Open Shelves Classification
The first draft of the top level of the Open Shelves Classification is ready.If this means nothing to you, check out this post I wrote for our ideas blog, Thingology.
Want to help? Go to a work page in LibraryThing and scroll down to the bottom. You'll find a chart of the top-level categories. If you see a good match, click on it. You'll be prompted to say whether you know the book yourself or not. And then you'll get to see how your classification vote match up with anyone else on the site.
You can classify anything in LibraryThing. If you want to help the most, however, click the "Find a random work" link here or below the classification chart. It'll take you to a random work, but also contrive to get multiple members classifying the same works. The idea is that it'll give us a good idea what categories are easy and obvious, and which are causing doubt.
Whatever you find, come and talk about it on the Open Shelves Classification group.
Labels: open shelves classification, osc
posted by Tim at 3:56 AM
17 Comments:
Fiction and Poetry
Thats it for all of fiction, and why combine it with Poetry ?
Your classification system seems to be biased in favor of non-fiction. There are a wide variety of subjects for NF, but all of fiction and poetry end up in one undifferentiated box ?
I don't know that the difference between Memoir and Autobiography is clear. If all of Fiction and Poetry is a single category (which seems odd to me too), I don't see why Memoir can't be thrown in with Bio/Autobio.
FicusFan - My understanding is that these are top level categories, which would presumably be further subdivided. (For what it's worth, Dewey lumps all fiction into the 800s and LC lumps all fiction into the Ns, so it's not without precedent as a top-level category.)
But if Fiction is all one, then Non-Fiction should be the only other top level category as well. By that logic, There should only be 2 boxes F or NF.
Also, I thought this was supposed to be a better alternative to Dewey et al ?
As a reader of fiction, this generates no interest in me to participate. Nor would it give me any more helpful information about any of the books being dumped into Fiction/Poetry box. It would be useless if I were trying to find out about the book, or if I might like it.
Perhaps that is not really the point of the process, but to involve those who have no actual interest in Library Classification, there needs to be a benefit that does satisfy the casual participant.
I'm having trouble with books such as "guide book to birds" and the like. Could there be a "Nature" category? or change "Pets" to "Animals"?
Is there a way to correct a classification? I misclicked and mis-categorized a book, but I couldn't find a way to take it back.
Are you considering this as a feature?
No, just select another one. You can correct your vote. (But you can only vote once.) The system actually tracks your vote-path. I want to see how often people change their minds, especially when they see other's opinions.
Is there a reason the categories aren't quite in alphabetical order? "Languages and Linguistics" ... :P
...... Waaaay too much fun!
But I agree, some catagories are off or biased or simply missing...
Norabelle, I'm having problems with field guides too. I can think of at least three plausible but not entirely suitable categories.
And why on earth is Science lumped all into one, when the social sciences are split up, and hairs as fine as agriculture vs. gardening are split otherwise? Is your average public library user really so science-averse that they need half a dozen social science categories and only one science category? Sad, if true.
I'm with Norabelle on the "Pets" thing, why is (are?) "Animals" a subdivision of "Pets"? Shouldn't it be the other way around? I mean, all pets are animals, but not all animals are pets...
Currently this system is only slightly revised from BISAC. It will be interesting to see what emerges when real books and more minds determine categories, as opposed to a few minds, mostly thinking in terms similar to the current classification schemes.
In the library world, this would be considered to be a subject scheme, rather than a classification. And in this subject scheme, there are some terms that are not subjects. Comics is a format, not a subject. So, too, are study aids. Humor is more of a type of treatment on any subject -- more "humourous aspects" (unless, of course, the item is actually about humour in different societies, etc.).
Some categories seem relatively minor compared to others -- one whole category for True crime (which could perhaps be combined with Law and/or Justice), but all of Fiction and poetry (encompassing works normally considered literature, i.e., Jane Austen, Chaucer, those considered horror, i.e. Stephen King, and sci-fi/fantasy such as Tolkien, and Harlequin romances on top of that)lumped together. And why separate Literary criticism from the literature? Any normal study of the one encompasses the other. And how do Literary collections separate from Fiction and poetry? Why is Memoir separated from Auto/Biography? How does Drama (i.e., Shakespeare, G.B. Shaw, separated from Fiction and poetry (encompassing literature? And do you really have that many books about Film and television?
There is a large concentration of subjects of domestic interest/hobbies -- Antiques and collectibles, Cooking, Crafts and hobbies, Family and relationships, Games, Gardening, Health and fitness, House and home, Pets, Self-help, Sports and recreation, Travel. It reads more like a Chapters bookstore than any serious library -- which may be fair considering that most people catalogue their home libraries. But I am stumped as to where to draw the dividing line between Games and Sports and recreation.
Where do you put reference tools such as encyclopediae or atlases? You have Travel, but nothing for Geography.
I don't see any classification such as Children or Kids or Juvenile.
Also, I, too, don't understand the distinction between autobiography and memoir.
Having worked through a number of books with the random works, I failed to find a good place to put Labour (history, collective agreements, etc.) -- I stuck them under Business and economics, but that is not really accurate.
I just spent some more time with the random works -- where does one put fables/mythology, books about rocks/butterflies for collectors (science or hobbies?), works about a country (that are not travel books), animals that are not pets?
An anthology of poetry -- Fiction and poetry or Literary collections?
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