I now arrange my library by colour. I know where all of them are by spreadsheet and photo, but largely by memory. "The Battle of the Books" by Jonathan Swift, 1908 republication. Slotted in to 827.52 in a library somewhere, once upon a time, before some twit invented the personal computer. " Besides, it so happened that about this time there was a strange confusion of place among all the books in the lIbrary; for which several reasons were assigned. Some imputed it to a great heap of leaned dust which a perverse wind blew off from a shelf of Moderns into the Keeper's eyes. Others affirmed he had a humour to pick the worms out of the Schoolmen, and swallow them fresh and fasting; whereof some fell upon his spleen, and some climbed up into his head, to the great perturbation of both. And lastly, others maintained, that by walking much in the dark about the Library, he had quite lost the situation of it out of his head; and therefore in replacing his books he was apt to mistake, and clap Descartes next to Aristotle: poor Plato had got between Hobbes and the "Seven Wise Masters": and Vergil was hemmed in, with Dryden on one side, and Withers on the other."
What, they're not using the Library of Congress system or some other UK one? Do they sort the books in a section by author's last name, put them in randomly, or are there further subdivisions like "WW2 history"? Finding books these days definitely seems to be aided by having a computer system but you still need to be able to find the book once you've found its number. WW2 tanks may be in technology, separate from WW2 history, and biographies of generals or maybe politicians as wartime leaders... might be in WW2 history or they might be in biography.
First time I've looked at the Library of Congress system. Library of Congress Classification Outline - Classification - Cataloging and Acquisitions (Library of Congress) Library of Congress Classification Outline Listed below are the letters and titles of the main classes of the Library of Congress Classification. Click on any class to view an outline of its subclasses. Online access to the complete text of the schedules is available in Classification Web, a subscription product that may also be purchased from the Cataloging Distribution Service. The files below are available for downloading in PDF (the first link in each line), WordPerfect format (noted as WP version), and in Word format (noted as Word version). A -- GENERAL WORKS - WP version - Word version B -- PHILOSOPHY. PSYCHOLOGY. RELIGION - WP version - Word version C -- AUXILIARY SCIENCES OF HISTORY - WP version - Word version D -- WORLD HISTORY AND HISTORY OF EUROPE, ASIA, AFRICA, AUSTRALIA, NEW ZEALAND, ETC. - WP version - Word version E -- HISTORY OF THE AMERICAS - WP version - Word version F -- HISTORY OF THE AMERICAS - WP version - Word version G -- GEOGRAPHY. ANTHROPOLOGY. RECREATION - WP version - Word version H -- SOCIAL SCIENCES - WP version - Word version J -- POLITICAL SCIENCE - WP version - Word version K -- LAW - WP version - Word version L -- EDUCATION - WP version - Word version M -- MUSIC AND BOOKS ON MUSIC - WP version - Word version N -- FINE ARTS - WP version - Word version P -- LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE - WP version - Word version Q -- SCIENCE - WP version - Word version R -- MEDICINE - WP version - Word version S -- AGRICULTURE - WP version - Word version T -- TECHNOLOGY - WP version - Word version U -- MILITARY SCIENCE - WP version - Word version V -- NAVAL SCIENCE - WP version - Word version Z -- BIBLIOGRAPHY. LIBRARY SCIENCE. INFORMATION RESOURCES (GENERAL) - WP version - Word version For "The Battle of The Books" Dewey: 827.52 becomes PR3724.T3 1704b, but it is in a special collection, so probably just PR3724. https://lccn.loc.gov/96184557 Description [12], 322 p. ; 20 cm. (8vo) LC classification PR3724 .T3 1704b Related titles Discourse concerning the mechanical operation of the spirit. Related names Swift, Jonathan, 1667-1745. Battle of the books. John Davis Batchelder Collection (Library of Congress) Browse by shelf order PR3724 Notes "A full and true account of the battel fought last Friday, between the antient and the modern books in St. James's Library" (p. [223]-278) and "A discourse concerning the mechanical operation of the spirit" (p. [279]-322) have special title pages, with imprint as on general t.p. Signatures: A⁶ B-X⁸ Y1. LCCN 96184557 Type of material Book
I have heard of papiermache’s (#21) colour coding system before. She who must be obeyed tried this with our CD collection. It has one benefit - some non-regulars get more of an outing and become more appreciated; otherwise, it is akin to searching for hairs on the palm of your hand. The fact that I can sort of make it work causes a bit of annoyance, rather like the ability to go into a greeting card shop and be out with a satisfactory choice in under two minutes. How can you spend 40 minutes in a card shop and come out with nothing? How? I first came across the DD system when doing an A level in Sub Saharan African History circa 1975. Yes, the Subject was on offer then, but a decent pass could be achieved by a knowledge of one book, by Rooney and Halladay. Eric Halladay had been a lecturer at Sandhurst, before becoming eventually Master of Grey College, Durham. Anon, there wasn’t a vast range of texts to choose from then in the related DD section, 14 methinks. I must admit that like then, most trips to the library still involve booking a particular piece which I already have the Author/Title and sometimes the ISBN for, in the knowledge that the library will probably have to get it in for me. Pot luck browsing is really left to charity and second-hand bookshops. Of more import, the much appreciated eclectic range of ww2talk.com fields stimulate a sufficiency of curiosity to mean that I have a perpetual ready list of books - and thus affordable recycled presents - for a (we don’t know what to get you) Grandpa. And of the DD System, I looked at: Dewey Decimal Classification - Wikipedia which at the end infers the change is borne of ‘inclusivity’ drivers .... but then also noted: https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-2011-02-18-ct-met-drop-dewey-20110218-story.html and wondered if the: “Following the change, circulation for the 2009-2010 fiscal year increased 8.5 percent” has continued to cascade, Covid impediments notwithstanding? No bad thing, maybe?
My "library" is arranged geographically, as it is 90% WWII related. ETO in the left, the PTO on the right, with the Eastern Front, Med, and CBI situated accordingly.
