The Geography of Knowledge

1. What initial thoughts, reactions, impressions, questions do you have after reading this chapter?
2. What are your impressions of Melvil Dewey after reading this chapter from Weinberger?
3. Weinberger refers to a “memory palace” on page 52. Share an example of a mnemonic device that you have created and used to help you remember important information.
4. What are your thoughts on Weinberger’s point that the Dewey Decimal System cannot be fixed, p. 56? How should libraries respond?

 

1

First of all… I really like this book. Looking forward to the rest of it… nice choice as a textbook, I think.

DDC sometimes gets a bad rap. I completely understand its limitations and bias but I’m always drawn to things that “just work” and DDC still works today despite its drawbacks. It is not theoretical, but it is helping millions of information seekers around the world find resources every single day. I would love to see some major revisions in the 200s but I doubt we can expect large changes to fix the religious bias anytime soon. I certainly don’t think that Dewey was trying to be biased. In fact, after reading more about his background in this chapter, I feel like he was actually somewhat enlightened for his time. Of course we know now that Buddhism should have a more “respectable” position in a classification system but Japan and China were only opening to the West in the second half of the 19th century – the very time that Dewey was creating his classification system. Whatever classification system we come up with next that solves DDC’s limitations will undoubtedly be laughed at by our descendants – perhaps because we didn’t leave enough room for the religions of the native peoples of Alpha Centauri and Andromeda.

2

The more I learn about Melvil Dewey, the more I fluctuate between thinking he would be a fantastic dinner guest or the worst dinner guest ever. I don’t think the night would end with me thinking that it was “nice” but either extremely positive of extremely negative. I am certain that I would enjoy learning a great deal from Dewey but I’m increasingly concerned there would be little dialogue and conversation but just Mr. Dewey speaking on and on. I really admire that he built a classification system that still holds up today. I would love to know what he would change about it if he were to revise it today.

3

When I need to memorize things, I often move around a familiar place such as a room or a park as I memorize. This way I can associate the things I need to memorize with physical places and objects that I already know without thinking. If I forget something from a list, I will usually know where it is supposed to be in the list and can leave a space and then re-trace my path in my mind as time allows. After practice, it is possible to assign the items to memorize to physical places and objects but not actually have to be in that location – it just becomes a mental map.

4

A little further on past the statement “it can’t be fixed” is the answer. We cant fix it because, as Weinberger says (on page 61 of my ebook version):

There is no end to it [the revisions]. The Dewey Decimal Classification System can’t be fixed because knowledge itself is unfixed. Knowledge is diverse, changing, imbued with the cultural values of the moment.

So true. It doesn’t invalidate DDC as a viable option for libraries today, but simply reminds us that there will be no perfect classification system that fits all needs. Personally, I’m very interested in the theoretical sciences and believe that information professionals may move closer to designing perfect systems in the future and I very much hope to be involved in those discussions. But the fact remains that DDC does work – it helps people find the information they desire. I’m more annoyed by the increasing number of digits to the right of the decimal than I am that several categories could use major revision. Those long DDC numbers don’t fit on the spines of our books!

I have followed with great interest how some school libraries have done away with DDC and more or less made up their own subject groupings and shelved books accordingly. Many libraries have done this with fiction – shelving by genre instead of just author’s last name – and some smaller libraries (primarily school libraries) are seeing an increase in reading after shunning DDC for their non-fiction and grouping books by whatever sections work best for that particular library. I’m not ready to make that change yet but I’m going to keep my eye on this trend.