Beauty and the Geek

While channel surfing earlier this week I watched a few minutes of "Beauty and the Geek" (http://www.cwtv.com/shows/beauty-and-the-geek) which had for one of their contests between the couples a book search in a local library. The "beauties" (women) had to find a list of books which were shelved via the Dewey Decimal System (DDS). One of the women could not find the books she needed which caused her to break down in tears - another victim of the DDS!!!

I was reminded of this episode today when I read a clipping I had from a recent New York Times article entitled, "Library drops Dewey, goes the Noble route", which is a reference to the "Barnes and Noble" bookstore method of organizing books according to "neighborhoods" versus using the Dewey Decimal System. The library is located in Gilbert, Arizona, a suburb of Phoenix. Harry Courtright, Director of the country library system responsible for Gilbert's changes was quoted as saying, "The younger generation today is wired differently than people in my generation."

Given the dominance of Google this change at the Gilbert Library makes a lot of sense because people type search "phrases" into Google not Dewey Decimal numbers of course. Perhaps it is my own advancing age and my past academic research experience that makes me biased but I still see a need for the DDS. The one distinct advantage that the DDS has over the "neighborhood" system is its exactness when you need a certain book.

The flip side of course is the simple joy derived from reviewing a shelf of books where you discover some unknown book that catches your attention -- so the Gilbert Library might evolve into the very atmosphere that attracts me to the used book stores I always visit when I travel.

Enjoy your browsing,

Todd