Dewey Application for Net Resources

[Wayne Daniels <wdaniels@GWMAIL.MTRL.TORONTO.ON.CA>]

I've posted this to a number of lists. If you've come across it
elsewhere, I apologize. For those who haven't come across it ...

I'm sending this along for two reasons. I believe some of you may be
interested in the site as a source for curriculum materials in the
subject area of astronomy. For all of you librarians dealing with
online information sources, I hope it will provide food for thought.
It represents a straightforward and relatively inexpensive way to
tackle the problem of organizing Net resources for on- or off-site
users. It uses off-the-shelf software and does not presuppose huge
amounts of technical expertise. What sets it apart is an expertise we
_already_ possess.

The site is called "Expanding Universe : a classified search tool for
amateur astronomy"
(http://www.mtrl.toronto.on.ca/centres/bsd/astronomy/index.html).
It was created by myself and some colleagues at the Metro Toronto
Reference Library. The idea was to classify web sites using a
modified form of the Dewey Classification. The result is, in effect,
a set of virtual library shelves, whose "books" can be browsed by
pointing to each in turn. Thus it is a sort of simulacrum of what
many people do when they visit the library itself. The individual
Dewey numbers are built into the separate URLs, thus making the file
structure of the site replicate the Dewey hierarchy. This allows
users to travel up and down the site structure without difficulty.
(Once the proper shelf is found, _all_ its contents are found to be
in the user's subject area.) It also makes it easy to grow the site
in a coherent manner. The site includes keyword access through an
index of terms taken from the headings.

We think it beats sorting through piles of irrelevant search results,
or scanning loosely organized lists of links. Apparently others do
too. Since November, when the links were completed and I began to get
word out on the site, it's been visited 8,850 times ... not bad for a
single subject. Expanding Universe is a prototype. We have
improvements in mind for the next. We're trying to interest the
educational authorities here in the idea of providing subject
gateways for K-12 sources, based on a similar idea. Wish us luck.

Hope you find the site interesting.

Cheers.

Wayne Daniels

Metro Toronto Reference Library
wdaniels@gwmail.mtrl.toronto.on.ca