[DCRB-L] Classification numbers

[Richard Noble]

This is a point well taken: one of those things that might seem rather 
minor, until there you are with a class presentation that you just heard 
about, that will take place in a couple of hours; or an exhibition to be 
mounted yesterday and you do wonder what books of that sort look like. I 
think we vastly underplay the ways in which cataloging and the related 
arrangement of books enable us as librarians to serve readers and to manage 
our collections. The overemphasis on the catalog as a purely public 
facility leads us to underestimate the importance of the "indirect" 
services that are among the principal values that libraries add to 
collections. Classification plays a role in such services, and indeed there 
are many librarians (perhaps especially outside the US monoculture?) who 
feel that the classed catalog is a powerful but sadly neglected tool.

At 5/5/03    10:08 AM, Eric Holzenberg wrote:
>Reader browsing is not the only issue here.  It depends upon the library, 
>of course, but library staff often have access to at least some part of 
>the rare book stacks, and they also benefit from classified arrangement -- 
>this is particularly true of curators and others who create exhibitions.


RICHARD NOBLE : RARE BOOKS CATALOGER : JOHN HAY LIBRARY : BROWN UNIVERSITY
PROVIDENCE, RI 02912 : 401-863-1187/FAX 863-2093 : RICHARD_NOBLE@BROWN.EDU