HIT:Nonficiton Explanation, Part 1

[Tracey Donaldson <Bookluv@AOL.COM>]

Thank you so VERY much to everyone who sent me their views on this topic.
Response was overwhelming.  I also had MANY requests for a HIT, and statements
that others have trouble in this area as well.  The responses I got were in
two major forms.  1. The Dewey Decimal System was created to classify ALL
books, not just nonfiction.  For convenience purposes librarians created a
fiction section.  2. Fairy tales are housed on the Social Sciences section -
these are part of cultural beliefs and traditions which is the reasoning.

The responses I received follow (in 4 parts).  Thank you again to everybody.
This really has helped me out, and I'm sure it will help the many others that
asked for a HIT!  :o)
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I run into this problem with all grade levels. My best answer is that fairy
tales and poetry and so on are each categories of writing, and so we can
classify them by number.  In fact, it's easier to arrange them by number than
by author, where they would be scattered  throughout the fiction section and
much harder to find. Classic Dewey rules don't allow us to classify fiction
other than by author's last name, although many libraries break fiction into
the various popular sections such as mysteries, adventure, etc. That's where
each library is organized for the needs of its users, and why we need
librarians to keep things running well! In my library, for example, we keep
the fairy tales together, in 398.2, but place them in alphabetical order by
title.  It's much easier for staff and students to use.  No one remembers the
various author versions of, say, Cinderella, but kept all together, teachers
can pull all the Cinderella books at once when doing a comparison unit.
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I always tell my students that 300 are Social Sciences and a long time
ago people didn't have TV, Videos, and etc.  Their way of scoializing
was to gather around at various homes and share stories.  Many of these
stories are our fairy tales and folk tales included in the 300 as a part
of the social development of the world.
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You are thinking too hard!!! Second graders will accept your explanation of
the dewey if you keep it simple (kis).  As far as the 398s go, I always tell
the kids that these are considered non fiction because although they are
stories and pretend, they  have a history that originates from some truth.
And then I ask them to think about stories that they have heard over and over
in their own family circle.  They seem to get it.

As far as the800's go, poetry is poetry.  It is not a made up story and is
classified in the 800's.  Period.
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One should not think at the main collection (shelved by Dewey) number
as non-fiction.  But the fiction collection is just that-- a
specialized collection of literature that has been pulled out of
the main collection for the purposes of a different (and some think
easier) shelving system.   The Biography is also seperate  but we do
not say that those books are not non-fiction.   I do not say that
there is no non-fiction, I just say that one does not identify it as
to whether it has a Dewey number or not.
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I cover this with third graders and every year after that and I explain it
that M. Dewey created a system to cover ALL subjects including fiction and
we have just altered his system for our convenience and pulled the fiction
out into a separate section .
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I agree..this is a difficult one and I am always getting tongue-tied as I
explain.

How does this sound?

The 398.2 are in the general 300's category (sociology) which focus on the
way gov't. and education and holidays and society, in general
work/function...the rules our society lives by so-to-speak.  These cultural
beliefs and traditions can be considered a part of people's/society
cultural background....the folktales are actually reflections of what
societies/countries believed at one time, how they taught behaviors,
manners and lessons to their children.  The folktales were one way to
educate the young in many societies at one time via
storytellers....venerated teachers of their time.

As far as poetry, plays, essays, etc. are concerned...except for fiction,
all forms of traditional literature can be found in the 800's cause that is
where Mr. Dewey put them to distinguish/separate them from regular fiction.
Who really knows why?  How riddles end up in 818's is still a mystery to
me. ;-)

These aren't great explanations but tend to start discussions about how any
system has its' flaws/not perfect and is also constantly changing and being
revised.
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When I talked to second grade earlier this year about the Dewey class
numbers, I explained the fairy tales were in the 398's because they reflect
the culture of groups of people.  The 300's deal with the social sciences.
My second graders understand the term social studies so I tried to make an
analogy there with the 300's.  They seemed to accept that OK.  A similar
rationale helped explain why mythology is in the 200's--reflects early man's
beliefs about gods.

