking if we have labels on the shelves with the topics, then no, we don't label the shelves.
aw: *rabble rabble rabble*

I'm expecting her to get a supervisor. And a supervisor appears, but has a different woman with him.

super: is there anyone waiting for the metro lift?

me: no, sorry.

[energyguy]

every library in the UK i have been to arrange's the book by the dewey decimal system but it also list's on each shelf what topic can be found there.

Perhaps that is what she was looking for.

[depechemodefan]

She did have a British accent....To be honest, I have been to libraries with subjects listed on the sides on the shelves. But we also have huge signs hanging from the ceiling (these things are from 15-20 feet long, maybe 4ft high) above certain sections. These signs have the subjects on them, ex:

500s Science
600s Technology and Cooking

so the signs aren't on the shelves, but are viewable from far away.

But she was annoying me for first asking for new books, and I keep on thinking she was still talking about new books, but she had moved on to something general. The new books are on a small display, and there are 2 per floor, so really, we couldn't have one display just for history because we don't have enough new books on history for just one display.

I made her sound more coherent then she really was.

I hated losing my rag with her but we wern't on the same page.

[fireheart]

We use the Dewey System here in Ausland as well, however only a few libraries I know put the topics alongside it. My soon-to-be-non-local-since-library-near-home-is-reopening library has general topics on the shelf before you walk down it (for instance if the shelf has 741-798, it might say Drawing, Drama, Music, Dance etc.) while my uni requires you to at least know the call number.

[noone]

Dewey Decimal System? Do we ever!

[RecoveringKinkoid]

Pretty sure our libraries don't list by topic. They are listed by call number. You find out what shelf your topic is by looking in the card catalog.

Been a while since I have been to a library, granted.

[tollbaby]

I think she was thinking of a BOOK STORE.... wow.

And what was with her constantly telling you to let her finish? From the way you described it, she asked, you answered.

[vloglady]

Yaw! Down here in New Yawk! We use good 'ole Melvin's system.

Library Lady in New Yawk.

[bhskittykatt]

All the public libraries I've been to have used Dewey Decimal system (colleges/universities I've been to all use Library of Congress). I don't recall our public library organizing anything by topic. They have Children's, Young Adult, Fiction, Nonfiction, Magazines, etc...but they don't get more specific than that. The community college lists the topics in the classes/subclasses. The university library is a labyrinth that I don't want to touch.

[Sleepwalker]

Libraries in my city are separated into Children's, Periodical, Nonfiction and Fiction. Other than that, you'll have to use the catalogue.

[Shalom]

I dunno, you hang around libraries long enough you start to get a feel for what's where, especially in the subjects you've already looked up. E.g. transportation in 388, photography in 770, child development somewhere around 155, and so on.

And even if the Dewey Decimal System is a closed thing-with-a-lot-of-pages to you, a quick glance at the titles of the books at the ends of the aisles ought to give you a rough idea, at least as much as a printed label on the edge of a shelf would. No, it wouldn't tell you where to find a particular section, but neither would the labels.

(I used to know the LoC system to an extent, having used that in my university library for a few years, though I don't remember much of it anymore. The one "system" I never could get the hang of was the NYPL's Research Library. It's not Dewey (like Brooklyn), it's not LoC (like the rest of the NYPL), I can't see any kind of systematic organization to it at all. You basically have to plow through the 796 volumes of the book catalog to find anything. I once ordered up a particular book on photography, but transposed the last two digits in the call number when I wrote it on the slip. Wound up with a scientific treatise on soil analysis in Thailand, if I remember correctly, or something equally far-out from what I was expecting. I mean it was not even close, so why were they even on the same shelf? I don't know if they've changed this system since I last looked at it years ago, but I suspect not: the whole of Bryant Park is hollow underneath, and the hollow bits are full of the Library's stacks, so they'd likely be working on it for years if they tried.)

[El Pollo Guerrera]

Sometimes, don't you just wish you could...?

[Barefootgirl]

I have to say that I have never been to a public library in the UK that DOESN'T have some indication of the subject on the shelf - but its literally just a line of type that says "940: European History". There are invariably signs either hanging from the ceiling or on the walls above the bookshelves to guide you to approximately the right area for your search.

Academic libraries are completely different, of course. I like them better because I can sit on my bum and play Solitaire until my books are ready for me!!! Mmmm, closed collections.....