A few DDC users have recently asked about a perennial issue: classifying topics as history in the 900s vs. elsewhere in the schedules. Does putting a topic in the 900s diminish it, segregating it into history, or honor it, by recognizing it as historical importance? We can’t answer that for you; that depends on your collection, and your perspective. But we can run through some of the relevant guidance in the classification.

Our first stop is the Manual note for 900. It starts as follows:

Use 900 for the story of events that have transpired, or an account of the conditions that have prevailed, in a particular place or region. Use 001-899 for the history of a specific subject [plus standard subdivision T1—09]

That may be the easy part. Since the DDC is organized first by discipline, works of history go in the 900s, while history of a topic in another discipline usually goes with the topic, with a standard subdivision to indicate history.

How about if a work is about a specific event? The same Manual note says:

Depending upon their impact, class specific events either in 900 or in specific disciplines in 001-899. Use 930-990 for events that are important enough to affect the general social life and history of the place, regardless of any discipline involved, e.g., the sinking of the Lusitania 940.4514; the assassination of Abraham Lincoln 973.7092; the 1906 San Francisco earthquake 979.461051.

It’s not necessarily wrong to find works about such events outside of the 900s if that’s the disciplinary focus—the note gives as an example a number in the 360s about the assassination of John F. Kennedy in the discipline of criminology.

This, too, is easy enough, if we’re talking about events that occurred over 100 years ago. What about recent events? Then, guidance like “events that are important enough to affect the general social life and history of the place” can sound pretty subjective. Consider the author’s perspective: do they describe the event as an important historical one? The Manual note instructs you to prefer 900 if in doubt.

To sum up, here are a few points to consider when classifying such works:

1. What’s the discipline of the work? If it’s framed as history, you probably want the 900s.
2. Did the event described by the work have broad, enduring importance? If so, you probably want the 900s.
3. If in doubt whether the event had historic importance, prefer the 900s.

I’ll explore this same question about the 900s vs. the rest of the schedules in relation to groups of people in a forthcoming blog post. Stay tuned, and feel free to reach out with comments or questions!

Dork Tower is updated Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, thanks to its amazing Patreon supporters. Support the DORK TOWER PATREON, and help bring more Dork Tower to the world (you also get swag, our eternal gratitude, and more)! Even a $1 pledge is appreciated!

If a Patreon seems too much of a commitment, please do consider supporting INSANE CHARITY BIKE RIDE 2020!

ayyyyy shitty daaaan

Morrigan Aensland by skull椎子

As found at:

https://www.pixiv.net/member_illust.php?mode=medium&illust_id=72144420

The post WHY did you buy THAT!?! appeared first on Indexed.

The post appeared first on Evil Inc.

If this isn’t nice, I don’t know what is

Some simple wisdom from Kurt Vonnegut: notice when you’re happy.

“My uncle Alex Vonnegut, a Harvard-educated life insurance salesman who lived at 5033 North Pennsylvania Street, taught me something very important.

He said that when things were really going well we should be sure to NOTICE it. He was talking about simple occasions, not great victories: maybe drinking lemonade on a hot afternoon in the shade, or smelling the aroma of a nearby bakery; or fishing, and not caring if we catch anything or not, or hearing somebody all alone playing a piano really well in the house next door.

Uncle Alex urged me to say this out loud during such epiphanies: “If this isn’t nice, I don’t know what is”

Kurt goes on to say:

"So I do the same now, and so do my kids and grandkids. And I urge you to please notice when you are happy, and exclaim or murmur or think at some point, ‘If this isn’t nice, I don’t know what is.”

Perhaps needless to say, so do I.

More on wellbeing? Here are 5 ways to wellbeing.

Would you like some pie? by Stagiselle

As found at:

https://stagiselle.deviantart.com/art/Would-you-like-some-pie-707841241

At the end of August the auctioneers, Amersham Auction Rooms, offered for sale two Grants of Arms.  (Link) The first was the 1936 Grant of Arms to Sir Charles John Pain of Elm Croft, Harlaxton Drive in the City of Nottingham.  The second was the 1978 Grant of Arms to Nigel Rutherford Rutherford-Young of Elmbridge Drive, Ruislip.

