Dewey

[adcooper]

I am halfway through Dewey, the book about a cat who was abandoned in a book drop at the Spencer Iowa Public Library. They kept him, of course. It's a treat for me because I lived in Spencer when I was young, though I didn't overlap with Dewey. And of course I work in a library now. And I even have an orange cat.

I have a hunch this book will go over very well with Exracers! Anyone else read it?

[NancyL]

No, but it doesn't sound far-fetched at all. When I worked at Columbus Public, many people did absolutely bizarre things, like abandoning a goldfish in the drinking fountain. Did a librarian write this? Dewey was developed for public libraries you know. Only one major university library that I know of (Illinois I think) uses Dewey (This is your librarian on her soapbox) ;D

I'll have to go to my public library now

[adcooper]

Yes, it was written by the librarian who rescued him. Nancy, you'd like this book! And, yep, we're Dewey in the public libraries.

My husband tells about looking for materials in the Harvard library once. He couldn't figure out their call numbers because they weren't Library of Congress. He made the mistake of mentioning this to the librarian. She looked down her nose at him and said, "Young man, the Harvard Library pre-dates the Library of Congress."

[niaru]

Feb 22, 2009 12:25:11 GMT -5 NancyL said:

Dewey was developed for public libraries you know. Only one major university library that I know of (Illinois I think) uses Dewey (This is your librarian on her soapbox) ;D

Hmmmm these sentences don't make sense to me...am I missing something? What is "Dewey" (besides the cat)?

Sounds like an interesting book Ad, one my 12 yo daughter might enjoy too, if I can pry her away from her vampire stories

[adcooper]

Claire, the Dewey Decimal System is the way many libraries assign call numbers to their books. 641.5 is a typical call number for a cookbook, 811 for poetry, 332.024 for finance, etc., etc. The Library of Congress has another system (which I've never learned) and as Nancy says, it's more often used in academic libraries. I bet that's what your university uses. And apparently Harvard has its own!

The book isn't written for kids, though a 12-year-old might enjoy it. It's also largely autobiographical about the librarian's life, which was not always happy. But the overall story is a celebration of a remarkable cat who lived in a public library for something like 19 years. I think my current cat could win the Dewey lookalike, contest, by the way!

[NancyL]

Melvin Dewey, the patron saint of library classification ;D

[niaru]

Thanks guys! Ah, the mysteries of Libraries...!!!

[fancyhorse]

I just finished this book and it was FANTASTIC!!!

[adcooper]

It was a pretty sweet story, wasn't it. I have a cat who looks a lot like Dewey, though flimsier. I enjoyed snuggling with Julian while I read that book.