July 2007 Archives
SHU librarian Anthony McMullen was quoted in a Wall Street Journal article on a library that gave up the Dewey Decimal System in favor of sorting books the way they are sorted in a bookstore.
Discord Over Dewey - WSJ.comAnthony McMullen, a librarian at Seton Hill University in Greensburg, Penn., said he's heard colleagues scoff at searches that result in millions of pages, which they think bewilder users, as well as searches that direct users to illegitimate sources of information.
But Mr. McMullen encourages keeping an open mind, noting that most users focus on the first 10 to 20 results and don't get overwhelmed. And the Internet doesn't have exclusive rights on inaccuracy, he added. "I could compile a lengthy bibliography of published books that support the notion that the Holocaust never occurred. This doesn't mean that we shouldn't use books."
