LM_NET: Library Media Networking
I have seen and used a number of ways to catalog biographies.
921 - Individual biographies/autobiographies - most frequently there is a
deviation from the standard call number assignment, with the a third line
included. The second line gives an indication of who is being discussed.
So, 921 Gan Hag might be a biography of Gandhi. Commercial catalogers
often provide an option to extend that second line beyond the 3 digit limit.
The chief argument for using the 921s is simply that all Biographies would
be together in one place. So, if your clients are really "into"
biographies, it is a serious option to consider.
922-928 (?) provides a series of numbers which would link the biography
together thematically. Sorry I do not have my DD at home, but
(hypothetically) 924 might be all scientists.
Personally, I have difficult with this since I don't think there is enough
of a range of simple numbers to use this. Commercial cataloguers seem to
avoid this option, too. But, of course, I might be wrong.
-092 provides an option of tacking this to the end of a number to group
biographies within the main Dewey divisions, as long as that division has
no number for a biography. So, 811.092 could possibly be biographies of
American poets.
I found this number quite useful in larger collections, although I find the
most frequent request if for a biography of a rock star/baseball
player/etc. and, keeping the numbers as simple as possible, I tend to use
the main division and modify it with a third line (as in the 921s), so - in
a small collection - 811 not only contains American poetry, but biographies
of American poets as well.
Biographies in a large collection of 811s would be divided by adding the
first three letters of the poet. 811 San (an anthology of Sandburg's
poetry), with 811 San San as a biography of Sandburg himself. Strict
shelving would keep all the Sandburg materials in one spot.
A more creative, I suppose, method is to consider the client's requests and
take a close look at some sections, as in Art History.
I had a great deal of success, because the art / social studies tended to
want Michelangelo, rather than Michelangelo the painter versus Michelangelo
the sculptor, etc. and created in the 709's historical sections in which I
placed all historical artists into a time period (as, 709.04 - Twentieth
Century), ignoring the media they used, and placed not only works
discussing his / her paintings, sculpture (etc.) but biographies as well.
Some guides to the choice of options :
The main purpose of cataloguing is to get the users to the information more
efficiently, so when considering what numbers to use (in any part of the
collection), be sure always to take this into account.
Never, ever, believe that "it's the number supplied by LC" makes any item
unchangeable. After all, cataloguers come - as we all do - with basic
assumptions, likes and dislikes.
Finally, whatever decision you make - stick to it! It is just as
frustrating for the user to find that books catalogued before 1930 (:0) are
found in the 921s, the ones after 1950 in the 923-929, and you are now
adding the "main division-092"
Earl
At 03:45 PM 6/11/00 -0600, George Anne Draper wrote:
>Well, I am confused. What else is new? I have printed (using Athena)
>a shelf list of all my books so that I can "manually" be sure
>that everything is where it belongs. I started with the
>biography since it is a smaller collection, but am I
>confused!! The former librarian has the biography section in
>alphabetical order the following way: the 3 letters of the
>person the book is about comes first alphabetically; then the
>title of the book is the next determining factor. When I
>printed the Athena shelf list, the author's name is the next
>determining factor after the first three letters of the last
>name of the person about whom the book is written. How do you have your
biography section?? This may be a
>Sorry if this is a dumb question, but I am confused...as usual.
>George Anne Draper, librarian
>Wynne High School, Wynne, AR
>gdraper@wynne1.crsc.k12.ar.us
>
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>
Earl P Sande
Elementary School Librarian
Director of Library Services
Carol Morgan School
Santo Domingo
Dominican Republic
e-mail : sandes@codetel.net.do
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