Re: [LM_NET] Bias in Dewey and putting the religious texts in the fiction section

[Paula Yohe <paula_yohe@YAHOO.COM>]

I am curious -- has anyone ever had a student ask this
question or one similar?

I spent 23 years with jr, high kids and the best they
came up with is: where are the romance books, love
poems, football books, war books, etc.

Dewey was simply a means to an end -- the number
really never sank in with them.

Heck I am glad they didn't -- who wants to try and
explain that fiction books really do have numbers --

Paula




--- "Sarles Patricia (18K500)"
<PSarles@SCHOOLS.NYC.GOV> wrote:

> "Creation and other spiritual stories by American
> Indians and other people are found in
> the 398.2 folklore section while Judeo-Christian
> stories are classified in religion when they are
> found in the non-fiction section of the library."
> 
> Thanks for redirecting us to that previous
> discussion.
> 
> This point that I have extracted above, I believe
> needs attention immediately. The implications for
> this are mind blowing. 
> 
> I would just as soon put the bible and all the other
> religious books in my fiction section (which is
> arranged alphabetically by author) and put them all
> under G for God.
> 
> Has anybody else been tempted to do this?
> 
> Then again, I don't see myself in that role. It is
> much much better to have the children discover this
> on their own and ask these questions, "why are bible
> stories in the non-fiction section and similar
> stories from Africa in the folklore section? Aren't
> bible stories just Jewish and Christian folklore?
> Why aren't they then both in the same section?"
> 
> For me to answer this, I think I am going to have to
> find a few biographies on Melvil Dewey so that I can
> explain to children why he was so biased in his
> formation of his dewey decimal system.
> 
> I honestly have no idea myself.
> 
> But to dismantle Dewey, as was discussed back in
> June, NEVER!!!!
> 
> Fix it yes, but you would never find another thing
> in your library again if you didn't have a
> classification system to arrange the books. 
> 
> 
> _________________________ 
> Patricia Sarles, MA, MLS 
> Passages Academy Libraries 
> 941 Rev. James A. Polite Avenue 
> Bronx, New York 10459 
> tel: (718) 861-2003 
> fax: (718) 861-2039 
> psarles@schools.nyc.gov 
> 
> "Nothing of value comes without being earned, That's
> why great leaders are those who lead by example
> first. You can't demand respect because of a title
> or a position and expect people to follow. That
> might work for a little while, but in the long run
> people respond to what they see." - Michael Jordan 
> 
> "Libraries are not made; they grow." - Augustine
> Birrell 
> 
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: School Library Media & Network Communications
> on behalf of Judi Moreillon
> Sent: Mon 11/12/2007 11:00 AM
> To: LM_NET@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU
> Subject: Re: Bias in Dewey
>  
> Colleagues,
> There was an LM_NET discussion last June (2007)
> regarding several problems
> with Dewey, including religious discrimination.
> 
> It is interesting to read the Wikipedia article
> about Melvil Dewey. Here's a
> quote: "While remembered for his Dewey Decimal
> System, Dewey's personal
> views would be considered racist and sexist today.
> Even in his own day, his
> career as a public servant, as New York State
> Librarian, was negatively
> affected by the anti-Semitic policies of the Lake
> Placid Club (Wiegand
> 1996:280; Garrison 1983:42); his role in the ALA was
> curtailed by his overly
> familiar attention to women (Wiegand 1996:340)."
> (Verified by other sources
> including the ones cited on Wikipedia...)
> 
> If we agree that ALL texts have bias based on the
> values of their authors,
> then Dewey's classification system necessarily
> reflects his values.
> 
> To review the June discussion, you can search the
> LM_NET Archives for: To
> Dewey or Not to Dewey.
> 
> The following is a posting I contributed at that
> time. (Learning from
> Madeleine Zember's post, I should amend #2 to read
> "Christian" rather than
> "Judeo-Christian.")
> 
> At the risk of being redundant: Perhaps, savvy
> librarians will develop a new
> classification system that better represents the
> books and other resources
> and the sensibilities of 21st-century society and
> library collections.
> 
> Best,
> Judi
> 
> Judi Moreillon, M.L.S., Ph.D.
> Literacies and Libraries Consultant
> Author: Collaborative Strategies for Teaching
> Reading Comprehension:
> Maximizing Your Impact
> http://storytrail.com
> info@storytrail.com
> 
> To: LM_NET@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU 
> Subject: [LM_NET] To Dewey or Not to Dewey 
> From: Judi Moreillon;storypower@THERIVER.COM; 
> Date: Tue, 5 Jun 2007 08:59:55 -0500 
> Reply-To: storypower@theriver.com 
> Sender: School Library Media &amp; Network
> Communications;LM_NET@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU; 
> 
> Dear Colleagues,
> Yesterday, I took a road trip with a
> teacher-librarian colleague. We talked
> about the new Arizona Dewey-less library. After our
> conversation, I thought
> more about two Dewey problems that have been nagging
> me for years. These
> issues make me wonder if it wouldn't be so bad to
> let the Dewey system of
> classification die - a natural or unnatural - death.
>  
> To be sure, I am a (real) librarian. I do believe
> that information must be
> organized to be accessible. However, my questions
> are about Dewey's
> classifications. Here goes:
> 
> 1. There is a proliferation of informational books
> for children than the
> Library of Congress classifies as fiction. This is
> frustrating when we
> explain the Dewey system to young students. Although
> it is shelved with
> fiction, there is no way that Sandra Markle and Alan
> Marks' book A Mother's
> Journey is a "made-up" story. This "story" is
> scientific facts about Emperor
> penguins told in a narrative format. These penguins
> are not in any way
> anthropomorphized.  Is this book classified as
> fiction because the
> illustrations are paintings rather than photographs?
> 
> The proliferation of multigenre books adds to the
> dilemma of accurately
> classifying books. Joyce Sidman and Becky Prange's
> book Song of the Water
> Boatman and Other Pond Poems is clearly poetry, but
> the addition of factual
> information about the topic or theme of each poem
> complicates the waters.
> 
> You may or may not know that publishers have NO
> input into the
> classification of their books. The Library of
> Congress assigns the numbers,
> and there is NO debate.
> 
> 2. The Judeo-Christian bias of Dewey has always
> bothered me. Creation and
> other spiritual stories by American Indians and
> other people are found in
> the 398.2 folklore section while Judeo-Christian
> stories are classified in
> religion when they are found in the non-fiction
> section of the library.
>  
> Perhaps, savvy librarians will develop a new
> classification system that
> better represents the books and other resources and
> the sensibilities of
> 21st-century society and library collections.
>  
> What do you think?
>  
> Best,
> Judi
> 
> 
=== message truncated ===


Paula Yohe
Director Of Technology/Library Media Center
Dillon School District Two
405 West Washington Street
Dillon, SC 29536
Phone: 843-841-3604 Fax:843-774-1214
paula_yohe@yahoo.com


      
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