Most Recent Messages from LibraryThing Group: Build the Open Shelves Classification

polutropon: Linguistics and Languages Top Level Category

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 19:03:45 -0400

June 22
Generally speaking, the m.o. of the OSC project has been to shelve books in categories where a lay reader would be most likely to look for them. As a result, I think we've relatively frequently eschewed keeping on the cutting edge of academia, in favor of making typical library patrons' lives easier. The taxonomy you suggest might be appropriate for a university collection, or a dedicated cognitive science library, but (as a lot of people have noted) academic libraries are very unlikely to switch to OSC. You're certainly right that as to certain works that exist at the boundary of psychology and linguistics, the existing OSC model forces the cataloger to make an artificial choice between those two top-levels. But I think that choice is inescapable if we want laypeople to be able to use the OSC effectively.

jjwilson61: Open shelves?

Wed, 17 Jun 2009 10:57:27 -0400

June 17
You can't. This is a site for cataloging books not reading them.

quyet: OSC gets leaders: Welcome David and Laena

Fri, 05 Jun 2009 12:20:49 -0400

June 5
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quyet: Atlases, Books of quotations etc.

Fri, 05 Jun 2009 12:18:17 -0400

June 5
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oldfolkgc: Shelf-order: How important is that to you?

Wed, 27 May 2009 22:03:20 -0400

May 27
My library is far smaller than most at LT, by a long shot. I tend not to save books unless they are of particular interest to me, and I planto reread from them at some future date. So, there is almost no fiction in my library...and those mostly short stories which can be read independently, one or two at a time...as a consequence of giving it away after reading. I tend to clump books by main subject. Religion books grouped, atlases grouped, language books grouped, etc.Beyond that, I do not place them in either author order or by title, and I don't require numeric or alpha-numeric classification to find books in my house. It's the KISS system, or, as I prefer, the KIRSS system.

oldfolkgc: Archaeology?

Wed, 27 May 2009 21:43:58 -0400

May 27
When I was at UCLA, archaeology was part of the Antropology Dept. in the College of Letters and Sciences. That was well in the last century. I believe, now, what with inter-disciplinary curricula this is not so rigid. In fact, I believe when my son was there, many courses had both an Athro # and a History #, or Anthro # and Classics #, etc., but they were the same class, with credit given in the department of one's choice. Perhaps someone knows for sure.

Munchkinguy: History

Mon, 25 May 2009 21:42:08 -0400

May 25
I'm not sure how Library and Archives Canada does it, but native cultural areas are usually divided into 6 categories, as described at http://thecanadianencyclopedia.com/index.cfm?PgNm=TCE&Params=A1ARTA0005642 Native history is a big thing in Canada, and it often runs cocurrently with the history of Canada as a nation; the introduction of one does not stop the other.

vpfluke: How Dewey works

Sun, 10 May 2009 23:27:04 -0400

May 10
# 19 What you have written is useful to know. At some point, people have talked about using facets to have a different dimension of classifying books. I think people want the OSC to be flexible and not restrictive.

vpfluke: Economics

Sun, 10 May 2009 18:19:54 -0400

May 10
# 22 Welcome to LT. This is all part of an effort to see if LT could come up with a better classification system than what one has with Dewey Decimal, Library of Congress, or more or less standard categories one finds in bookstores. Maybe, we're trying to combine the best of each. So, some of us have chimed in various degrees in different categories. In some categories, there are those who feel very passionate.

ClassifyThis: ..... Tomorrow, the World!

Sun, 03 May 2009 16:42:33 -0400

May 3
Thank you, abbottthomas for starting this thread. I'll ask the same question that I asked in the Art Level Thread. >>I realize that Dewey is the most prevalent in terms of classification systems used in the world. My question for OSC members who aren't American is what classification system is used in your public library? Is it useful and/or appropriate for the collection?

abbottthomas: Art

Sun, 03 May 2009 07:52:28 -0400

May 3
>57 I agree ;-) http://www.librarything.com/topic/63960

DeusExLibrus: Proposed Lower Levels

Mon, 27 Apr 2009 14:43:43 -0400

April 27
>15 In my experience African American fiction is by and usually also about Africa Americans.

laena: Design

Tue, 21 Apr 2009 19:16:26 -0400

April 21
this looks great! theater design: yes, performing arts game design: tricky, where do others (bookstores, libraries) put it?

slothman: Paranormal & Occult

Sun, 19 Apr 2009 03:28:49 -0400

April 19
"Cryptozoology" would be the category for creatures like Sasquatch and the Loch Ness monster.

