Nathan Rinne wrote:
>
> Do public libraries share any responsibility to cultivate in users
> a respect and appreciation for more comprehensive knowledge
> organization (not necessarily Dewey, but Dewey is what we have)
> [...]
If patrons ask us for this cultivation, then almost any librarian
would be thrilled to help provide it.
The key word: "ask".
> [...] and the corresponding ability to effectively and efficiently
> use it for some rather thorough research (even in a public library
> system)?
Again, we're happy to help the patrons who ask us to guide them in
their thorough research; guidance that will often include explaining
how information in a particular subject is organized.
But librarians should not be nannies, prodding patrons to learn what
they neither need nor want to know just because we think it would be
good for them. Librarians are professionals, of a profession which
could do a better job of creating systems that help our patrons to
help themselves rather than systems that require us to be in the
middle.
And if helping our patrons help themselves by getting ourselves out
of their way really does mean ditching Dewey as a shelf ordering
system, then let the re-arranging and re-labelling begin!
Steve
--
Steve Casburn, ILS Coordinator, Multnomah County Library
E-mail: <stevencm_at_multcolib.org>
Received on Thu Nov 12 2009 - 20:53:04 EST