CDs that finally make sense!

What is all the fuss going on with the CDs at the Public Library? Where do they disappear to, and resurface from, with a new shiny case and new shiny label? And how come they’re moving around and in different places?

Here’s the haps. At long last, Santa Fe Public Library has made the jump to reclassify our music CDs. This means we have stopped using confusing Dewey Decimal numbers and have gone, bookstore-style, to genres such as Rock, Classical, Jazz, etc. And while we’re changing the locations, we’re also changing the broken and damaged cases.

If you’ve been with us for a long time, you know this is not quite unfamiliar territory, since the CDs were classed by genre before they were classed by Dewey. However, staff has decided that Dewey was a bit of a failed experiment, and we’ve gone back to our original ways of doing things. The early report from the branches is that this is so much more user-friendly, appealing to both staff and patrons alike, and the items are checking out like mad, whereas before they sat sadly in their Dewey prisons and malingered. So mosey yourself on over to the music section and enjoy the new browsing experience! We are almost finished with our system-wide reclass but have a little more to go, so please be patient if Miles Davis is hanging out in two different places right now, 789.5 and Jazz. The catalog will reflect both spots, so if you’re really stumped, please check the catalog or ask a librarian!

A final word: sometimes it really is true that if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it! But it’s also true that sometimes, much like leaving New Mexico for Louisiana, you have to make that change to find out that where you started out is so much better after all – like Dorothy learned at the end of The Wizard of Oz.

by AA @ Main