Munchkinguy: Things That Don't Fit in the Current Top-Level Model

Fri, 17 Apr 2009 16:20:16 -0400

April 17
>34 Genealogy would probably be considered under sociology.

comfypants: Film & Television

Fri, 17 Apr 2009 13:41:01 -0400

April 17
Also, technology is taking the direction of internet video streaming on your television rather than on your computer monitor, so I don't think "television" is likely to be an obsolete term any time soon. On the contrary, I think it's likely that shows "broadcast" purely online will be thought of as television programs.

comfypants: A LITERATURE top-level... do we need it?

Thu, 16 Apr 2009 16:29:28 -0400

April 16
Something related to this discussion just occurred to me. How will the OSC handle documentary films (the sort that are the film equivalent of "non-fiction literature")? Would King of Kong end up shelved alongside an instructional video on arcade games, for instance? I think that's how most libraries deal with documentaries now, but it doesn't strike me as useful.

jjwilson61: Music

Tue, 14 Apr 2009 16:01:12 -0400

April 14
You know, you *can* just delete your message by using the red X instead of editing it down to nothing. The problem with the second method is that it makes it look like there is something in the thread to read. ETA: Ok it looks like a green X, but when you move your cursor over it it turns red.

comfypants: Anthropology& Sociology

Fri, 10 Apr 2009 16:17:39 -0400

April 10
Since no one else has given a stab at this one yet, I'll try. I'm basically just making some edits to BISAC. I don't know much about either of these fields. Anthropology > General Anthropology > Cultural Anthropology Anthropology > Physical Anthropology Anthropology > Archaeology Sociology > General Sociology > Methodology Sociology > Statistics Sociology > Demography Sociology > Rural Sociology > Urban Sociology > Social Issues Sociology > Customs & Traditions Sociology > Ethnic Studies Sociology > Minority Studies Sociology > Feminism Sociology > Gender Studies Sociology > LGBT Studies Sociology > Social Classes Sociology > Children & Development Sociology > Marriage & Family Sociology > Death & Dying Sociology > Media Studies Sociology > Criminology Sociology > Penology Sociology > Social Work I assumed that Women's Studies and Men's Studies are part of Gender Studies; correct me if I'm wrong. Some other BISAC subcategories I skipped, for consideration: "Agriculture & Food," "Black Studies," "Philanthropy & Charity," "Developing Countries," "Disasters & Disaster Relief," "Emigration & Immigration," "Freemasonry," "Future Studies," "Gerontology," "Handicapped," "Holidays (non-religious)," "Human Geography," "Human Services" (what?), "Popular Culture," "Pornography" (in Social Issues?), "Regional Studies," "Research" (presumably in with relevant subtopics), "Slavery," "Social History," "Sociology of Religion," "Sociology of Sports," "Violence in Society," "Volunteer Work" Clearly I agree with message 4 that Anthropology and Sociology have no reason to be intermingled.

comfypants: Performing Arts

Fri, 10 Apr 2009 15:31:14 -0400

April 10
I'm wondering about musical theater and opera, and whether they belong here or in Music or both. My instinct says both (at least for musical theater, not so sure about opera), but is that potentially confusing?

sqdancer: General Knowledge

Fri, 10 Apr 2009 14:13:16 -0400

April 10
Our local library recently (within the past week or two) intershelved most of the Reference section into the main Non-fiction stacks. They believe it will enhance browsability and increase the use of the reference books. They might be right -- my OH didn't even notice the reference section until about 2 months ago (and we've been going to that library at least once a week for the past 2 years). So I guess that's another vote in support of the optional facet idea.