I did not fare so well with poetry being in the 800's.   After I gave the
lesson I thought I should have said that having poetry in the 811's or 821's
keeps it all in one place so that it's easier to locate poetry books.  I
know that's not really a good justification but it might make sense to a
second grader.
******************************************************************************
Great interest.
I give a very feeble explanation which I would like to improve.
398 = these are stories that originated in some societies and there is a
bit of truth and they reflect the culture of that society
800 = Mr. Dewey wanted all books to be classifided using his numbering
system, but since half of the libraries are fiction books, it would make
the 800 too large, and it is easier to remember the author of fiction
work, and so it is easier for users if they are kept together under the
author's
name.
******************************************************************************

At one time Fiction was cataloged as 813.  The number in the Dewey system
for fiction.  I think that as novels became a popular genre ( most books in
the early 1800s and earlier were for information, not pleasure) and through
the generations it began to take over a large section of entire collection.
It became easier to house the larger collections separately.  When you need
more room you don't have to rearrange the entire library!! In the same
manner we have taken the 92s or Biographies and placed them in a separate
area. I have found that materials in 398.2 are usually works that have a
cultural significance and have become part of the collective conscienceness
of a cultural group.  Something very different than a novel or work of
fiction just for entertainment, though many have moral lessons, etc.  Works
of fiction that appeal to many over the years we term "classics."  As for
poetry, essays, etc., these were always categorized by their Dewey number
811 or 812.  They just were as numerous as 813--fiction.  While this is not
the exact type of answer I am sure you were looking for, I have found it
serves as an explanation for my middle school inquirers.  It is not
something that was ever really addressed in my Library Science classes!!
******************************************************************************

I'm with you-it is hard to explain it:
When I was going to library school, we had an assignment about folk tales: we
had to choose a country and read three different folk tales from that country.
Then we had to show how you could learn something about the country and its
people from the stories. (geographical descriptions, values stressed, foods,
clothing...).  This at least gives the idea of culture and how these tales
tell about it.  But I still have trouble with a story like the little red hen!
Sometimes comparing several similar themed folk tales such as Cinderella,
Rough Faced Girl... helps too.
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I am not sure that this would be considered the 'definitive' answer to your
question, but here goes. The 'problem' with 398.2 and fiction comes from a
basic misconcetion we all have about Dewey. We assume that it was/is
designed purely for non-fiction. It wasn't. It was designed as a universal
classification scheme -  and universal means everything: fiction and well as
non-fiction. Hence, there is a whole section dedicated to literature, and
within that, are spaces allocated for fiction.

The answer to the question of folk and fairy tales is slightly more
complicated, and has to be seen within the context of the social context in
which the system was devised. Given that it is a universal system, they
would have to be given a place somewhere in the sequence. The reason they
are not in the Literature section is that, when Melvil was putting the
scheme together, folk and fiary tales, generally speaking, were considered
to be part of the verbal tradition of a culture and not part of the written
Literature (capital L). Hence, rather than being in the 800's with poems,
novels, plays and essays, they were placed in the 300's with Sociology,
Anthropology and Social Sciences.

As I say, it all comes down to the fact that we tend to forget that DDC was
intended to be a universal classification scheme. Once we remember that, it
starts to make sense.
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I explain the three hundreds section of dewey deals with the social aspects of
our life.  Folklore, fairytales that have been passed down and are part of the
public domain, therefore belong in this section because they belong to all of
society.  I also tell them that in Dewey's original plan, all books fiction
and nonfiction were accounted for, it was librarians since dewey that pulled
the fiction section out.
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Well, for the 398.2 section, here's what I came up with (though truthfully
I'm not convinced myself).  Fairy tales and folktales come out of the
culture of a people and therefore are similar to mythology.  Of course
this still doesn't explain why they are in the 300's....


For the 800's it's much easier to explain.  The 800's are literature.  So
actually all of the fiction section could be placed into the 800's.  But
"most libraries pull fiction out and give it it's own section" .  I give
the analogy of the Biography section.  "Biographies are really part of the
900's, but most libraries...etc"  This makes sense to me and to the kids.
And Library of Congress classification does the same.
Hmmm, now I'm wondering, where are fairy tales in LC libraries?
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    I am in a PK-5 school.  When I talk about the 398 section I say
something like the stories are part of the cultures of different countries
and the stories are part of the culture because they were told and retold
and handed down.  Often times the stories help explain things about the
culture, for example, the Anansi stories weave information about the culture
of the ______ people (I forgot what country ) into the story.  The stories
are not considered myths because they are not used to explain anything about
nature that was incomprehensible.  I think putting the stories in the 300's
keeps them with other "society" books.  I agree though that it would make it
easier to put them in the fiction section!
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Tracey, if you START with the definition of fiction as a story made up by a
known author, then it's easy to explain that everything else is NOT
fiction, or non-fiction. I get into a more detailed discussion with my
older students (folklore - 300s - oral tradition - pass on culture and
values...) (origins of libraries - DDS - decision to shelve fiction
separately for ease of access...), but with the youngest I stay pretty basic.
******************************************************************************
Tracey Donaldson, LMS
Tioga Hills Elementary School
Vestal CSD
Apalachin, NY
bookluv@aol.com

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