Sir Charles John Pain

Arms: Paly of six Argent and Vert on a chief enarched Azure an abacus between two garbs Or.
Crest: A lion rampant Gules bezantee holding between the forepaws a garb and resting the dexter hind paw upon an abacus Or.
Motto: Tenacitas Ac Modestia
Dated: 1st January 1936
Garter: Sir Gerald Woods Wollaston
Norroy: Algar Henry Stafford Howard

Nigel Rutherford Rutherford-Young

Arms: Azure an arrow palewise point upwards Or overall a saltire Argent surmounted by an orle counterchanged.
Crest: A horse forcene guardant Azure crined and unguled Or and a lion rampant guardant Argent combatant supporting a highland broadsword proper.
Motto: Tenacious of Purpose
Dated: 10th March 1978
Garter: Sir Anthony Richard Wagner
Clarenceux: John Riddell Bromhead Walker

Major Nigel R Rutherford-Young TD served with the London Scottish.

s t a n k

The post If you must know: rainbows taste like clay. appeared first on Indexed.

Click here to go see the bonus panel!

Hovertext:
Also known as VD for Venereans Detected!

The post You know what you must do. appeared first on Indexed.

_{-- Delivered by Feed43 service}

Yeah, why not. Let’s do this.

_{-- Delivered by Feed43 service}

Renee can have little a vulnerability

as a treat

    Guest post by Emily McDonald, Lawrence Public Library

Lawrence Public Library (Kansas) is always looking for ways to be more inclusive and celebrate diversity in our collections and catalog. Our Celebration Picture Book collection was expanded to include more non-Christian holiday stickers and "Undocumented immigrants" was added to all the necessary catalog records before we outright replace "Illegal aliens" later in the year, what was next? When Kate Ray, former LPL cataloger, shared Rebecca Green’s guest post on the 220-299 optional arrangement with me back in May 2019, we knew this arrangement was the perfect fit for our library.  We wanted to use this arrangement because of its equitable treatment of religions rather than giving the bulk of the schedule to Christianity. It has the added benefit of allowing all the religions packed into the 290s to have room to be built out more than what we can do in our system with the current DDC. The Dewey call numbers at LPL are limited to 8 characters (including the decimal), which means we are not able to drill down to specific topics in certain areas, such as Buddhist doctrines. While the optional arrangement can still exceed our 8 character limit, it helped us get specific topics next to each other on the shelf.

After receiving project approval from the supportive leadership team in June, the project was planned for mid-August. Mid-August is a slow time at the library in between the end of Summer Reading and the beginning of school, making it ideal for big projects like this. It also left us with some time to prep the collections before the update and inform staff about the changes. The first thing we did was coordinate with Collection Development to weed the 200s. We did not want to update more books than we had to because of the size of this project. A week before the project, we shelf read, looked for any missing items, and purged old records out of the system. We also posted "coming soon" signs before the project to let patrons know big changes were coming and that the collection would be off the shelf for a while.  

The first collection we updated was our biggest collection, adult non-fiction. On August 12, 2019, almost 1,500 books were pulled off the shelf to be reclassified. While the books were in the cataloging department, we updated the bibliographic call number, item call number, a local classification field, and the spine label. Even with 4 full-time catalogers, we expected it would take us a week to update the adult collection. We were pleasantly surprised when it only took us three days. On the afternoon of August 14th, the collection was back on the shelf. We spent another few days updating the various children’s collection, large print, audiobooks, graphic novels, and DVDs (about 500 more items). Staff holds were placed on any checked out items and system alerts were set up for any non-viable (lost, missing, etc.) items that might go through our automated returns sorter to prevent books being reshelved with the old DDC. By the end of the project and after the checked out items trickled in, 2,500 items were updated from our adult and children collections. 

