In my first blog post related to ETL 505 I hit upon some major themes in the organization of information resources. Recent readings prompted me to respond to my initial thoughts and to set some goals for beginning my post as a teacher librarian.

 

It wasn’t until this week that I read about the Dewey Decimal system, or Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC), which I now understand is a classification scheme applicable to the physical arrangement of resources. My questions about browsing and finding physical resources in a library and the topic of genrefication came to mind as I completed the readings. The challenge of a classification scheme for physical resource is that, despite using different multiple descriptors to index a single resource, one best place must be determined for this resource on the shelves. DDC is a scheme that places related resources near each other on the shelves, but the term “scattering” effectively explains what happens when only one possible relation can be decided. Resources of differing genres on the same topic, for example, will be scattered throughout the library because of DDC’s system of classifying genres separately. I came to the realization that because resource can be indexed by an increasing number of descriptors, that a physical search might be less effective than using the library’s online catalog. The resource can only be located in one place, but there are various access points that one can use to discover resources related to a particular search. 

 

Considering that we use interdisciplinary units as part of the Primary Year Programme in our school, I wonder if genrefication would greatly aid the process of resources discovery through shelving all resources relating to a unit of inquiry topic together. However, reorganizing a library is no easy feat; perhaps just teaching library users more about its organization would support users in finding desired resources.

 

The organization of online resources is another topic that is very pertinent to information organization. The organization of online resources is called a taxonomy, to refer to the particular structure for this type of classification. While there is no longer the dilemma of choosing the one best place to put a resource, a taxonomy must be structured carefully to give the users optimal access to the resources in a site.To create an effective taxonomy information architects study the knowledge domain to understand the structure of this topic. User warrant (the needs of users) is a key factor in structuring online resources (Hider, 2018, p. 202). There is no need to decide on one place to put the resource; as Hider points out, resources can be linked in multiple places making hard decisions over where to put the resource unnecessary. The challenge of online resources is making them easy to find. 

 

My frustration with tags as a method for organizing information online was addressed in recent readings which dealt with social tagging and folksonomies. My occasional attempts at tagging materials for my own later retrieval reflect one of the challenges to effective social tagging; namely that people are often less interested in making a resource discoverable for others than they are in making it retrievable for themselves. I am an effective information architect for myself but this does not make my system effective for others. 

 

A goal I have for myself as a new librarian is to make resources in our library more accessible to users. I envision two major pathways forward here. The first, in making our website user friendly and constantly promoting it as a first stop for school-related information searches among the library’s major users (teachers and students). The second pertains to the physical arrangement of resources in the library. I want to both help users to understand the how and why of the arrangement of the library, but also work towards making it more user-friendly. This means increasing signage and possibly altering resource arrangement, but also being approachable so nobody feels embarrassed to ask for help if they don’t understand the intricacies of the Dewey Decimal system. I hope to empower our library users, so they feel more confident in being able to find the right physical or online resource for their information need. I feel this subject will help me to address these needs for my current library in an informed way. 

 

References

Hider, Philip. (2018). Information resource description: Creating and managing metadata (2nd ed.). London: Facet Publishing.