Liz and Jennifer--
Several major libraries have recently shifted to LCC and done a reclass of their earlier items, e.g., Cleveland Museum of Art, MoMA and the Met. They used vendors (Backstage, in the case of MoMA) to run their records past RLIN/OCLC to retrieve call numbers that might be lurking there in copy.
When I was at the Amon Carter, we had been a card-based Dewey library until the early 1990s. The Dewey numbers had been simplified and were causing some unhelpful shelf browing. For example, 759.13 mixed general stuff on American painting with stuff on particular American painters. The mix of conversion and reclassification made sense (I think) since we needed machine-readable records and some of the Dewey numbers were problematic. Still, it was a lot of relabeling and shifting books.
In a closed stack library, I wonder if such relabeling and shifting is worthwhile. I might very well declare my DDC shelflist closed, leave the books in place, and start again with LCC if that seems to provide easier acceptance of copy.
If folks from the CMA, MoMA and the Met, Amon Carter, or elsewhere don't reply, you might contact them and ask for their take on the value of the reclass (for tech services and for the USER; think how many new titles you could catalog rather than relabeling and shifting).
Sherman Clarke
New York University Libraries
[log in to unmask]
----- Original Message -----
From: Liz Gentry <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Tuesday, August 19, 2008 9:11 pm
Subject: [ARLIS-L] Pros and Cons of changing an existing library from Dewey to LC
To: [log in to unmask]
> Our new librarian at Tellus - Northwest Georgia Science Museum has
> asked the following question. I will forward on to her your
> responses.
>
> Hey Liz!
> Guess what... I have email now! Yay! Still no desk or voice mail but
> we're working on it.
> I have a question for you. Julian asked me to do a list of pros and
> cons regarding changing our library over to LC or leaving it as is and
> continuing on with Dewey. Would this be an appropriate question to put
> out on ARLIS? I would love to know some other librarians' opinions
> since I am still getting familiar with LC. I plan to do a search on
> the web to see what I come up with, and I would value your opinion as
> well. The price for the Sears Subject Heading catalog (Dewey) and the
> two main LC classification manuals are about the same ($100.), so it's
> more of a time/organization question. Thanks for all your help and any
> suggestions you have.
> Jennifer C.
>
> Thanks in advance for your help.
>
>
> Liz Gentry, Librarian
> Booth Western Art Museum
> P. O. Box 3070
> Cartersville, GA 30120
> (770) 387-1300
> (770) 387-1319 - Fax
> www.boothmuseum.org
>
>
> __________________________________________________________________
> Mail submissions to [log in to unmask]
> For information about joining ARLIS/NA see:
> http://www.arlisna.org/join.html
> Send administrative matters (file requests, subscription requests, etc)
> to [log in to unmask]
> ARLIS-L Archives and subscription maintenance:
> http://lsv.uky.edu/archives/arlis-l.html
> Questions may be addressed to list owner (Judy Dyki) at: [log in to unmask]
>
__________________________________________________________________
Mail submissions to [log in to unmask]
For information about joining ARLIS/NA see:
http://www.arlisna.org/join.html
Send administrative matters (file requests, subscription requests, etc)
to [log in to unmask]
ARLIS-L Archives and subscription maintenance:
http://lsv.uky.edu/archives/arlis-l.html
Questions may be addressed to list owner (Judy Dyki) at: [log in to unmask]
|