I have been reading the posts on Dewey with great interest. I serve 800
students and need them to be able to put their hands on the one book they
want in a 15,000 book collection on their own. They learn to do that, but
can get help if they need it.
Today the public librarian came to our school to share about the summer
reading program and promptly announced to me her reorganization plans for
the fall "Doing away with the DDS." They also recently did away with all
computer catalog stations in the children's section except one. She says
only librarians use it anyway, that everyone asks at the desk when they need
to find something. Of course I teach my students (a large proportion are
her patrons) how to be independent users of information and they are SO
capable of using a computer to search for what they want and then locate it
by call number. They love to be successful at finding what they want, but
they can also be lazy and want you to do it for them. I teach them they can
use these skills at libraries all over, but I may have to change that to say
except your local library.
Upon my further inquiry, I don't think she plans on "doing away with DDS,"
as she said, but rather organize some special collections, eg train books
together (fiction and nonfiction), princess books, etc, and plans to
indicate this in the catalog. But somehow she has gotten on this who needs
Dewey bandwagon. I wonder if there is a lot of talk about this among public
libraries. I think our focus is different as teachers, instructing students
to function in libraries and the world outside of our own, wheras they are
more focused on immediate needs of satisfying patrons??
I am curious to see where this all goes ....
Andrea Koch
French Road Elementary School
kochandrea@msn.com
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