Is it because one needs to know basic math?
Anyway the Dewey Decimal System went out like wall hanging phone land lines, due to technology.
It's sad but brick and mortar libraries aren't really needed today, since one can get e-books or other historical information online.
I remember my first ever field trip in first grade was to the local public library.
“...how is the Dewey Decimal System racist?”
________________________________________________
...because mentally-ill Leftists are saying they are.
"Even in his day, people were appalled at his antisemitism. He literally opened his own social club just to exclude Jews, including many of his own colleagues."Well, tarnation! In other words, he is the perfect 2024 Democrat. So the Dems should love the guy and make him the Dean of Columbia University.
In a numeric system 0-9 give you a choice of 10 characters. (With restrictions on leading zeros which cause problems. For example: "5" and "005" are not recognized as the same unless the software is written to).
In an alphanumeric system, A-Z and 0-9 give you a choice of 36 characters.
Computer programs can query and sort with alphanumeric systems in ways a simple numeric system can't.
“It is time to imagine a new future in our libraries, one that truly supports and incorporates our values of intellectual freedom, equality, and social justice.”
Intellectual freedom????? Yeah, right...
The new Wokey Decimal System for permitted books:
000-099: Microaggressions
100-199: Intersectionality
200-299: Cultural Appropriation
300-399: Privilege
400-499: Social Scoring
500-599: Safe Spaces and Trigger Warnings
600-699: Far Right-Wing Extremism and Wrongthink
700-799: Organic, Vegan, Gluten-Free Living
800-899: Gender and Pronouns
900-999: Deconstructing the Patriarchy
Books are further classified by their “Awareness Level” from 1-10, with 1 being Problematic and 10 being Enlightened. Misclassifications must be reported to the Literary Justice Committee.
I was a student worker then a MLS Librarian for almost 40 years. The Dewey System is as close to the Perfect classification system for books that there is.
Anything else would just be madness.
Brick and mortar libraries are needed now more than ever. Unless you like the idea of having all your information controlled by a gatekeeper with a mouse in his hand.
That "memory hole" is working perfectly between your ears. My research demands paper books frequently simply because of the selectivity in choosing what gets scanned.
This person belongs in a rubber room. I remember going to a university library that used the Library of Congress system. I was clueless.
Over time they embraced all the new technology for cataloging and checking out books, but there were greater changes. The Dewey Decimal Class 900 section changed rather quickly from History and Geography to almost exclusively Oppressed Minority Grievance. Other sections experienced similar changes.
There were changes in how the library is used. Upstairs is the kids floor. Most of the activity seems to be organized little tykes. When searching for books for grandchildren, I see very few kids actually browsing the rows for books.
Downstairs activity goes as follows: the tables and chairs around the perimeter are used by Asian kids with laptop computers, immersed in school work, availing themselves of the free WiFi. In the center is large block of desktop computers. That is where mostly blacks and Hispanics sit, browsing social media.
The actual rows of books? Crickets.
Not everyone has or can afford an online connection. In fact libraries were once for people where are on a tight budget.
As libraries and book stores shift over to e-books the people who can not afford to shell out a hundred bucks a month for a good connection and two hundred for an e-reader are being shoved to the side.
It used to be that you could go to a used store and pick up ten or so books for your child to read or for you to read. You could then loan or give them to friends for them to enjoy. With e-books that does not happen.
We are now in the era of the "book gap". People who have been given a subpar education will no longer be able to advance on their own because the e-books are out of their reach.
They will not be able to teach their children at home.
Yeah I know, if they are not middle class they are all lazy drug addicts who need to just go die in a ditch somewhere.
From Wiki:
"Despite its widespread use, the classification has been criticized for its complexity and its limited capability for amendment. In particular, the arrangement of subheadings has been described as archaic and biased towards an Anglo-American world view.[48][49] This is particularly clear in the 800s section, in which most literature, particularly from outside the United States or Europe, is relegated to the 890s particularly when contrasted with the 900s—history."
So, it is complex -> difficult to understand -> not suited for minorities(?) -> racist.
Then it is biased towards the old white man stuff -> racist.
Seems pretty clear to me. Racist. 🙄
https://www.history.com/news/the-father-of-modern-libraries-was-a-serial-sexual-harasser
Dewey was a true Liberal (not conservative). The Decimal system is NOT difficult at all to understand and find books on the shelves of libraries.
The people complaining about this as racist are the usual non-English speaking, math challenged (can’t understand the decimal system... for one damn thing. Incredible. You know things like 2.5 means 2 and one half. .5 = 5/10ths etc. Dumb as a rock iow.).
But then they are likely only checking out cartoon page books for ‘reading’. Not works of science or academics of any stripe.
It reminds me of keyboards. You might argue that it makes more sense to put the letters on keyboards in a different configuration, now that computers have replaced typewriters, but people have been using QWERTY for so long that it makes no sense to change the layout.
I’m open to the idea that Library of Congress or some other system makes more sense to experts and specialists, but most of the time, in smaller libraries, it’s easy to remember that 100 is philosophy, 200 is religion, 400 is language, 800 is literature and 900 is history and just head for that section of the library. Once there, it’s not impossible to find what you are looking for, and you’ll see other interesting books along the way.
Replacing Dewey at this point could make people lost in libraries and likely to avoid them. Possibly that is the idea: more free time for librarians (after all the books have been recatalogued and the overtime has been paid), fewer opportunities to learn things that the regime doesn’t want you to learn. Eventually, when the regime has fully consolidated its power Dewey Decimal will be replaced, but until then, don’t let them restrict your access to information.
I’ll continue to say that libraries have served their purpose and now need to be permanently SHUT DOWN. The Librarians are virtually all hate-filled Leftists who support Grooming. SHUT.THEM.DOWN
As a library user, I find it useful for finding the books I want. I look up the book in the card catalogue, then go to the stacks to get it. I have never thought about the system excluding or marginalizing any book, and I would bet that the average library user hasn’t either. If a book is in the library’s collection, which means some librarian made the decision to buy it, it will be in the stacks with a number on it, and can be conveniently located.
Because everything is racist and nothing is reverse racist because it’s the one-way street
Racism is caused by a genetic defect found only in Caucasians
Basic intelligence these days is racist. The thought process that minorities can’t learn basic information is the real racism of lower expectations. I grow tired of racism claims if people don’t have an average IQ. Some people aren’t book smart. Some people aren’t street smart. Some people have or don’t have common sense. It’s not racism to not exercise your brain. The brain must be challenged to grow, yet we continue to excuse no intellectual challenge to increase knowledge. It’s pathetic. I have no idea how to post on instagram but could deduct the process via basic knowledge. Building basic knowledge is not racism.
Do you want your family to own books that will last a hundred years or more? Then you don’t want digital.
I read an article of a writer of stories bemoaning how some of his writings are simply gone. He had lost whatever electronic records he had and can’t find them online, either. Just gone.