Karen Coyle wrote:
>I think his criticism of LCSH is that it is atomistic -- it gives you
an
>entry into a topic but it doesn't relate items in the library to each
>other. Call numbers do that but for some reason we haven't played much
>with giving people an interesting navigation of the classified catalog,
>something that I think has potential. It would undoubtedly be easier to
>do with Dewey, which is more hierarchical than LC classification."
And
>I guess I'm saying that if you don't know what the numbers mean
> you can still find a book but you can't really understand why it's on
> the shelf it is on. And, yes, there might be some similar books near
it,
> but similar HOW? Couldn't we do a better job of revealing the
> information in the classification system?
You might be interested in our modest efforts to do something about this
situation. See our catalog at http://wncln.wncln.org and click on the
"Browse" tab. We've set up a classified search interface using LC
classification and the related LCSH headings. It's highly experimental
at this point, but our faculty and advanced students have been quite
positive in their feedback. Feel free to have at it, positive or
negative.
I've been lurking for awhile now, and have been using some of the issues
discussed on the list in a graduate LIS cataloging course I'm teaching.
It's encouraging to see how many of my students are interested in these
ideas and the future possibilities.
Please cc me on any replies, as I get the list in digest mode.
Thanks,
Mark
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Mark A. Stoffan
Network Librarian, Western North Carolina Library Network
1 University Heights, CPO 1500
Asheville, NC 28804 (828) 232-5095 (office)
mstoffan_at_wncln.lib.unca.edu (828) 231-6285 (cell)
wncln.lib.unca.edu (828) 232-5137 (fax)
Received on Fri Jun 01 2007 - 07:45:49 EDT