# Congress or Dewey? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 31, 2005, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/congress-or-dewey/314957 "2005-07-31T01:51:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![guizot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guizot/32/3636_2.png) [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2005, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/congress-or-dewey/314957/1 "2005-07-31T01:51:07Z")
Related to [this thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=310917&highlight=Dewey+decimal), I’m thinking of going to work at a municipal library, where, in most cases in the U.S., they use the Dewey Decimal system (which we all learned as kids because most public school libraries use the DDS). However, I worked for four years at the Doe Librarary stacks on the UC Berkeley campus, where, as at most university libraries, they use the Library of Congress Classification system. As far as I can tell, while the LoC has existed longer than any other Federal institution, they developed the LoF Classification system shortly after Melville Dewey developed his system. Why didn’t they adopt his system? Apparently they felt they had different needs. And it’s clear, that the typical municipal library doesn’t serve the same needs as a university research library. This is particulary clear with regard to popular literature. But for me, it was easier to find mis-shelved books with the LoC system, and it was easier to get an idea of what a book was about by its call number than with the DDC system. And I get the impression that the DDC system leaves the distinction between “classic literature” and “popular” literature up to somebody’s arbitrary decision. I could be wrong on this, so let me know if you know otherwise. So for those of you, who like me, are finding ways to avoid more productive activity, here’s an epistimalogical poll for procrasticators: **Which system is better? LoC or DD?** (And I know there are other systems, particulary in non-English speaking countries. Let’s just leave those out of the question for now.) ---
**Author:** ![Lsura](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7993a0/32.png) [@Lsura](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lsura)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2005, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/congress-or-dewey/314957/2 "2005-07-31T03:49:10Z")
LC, but then I’m an academic librarian - it’s the one I know best. I struggle a bit with trying to remember where things are when I go to my public library because Dewey doesn’t make a huge amount of sense to me - I do remember, though, when I first went to college, LC didn’t make a lot of sense (at that point, I was used to Dewey), so I figure it’s just whichever you work with more. Of course, I do thing we’d regain some of the mystery of libraries if we switched to the [Ranganathan’s Colon Classification system](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colon_classification). 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Ruckinge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/977dab/32.png) [@Ruckinge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruckinge)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2005, 5:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/congress-or-dewey/314957/3 "2005-07-31T05:20:20Z")
Doo-wee! Doo-wee! ---
**Author:** ![Green\_Bean](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/green_bean/32/1760_2.png) [@Green\_Bean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Green_Bean)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2005, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/congress-or-dewey/314957/4 "2005-08-01T01:42:14Z")
I strongly prefer the Library of Congress system. I grew up on Dewey. In college and grad school, when I was doing a lot of research, I got used to the LoC system. The call numbers are annoyingly long, and sometimes it was difficult to find things, but overall, the books were in a very sensible order. I could just find the right section of the stacks and then browse around to find what I wanted. Now, I use the public library. I HATE the Dewey Decimal system. HATE! Things seem to be divided so arbitrarily. The system may seem simpler, but I find it way harder to find what I want using it. ---
**Author:** ![OtakuLoki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ac8455/32.png) [@OtakuLoki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OtakuLoki)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2005, 9:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/congress-or-dewey/314957/5 "2005-08-01T09:13:25Z")
I’m another one who prefers the LoC system. When I go to the public library, I’m doing one of two things: Looking for fiction that I can’t afford to buy yet, or that is out of print; or research. When I’m looking for fiction, Dewey is fine. Not great, but it works. For any kind of research purpose, however, LoC wins, hands down. It took me about a month when I first went to college to get used to it, and since then, I’ve preferred the LoC. And **Lsura** , the Colon Classification might work well - but all I could think, before I looked at your link was something scatological. (Former biologist humor, I guess.) ---
**Author:** ![Ravenman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ravenman/32/2929_2.png) [@Ravenman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ravenman)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2005, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/congress-or-dewey/314957/6 "2005-08-01T13:44:51Z")
Library of Congress. The initial letters of the call number make it much easier for me to remember what areas of the library I should be in for a particular subject. A string of numbers, to me, is just a string of numbers, so I don’t like Dewey. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2005, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/congress-or-dewey/314957/7 "2005-08-01T23:36:21Z")
It’s been a long time since library school, and I’ve switched careers, but I remember one important advantage of LC is that it’s “hospitable”, meaning that it’s much easier to add in a new subject or specialty as needed. You can extend the numeric part of an LC number to contain a new subject heading, but it doesn’t have to imply that the new heading is a subset of the one from which the number was extended. It’s understood that the new heading should bear some relationship to the adjacent numberings, but it doesn’t have to specifically belong within any of the ones that were already there. For instance, “N” is the fine arts subject area, and is divided as follows: N Fine Arts N Visual arts (General) NA Architecture NB Sculpture NC Drawing. Design. Illustration ND Painting NE Print media NK Decorative arts NX Arts in general If for some reason a new major topic is needed for fine arts, we can simply institute a new alpha heading like NL or NF to cover it. In the same way, if (hypothetically) ND 430 is used for oil painting, then ND 4301 could be for “Painting with transuranium based paints”, without that being assumed to be a subtopic of oil painting. With Dewey it’s different. DDC 789.913 is supposed to be a subtopic of 789.91, which is supposed to be a subtopic of 790.9, which is … and so on. And we can’t institute a new major subject area between 700 and 800.