Can Dewey Do It? Classifying books of pagan interest

Courtesy of the State Library of Iowa

As a newbie librarian, I’ve come across several classification systems… For example, the Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC) system (000-900’s) that everyone has come in contact with and is used just about everywhere; and the Library of Congress Classification (LCC), which is a more expansive system than DDC used in many academic, research, or professional libraries.

But then there are bodies of knowledge that require greater care in their organization, such as the science of medicine. The National Library of Medicine (NLM) system was established to handle this great sum of specifically nuanced information in a way that was relevant and efficient for doctors and scientists.

While the NLM can be used by anyone, it is used to handle a specific body of information for a specific audience.

So while I’ve been enjoying my time exploring my free, limited-day trial of OCLC’s Online Web Dewey service, there’s been a question sitting in the back of my mind: if one were to establish a special interest collection, perhaps even a stand-alone library specifically to address pagan needs and interests, how would the books be organized, and what would the classification system look like? Would an existing classification system suffice, or is it a body of information that, like the science of medicine, could benefit from developing it’s own unique system?

Like any system, the DDC has received it’s share of criticms. But one that stood at the forefront of my mind was that the DDC was created with a Christian background. Would this background be a significant obstacle, or is it just a red herring?

With a pagan perspective, (“Is there something that could be found here of pagan interest?”) I very systematically began exploring the intricate subject breakdowns of the DDC, at times even getting 4-7 places to the right of the decimal point. I made note of my observations of specific words used (because the choice of a word is not taken very lightly in classification) and the placement of topics within the system.

I’m not saying that this isn’t something that can be further delved into; it can! But my initial thoughts after spending about a week digging… while a unique system may be more relevant for research-based collections, the majority of the Dewey Decimal Classification would suffice to organize a general collection of materials in a pagan centered library.

But wait! I don’t mean that you’d walk into this hypothetical pagan library and everything would be organized within 100-299… No, what I mean to say is that while currently mainstream public libraries do put most of their specifically pagan interest books in this area, in a pagan-centered library, these books would be given great enough attention that they could be spread nearly anywhere within the DDC.

It’s possible in this wide-world that there are public libraries out there that don’t act on a knee-jerk reaction of seeing the word “pagan” or “witchcraft” as the publisher’s overly simple subject heading and automatically slap it in the stacks between 100-299, but I haven’t personally seen many instances of this. For example, Kristen Madden’s book, “Festival Feasts” has “pagan” written on it, and often, –if I do find it– it’s put with all the other “pagan” books about spiritual/religious practices (100-299’s)… instead of cooking — even though the entire book is dedicated to recipe’s and menus! Why not put it in cooking (600’s)? Specifically, seasonal or holiday cooking (641.56)?

While it would be awesome for librarians or catalogers of mainstream public libraries to take a little more time investigating the actual purpose of a book beyond the special interest label, I’m not going to harp on them for what they presently do. Knee-jerk system though it may be, it works. Why? Because the collection of a public library as a whole is meant to serve the whole community. For the special interest groups within their community, it is likely they are doing their best to provide a service of convenience by trying to lump all the “special interest” books near together instead of all over the place.

BUT: if there ever comes to be a pagan-centered library, a special interest library, it’s very possible that the full range of the DDC could be utilized to better organize materials within the collection.

(Though I’m still interested in exploring what a unique, pagan-based classification system might look like…)

THOUGHTS???