The Kirkwood Library began providing services to the college in 1967. At that time, we had about 5,200 books. We now have over 50,000 print books. That’s in addition to over three times that number of ebooks. The classification system we have been using for our print books since 1967 is the Dewey Decimal Classification system.
We are beginning the process of changing our book classification system from Dewey Decimal to Library of Congress. There are numerous reasons for switching from Dewey to Library of Congress, but the biggest is that nearly all college libraries in the country now use the Library of Congress. The arrangement on the shelves using this scheme is more conducive to research than Dewey. For example, the Library of Congress lists the works by Maya Angelou in the same location.
In Dewey Decimal Classification, her works would appear in separate sections designated for poetry and prose. Moreover, works written about an author and/or their work, will also go in the same location rather than a separate section.
While we will be working hard to get our books switched over to the new classification system, it is a very big project, and it will take some time so there will be a long while when we have some books classified using Dewey and others using Library of Congress.
The book will always be listed in our catalog with the scheme it is classified with, and our friendly staff will be more than happy to direct you to where you can find a particular book you are looking for.
Thank you for excusing our classification mess as we process our collection of books to better serve you. If you have any questions, be sure to ask!
Categories: Contributed, Feature, Library Update
