Hello again,
I had asked about this before and decided that I am going to do a topic classification, no numbers at all.
With that said I am having a bit of trouble on figuring out my topics...
so far I have:
R – Relationships
RM – Marriage
RD – Divorce
RP – Parenting
RPM – Mothers
RPF – Fathers
RS – Sexuality/Sex
RT – Dating
RF – Family
RFC – Family Concerns
B – Biography
T – Trinity
TF – Father/God
TS- Son/Jesus Christ
TH – Holy Spirit
YA – Young Adult
YAF – Young Adult Fiction
YAN – Young Adult Non-Fiction
+ -- Kids (7-12 reading level)
+F – Fiction
+N – Non-Fiction
++ -- Kids (>7 years old/non-readers)
BOARD – Kids (board books)
These ones I am fairly set on, as I did start using some, but I am having trouble with the rest....
The vision I am using is:
#1 Joining Christ (Deepening personal relationship/daily Christian living)
#2 Building Families (intake Word of God/Invest Families)
#3 Transforming Communities (serving community/sharing Christ)
Under the #1 I would have topics on the Trinity, personal growth books
Under #2 I would have the relationship section
Under #3 I would have community related books and missions
My question for all of you is what other subject/topic headers should I use? Or any subheaders you think I need? The kids-YA section will be in its own area so I don't need topics for those...maybe the YA, but not right now. I was also thinking about having a question shelf also (the good book company has several short books, booklets really, on topics like being gay, the holy spirit, is hell for real, is forgiveness really free, why bother with church, etc)...if I bought all those little booklets could I just label one shelf Questions? and then put them all together, even though they may otherwise be separated throughout the library?
Another side of this is that having books in topic sections would allow me to know what kinds of books we currently have, and which we need more of. Also, the subheaders, RM, RS, RFC, etc, would probably have a small label on the shelf, but relationships would be the bigger header. and Building Families would be the biggest at the top of that area.
Replies
I agree with Eva Nell. Dewey has done all the work for you. I think in time you will wish you had used Dewey. You can help your congregation with shelf labels with topics like Easter, etc. Your computer will help your congregation find things quickly and that is your goal. Whatever you decide, remember you need to leave a legacy, not a mess for those who follow you.
Did I cause confusion? The topics that I posted in the first post is based off of Dewey Decimal System as I understand it. I THOUGHT I was being helpful to go along with the original poster's pattern. Maybe not? I apologize if I stirred about confusion.
For my personal sanity, I stick with Dewey Decimal - except with the children's collection (preschool thru early readers) which is a bit of a mix at the moment. As a novice, I'm learning how to make the system work for our library and yet how to be sensible and consistent for librarians who follow,
It's fun to see how when I give a new incoming book a call number according to the Dewey System, the book then find its place nesting beside other books of the same subject.
I LOVE A Classification System for Libraries and use it quite often. Please seriously consider purchasing this book. It's always beside me as I process books. It helps me to bring consistency.
Book Link
You might consider the resource A Classification System for Church Libraries? Many librarians use this tool to help make Dewey work for church librarians. That may give you the topics you are looking for as well.
Thanks, I'll check it out.
Thanks for the prayer :) The previous librarian had made up a system that was a mix of dewey and something else, so I have to redo everything anyway, which is partly why I am doing it. The second part is when I looked up dewey I couldn't find much in the way of broad topics for christian books. There was christian living, I think, but it encompassed a large amount of subtopics. The third part is so I know the types of books we have and what we need more of. Lastly, the vision is part of the churches new vision so it would flow easily with that and reinforce what the vision is and what it looks like. If I am not understanding dewey please direct me to what I am not getting. I am new at this and haven't worked in an official library before.
You are going to be very disappointed as I will not reconsider. I want everyone to walk into the library and find books they want to read quickly. Dewey doesn't allow for that within Christian book topics, it's not broad enough. Also, the previous librarian created her own system of Dewey, using some and making up other numbers, so I have to redo it anyway.
Eva, what do you think of the following?
Within the Dewey Decimal System, I started to put up shelf labels.
For instance, with "Private Worship" I placed shelf labels like the following:
Private Worship 248.3
I need to do the same with Relationships. So instead of the lettered spine labels, I plan to keep the Dewey Decimal System numbers.
Your thoughts?
What about . . . something that I've been working on as well. . . hope it helps you to process. . . .
I hope to do something of the following, using numbers instead of the call letters. I plan shelf talkers with the categories.
RELATIONSHIPS
SINGLENESS ......RSI
RSI .... General
*Widowhood...... RSIW *Divorced........RSI *Dating............... RSIT
MARRIAGE .....
RM ..... General, for both spouses *Wife ....... RMW *Husband ....... RMH
{Sex/Sexuality written specifically for these groups of people could be placed here. Otherwise, the books such on sexuality identity could still go under the Sexuality/Sex category.)
FAMILY
RF - General, Concerns
*Child-rearing . . . . Parenting, Fostering, Adopting . . . . RFC *Mothers ........ RFM *Fathers ...... RFF
*Siblings...... RFS *Relatives........ RFR
Acquaintances
*Church Relationships *Friends, Neighbors, and co-workers
Just ideas put out there. You've a great plan going.
Using the Dewey Decimal system helps us to not have to re-invent the wheel. I feel strongly enough about this for the Junior sections and older that I've been debating if I should mostly remove my above response.
Even our Children's Collection is framed upon the Dewey Decimal System and I use the call numbers accordingly for Science and Culturally related topics. Theological concepts, Christian Life and Practices, Devotions, and Poetry & Prayer sections in the Children's Collection do have alphabetical letter assigned to them, but still strongly frames upon the DDS.
ETA: In other words, I use DDS but then label subject matter accordingly. This way people can follow the DDS or just follow the subject labels. Example: One bookcase is labeled "Christian Foundations: Christian Theology * Christian Ethics * Devotional Literature" . Then I place the DDS numbers on the shelf label accordingly. "Christian Ethics 241" or another example - "Devotional Literature 242".
Thanks for that, I like that idea :D