# Coronavirus disaster in library **URL:** \ **Category:** The Quarantine Zone\ **Tags:** covid-quarantine\ **Created:** [April 25, 2020, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-disaster-in-library/852559 "2020-04-25T16:09:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2020, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-disaster-in-library/852559/1 "2020-04-25T16:09:32Z")
[Coronavirus: Library books rearranged in size order by cleaner](https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-suffolk-52412655) > [@](#): > > A well-meaning cleaner who took the opportunity to give a locked-down library a thorough clean re-shelved all of its books - in size order. > > Staff at Newmarket Library, Suffolk, discovered the sloping tomes after the building underwent a deep clean. > > James Powell, of Suffolk Libraries, said staff “saw the funny side” but it would take a “bit of time” to correct. > > “It looks like libraries will be closed for a while so we’ll have plenty of time to sort the books out”, he said. The horror. The horror. ---
**Author:** ![casdave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c6cbf5/32.png) [@casdave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/casdave)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2020, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-disaster-in-library/852559/2 "2020-04-25T16:42:53Z")
Ohh the Humanities They should never be on the same rack as the 'OLOGIES ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2020, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-disaster-in-library/852559/3 "2020-04-25T16:44:09Z")
At least they didn’t rearrange them by color. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2020, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-disaster-in-library/852559/4 "2020-04-25T17:10:08Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > At least they didn’t rearrange them by color. That would have been my first choice, not only highly attractive but very scientific if based on the [Natural Color System](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_Color_System) developed by the award-winning Swedish Colour Centre Foundation. 🙂 You’ll notice that all the best lawyers – the ones who promote personal-injury claims on late-night TV – are always standing in front of shelf-fulls of books that are color-coordinated in just this way. ---
**Author:** ![road\_lobo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/d78d45/32.png) [@road\_lobo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/road_lobo)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2020, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-disaster-in-library/852559/5 "2020-04-25T17:37:51Z")
I wouldn’t trust that anything this person touched is clean. No attention to detail, no common sense, solipsistic… ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2020, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-disaster-in-library/852559/6 "2020-04-25T18:03:24Z")
Let’s hope they used the Dewey Decimal System instead of Library of Congress Classification. LCC (which is what my institutional library uses) drives me nuts. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2020, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-disaster-in-library/852559/7 "2020-04-25T18:06:41Z")
It would be pretty surprising for a British library to use the American Library of Congress system. Though I admit I didn’t know they had standardized on Dewey Decimal. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2020, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-disaster-in-library/852559/8 "2020-04-25T18:33:01Z")
There’s a game store in Ohio that I’ve been to a couple of times and they have the most ridiculous sorting arrangement I’ve ever seen; they sort all of their games by the publishing companies. I own a lot of board games and I couldn’t tell you what company published ninety-nine percent of them - and I consider myself pretty typical in that regard. Branding in board games is almost non-existent. I’d say that the only people who care about publishing companies are the store owners who buy from them. But I found even that’s not true. If I ask the store owner where a game is located, he usually has no idea what company published it and where it’s located in his store. He has to go online and look up the game to see who published it so he can find where it is. ---
**Author:** ![Sicks\_Ate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/258eb7/32.png) [@Sicks\_Ate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sicks_Ate)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2020, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-disaster-in-library/852559/9 "2020-04-25T18:36:44Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > There’s a game store in Ohio that I’ve been to a couple of times and they have the most ridiculous sorting arrangement I’ve ever seen; they sort all of their games by the publishing companies. > > I own a lot of board games and I couldn’t tell you what company published ninety-nine percent of them - and I consider myself pretty typical in that regard. Branding in board games is almost non-existent. > > I’d say that the only people who care about publishing companies are the store owners who buy from them. But I found even that’s not true. If I ask the store owner where a game is located, he usually has no idea what company published it and where it’s located in his store. He has to go online and look up the game to see who published it so he can find where it is. Makes stocking easier maybe? Shipment from a publisher comes in, you don’t have to run all over the store shelving games. Just take the box to that section and unload. ---
**Author:** ![Jackknifed\_Juggernaut](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9de053/32.png) [@Jackknifed\_Juggernaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackknifed_Juggernaut)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2020, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-disaster-in-library/852559/10 "2020-04-25T18:45:04Z")
I like the finishing touch with the book on the bottom right leaning against the others. For this reason, I whole-heartedly disagree with Post #5 (although I don’t know the meaning of that final word). ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2020, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-disaster-in-library/852559/11 "2020-04-25T18:55:16Z")