Halieus: Biography & Autobiography

Fri, 10 Apr 2009 07:48:55 -0400

April 10
PS - I'm not advocating using my system as the end-all be-all for the OSC; put it out there to see how it would be torn apart and could be improved. This is the largest (maybe 2nd largest, but I doubt it) part of my library and criticism would be appreciated... so as to improve my own library.

vpfluke: Science

Tue, 07 Apr 2009 22:44:47 -0400

April 7
#33 Thanks for pointing me back to the Archaeology thread (and I had actually read it). What I was thinking is that our sets of categories might include references to where that subcategory resides. I saw this in another thread and might help us remember where we had settled some questions. Thus, Archaeology -- see Sociology and Anthropology.

vpfluke: Fiction

Tue, 07 Apr 2009 16:51:53 -0400

April 7
#39 I think there is relatively little difference between thriller (tagged 118,175 times in LT) and suspense (tagged 62,390 times in LT). The top thriller novelists are: [[Dan Brown]] [[Thomas Harris]] [[Robert Ludlum]] [[Tom Clancy]] [[Michael Crichton]] The top suspense novelists are: [[Dan Brown]] Robert [[Ludlum]] Daphne [[Du Maurier]] Dean [[Koontz]] [[John Grisham]] Not a real big difference here! Regarding exprimental and avant-garde, these two are quite similar.

imbibo: What is this?

Sun, 05 Apr 2009 16:12:18 -0400

April 5
>6 @comfypants: Right! No way we're using this as a feedback-only place. I (mistakenly) thought that it would be best if we jumped in with a lot of preparation, so as not to appear uninformed. Sadly, I'm an idiot. Still, preparation->feedback PLUS revision and collaboration...the way to go, yes? Speaking for myself, not only did I (and still do) check this place for guidance, but also used LOC, BISAC, a historian, and various museum and university resources to construct a list (the bibliography is long and shambly for me) Unfortunately, history isn't a priority here so I was on my own at first, but all of those sources helped, and continue to do so. Though I am fairly well informed about certain aspects of some categories, I am faaaaaar from an expert, so I am loath to use only my own personal fount of information as any sort of definitive resource. Any help I can get...As PortiaLong says in his/her profile: "Please feel free to change my mind."

hoary: Top-level categories

Sat, 04 Apr 2009 11:51:25 -0400

April 4
I read that a top level class will be Self-Help: Includes works on self-guided improvement (economically, intellectually, or emotionally). What does "self-guided" mean? I've got several books that purport to improve my intellect to the point where it can use statistical techniques intelligently. These are for my improvement; ergo, they're self-help. Come to think of it, I could put most (all?) stats books there. As I could books on foreign languages. And books on architecture, car repair, er, just about everything. (I've even seen the occasional didactic/utilitarian poetry book.) I do see an advantage of a section on "self-help", as I notice the term used in bookstores while I head for alternative walls. For one thing, if you chuck into such a section the kind of thing skewered by Wendy Kaminer in her I'm Dysfunctional, You're Dysfunctional, you end up with a psychology section that has real psychology and isn't burdened by "popular psychology" piffle about Mars, Venus, moving cheese around, etc.

ElijahMeeks: Agriculture

Sat, 04 Apr 2009 11:05:25 -0400

April 4
From my own work (Which takes an environmental historical perspective) I see each of these practices as related to something called "Ecosystems Services", which would include beekeeping (A rather famous example), forest management as well as plantations, fishing and fish farming, but also wetlands management (Which clean the water, another ecosystems service), soil conservation, and a host of other issues. One of the troublesome cross-categories relates to a major aspect of agriculture: Management and transportation of food resources. The Holodomor Famine in the Ukraine, for instance, is a political act, but it was carried out through the auspices of agricultural management. I realize that what you guys are creating is an ontology, and so to a certain degree it's simply declarative, and I'd imagine a scheme that deals with this delineation using the language and practices of environmental services and ecology would be cumbersome for a librarian, but maybe there's a more vernacular manner in which to present all of these things, which would be informed by the scholarly manner in which their described in the academy. I'd be inclined to suggest a top-level category called Ecosystems Services, under which Natural Resources, Management, Agriculture, Pastoralism, &c all fall. But this may, as I was saying, prove too cumbersome.

abbottthomas: Humor

Sun, 22 Mar 2009 19:47:53 -0400

March 22
>17 I would also assume this would be the place for critical works about humor. Yes? I wonder - wouldn't that live with other Lit. crit. wherever that is going? I fear you may be right about the 'junk drawer'.

conners: Politics & Government

Fri, 20 Mar 2009 10:52:07 -0400