It took weeks of planning, weeding, and prep to make this project go off without a hitch. The biggest help was creating a crosswalk between the DDC numbers and the optional numbers. I also recommend making a "pull list." Kate used our crosswalk to pull books off the shelf in their new order. For example, she pulled 299.511 first because the new number is 221.1. She also labeled the books she pulled first as "shelf 1," which corresponded with the first shelf in the collection.This made it easier to return items to the shelf without rearranging them and required minimal book shifting.

Display showing the new 200s numbers at Lawrence Public Library

After the project, we posted signs with the new numbers to inform patrons of the changes. We anxiously waited for patron feedback, but never received any. However, we did get a few positive comments on a social media post about the project. We also created a 220-299 Project Packet for libraries interested in making the change. The packet contains a DDC to optional arrangement crosswalk, action plan, and a copy of the optional arrangement schedule.

Going forward, we hope to make the 220-299 optional numbers more accessible to any library interested in making the change. As we catalog new books, we are updating the master record in WorldCat, adding a new 082 field containing the optional number with the $m optional designation. We are trying to keep the arrangement inclusive by adding numbers of our own as needed. During the project, we created our own number within the arrangement for Satanism. It is a recognized religion and we moved it from 133.42 to 299.71, our local number. Since the Witchcraft update, we have updated our documentation to make sure 299.9 is expanded to include any potential built numbers.

To make Dewey the best it can be, we rely on users like you to give us feedback about how we can best use our time in making revisions. This very brief poll asks you to rate the importance of topics that have been identified as needing development. It's also a chance to give us information about topics that might not be on our radar. We'll be repeating this poll a few times a year to ensure we're making the most effective use of our resources. 

The September 2020 poll is available at https://forms.gle/E73bxu6JBmZuPdWF6. We'll have it open for three weeks, until September 22. This is your chance to weigh in on how the DDC should be changed; we're glad for your feedback!

Pineapples were status symbols in 18th century Europe

_{-- Delivered by Feed43 service}

DORK TOWER has been running in Game Trade Magazine for well over 100 monthly issues, now.

This month, based on the strip, I created a “For Your Safety” poster, that stores could pull out and hang up.

In case you don’t want to rip up your Game Trade Magazine, or should you want more than one poster, here’s a higher-res downloadable PDF that you may print out and use:

(You’ll need to click the link, not the image, to get the pdf).

This is an 8.5 x 11″ image. For the United Kingdom, here’s an A4 version:

Stay safe, be well, and prevent Attacks of Opportunity by Covid!

The post Tracking the princess appeared first on Evil Inc.

Dork Tower runs Monday/Wednesday/Friday, thanks to the backing of its amazing Patreon backers.  Enlist in the the Army of Dorkness today, and help support the strip!

The post Keeping Tabs appeared first on Evil Inc.

Manager Time, Maker Time

In Manager Time a day is neatly sliced up into hourly chunks according to the calendar. Meeting someone is as easy as finding a free slot that coincides. You don’t have to worry too much about what you’ll be doing next as your calendar will tell you.

In Maker Time a day is an open book to get something hard and meaningful done. Even thinking when a meeting might be and remembering to go can distract from getting on with making. Long, uninterrupted chunks of time, not sliced and diced by meetings on the hour are ideal to make progress on hard problems and tackle something new. Even a single meeting in the middle of an afternoon can disrupt that long meaningful chunk into two that make it harder to tackle something big as you have to context switch and pick up where you left off.

Most modern offices operate on Manager Time. It’s great for meetings but comes at a cost for getting meaningful work done. If you’re a maker you may associate with the feeling that to get some real work done you feel you need to do it at the weekend, or in an evening after everyone’s gone home, when you’ll be free of interruptions.

If you’re a manager, consider your makers when you schedule your next meeting.

If you haven’t already, you should read the original article Maker’s Schedule, Manager’s Schedule, by Paul Graham from whom this excellent observation is from.

Click here to go see the bonus panel!

Hovertext:
Frankly, how dare you?