Just like the Philadelphia mass turbulence of 1947. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2020, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-disaster-in-library/852559/12 "2020-04-25T18:59:23Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > It would be pretty surprising for a British library to use the American Library of Congress system. Be prepared to be surprised. (Actually I was.) An institution as quintessentially British as [St. John’s College of Cambridge University uses the Library of Congress system.](https://www.joh.cam.ac.uk/library-congress-classification-scheme) I admit I didn’t pick up on the fact that the library was in the UK, though I should have noticed it was BBC. I can’t see any call letters on the books in the photograph, but from the titles they appear to be murder mysteries. They all have a label showing a magnifying glass, so it looks like they were originally classified by genre and probably organized alphabetically by author. > [@](#): > > Though I admit I didn’t know they had standardized on Dewey Decimal. The Dewey Decimal System is definitely more widely used, especially in smaller libraries and internationally. But I wouldn’t rule out LCC just because a library is in the UK. LCC is used pretty widely as well. ---
**Author:** ![squeegee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/squeegee/32/14537_2.png) [@squeegee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/squeegee)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2020, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-disaster-in-library/852559/13 "2020-04-25T18:59:56Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > Let’s hope they used the Dewey Decimal System instead of Library of Congress Classification. LCC (which is what my institutional library uses) drives me nuts. My early tech career was library software (check-in/out and rudimentary card catalog (this was in 1982)). LCC is the spawn of the devil. Dewey hate it? Hell yes. ---
**Author:** ![APB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8e8cbc/32.png) [@APB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/APB)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2020, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-disaster-in-library/852559/14 "2020-04-25T22:51:12Z")
A quick look at [the online catalogue of the Suffolk Libraries](https://suffolk.spydus.co.uk/cgi-bin/spydus.exe/MSGTRN/OPAC/BSEARCH?HOMEPRMS=GENPARAMS), of which the Newmarket library is a branch, suggests that they do use the Dewey Decimal system. Although I can’t say I’ve been in the Newmarket library, I have on a couple of occasions walked through the decidedly unglamorous shopping centre in which it is located - it’s just a small branch library. Cambridge University Library, just down the road from Newmarket, uses its own classification system, which does subdivide by subject, but which then arranges by size, in order to save shelf space. ---
**Author:** ![Sherrerd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sherrerd/32/8_2.png) [@Sherrerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sherrerd)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2020, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-disaster-in-library/852559/15 "2020-04-25T23:10:42Z")
> [@road\_lobo](#): > > I wouldn’t trust that anything this person touched is clean. No attention to detail, no common sense, solipsistic… This is an excellent point. Someone with such poor judgment may be ‘cleaning’ in ways that don’t actually provide any removal of virus. > [@Jackknifed\_Juggernaut](#): > > I like the finishing touch with the book on the bottom right leaning against the others. For this reason, I whole-heartedly disagree with > Post #5 (although I don’t know the meaning of that final word). In this context, think “self-absorbed.” ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2020, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-disaster-in-library/852559/16 "2020-04-25T23:35:02Z")
Note to libraries: hire cleaners who know how to read. As for odd shelving systems, I had a friend who shelved all his many sf books by publisher and publisher’s number - this was pre-ISBN. I tried sorting my books that way once. It was interesting in that you could see the artistic evolution of cover design over the years, but I couldn’t find a damn thing without referring to my index, so it didn’t last long. ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2020, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-disaster-in-library/852559/17 "2020-04-25T23:43:54Z")
There are some varieties in the Dewey Decimal system. When going to libraries in Korea, I had to get used to what’s called the [Korean Decimal Classification](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_decimal_classification). It has the same top level classes as Dewey Decimal, but in a different order. I do not see the point in that. If you’re going to use the system, just use it. Wikipedia has a fascinating (to me, at least) read on [library classification systems](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Library_classification). ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2020, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-disaster-in-library/852559/18 "2020-04-26T01:09:35Z")
Where’s [Conan the Librarian](https://i.pinimg.com/564x/20/0e/87/200e87f4428e35e8338f72000837e5cf.jpg) when we need him? ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2020, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-disaster-in-library/852559/19 "2020-04-26T02:25:00Z")
> [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](#): > > Where’s [Conan the Librarian](https://i.pinimg.com/564x/20/0e/87/200e87f4428e35e8338f72000837e5cf.jpg) when we need him? Little bald guy: “Can you tell me where is a book on astronomy?” Conan the Librarian [Choke holds the guy]: "Don’t you know… THE DEWEY DECIMAL SYSTEM?!? ---
**Author:** ![RioRico](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f04885/32.png) [@RioRico](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RioRico)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2020, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-disaster-in-library/852559/20 "2020-04-26T03:08:45Z")
I wanted our indigenous crafts collection arranged by ethnic group but MrsRico insists on color co-ordination. Darn. Our arts library is mostly sorted by size, like my music books and sheets. History, lore, atlases, and guides go by region and size, similar to my crank literature. Comix are mostly by publisher except a few crossovers. Card decks and board games are alphabetized within size groups. Cookbooks sort by usage, maps by intent. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-disaster-in-library/852559.md?page=2)