aframn or coll::FAAYA

i guess what got me started about categories actually happened weeks ago.

i work at a library. nice, orderly, stacks of books ruled by the dewey decimal system. but there's a movement to change that. not to be instantly shouted down but think about this. you have to learn how to use a library. thats the single thing that seems to get people fired up. sure you cant just walk into a library and find exactly what you want, but then again there's a reason for this. well, two reasons: reason one: its not impossible or even hard to do with computers or just a little time and understanding that its something you need to know how to do. reason two: the decimal system makes it so EVERYONE can find what they want easily and anonymously. A guy who wants a book about how to deal with being alone after 40 because his wife died and he's been crying everyday for two years doesnt have to hang his very personal battle out like a white flag while he browses the "health and relationship section" in the "grief self help" section with the covers facing out like a god damn book store. The guy who likes to read gay porn romance novels is afforded the same protection as the guy who's obsessed with star trek and as the guy who wants to learn to knit or the girl who wants to fix cars or find communities to raise children with two female parents. and thanks to dewey these same people can find what they want in ANY library that uses the dewey system which is to say ANY library in the world.

but thats not good enough. we need to make it so you can come to the library and not have to look for anything. you should be able to come in and say i want sci fi and someone should be able to say to you sure its up on the second floor under sci fi. but then you go there and you dont find what you want.... because someone in charge of collections didnt think it fit the category. so what? so you get fragmentation. massive fragmentation. and with the formation of categories you get more and more categories and less and less anonymity. its not fiction, its sci fi. its not sci fi, its period sci fi. its not period sci fi, its period sci fi punk. period sci fi punk steam era. period sci fi punk steam era late 80's author. what does this do to cataloging? suddenly you have a catalog full of dewey numbers that dont mean anything. but also, with respect to fiction you end up with collection tags that grow increasingly nonsensical and arbitrary. suddenly that book you could have found by the title and first three letters of the authors last name is now filed under a collection tag first and the author second. the collection tag is suddenly not just F for fiction its SF and then SFP. and then SFPE. and then PSFPE. And that book would be differently tagged with more or less detail from one library to the next. And on top of that it may or not be on face out book store style display... which means it may or may not be in any of several locations. And if you do find it, it'll be in full view of everyone else if its presented for wonderful display or the section is so obviously specific it leaves nothing to the imagination in what it is you are looking for.

well ive got nothing to hide. well, good for you, but some people do, and its not the library's purpose to expose the individual. only to provide for the needs.

categories. totally arbitrary in libraries. the dewey decimal system is THE category. there is nothing outside of it. nothing is left out. it is complete. by demanding special treatment of individual categories its an invitation to nonsense. who says A is not B and B is not C and who can say that everyone can agree that it is the case that such and such shall be heretofore considered not A but part of group Y if and only if Y is not a biography written before 1920.

so what happend weeks ago? someone turns in a book and its marked African American fiction. So i go to shelve it. where the fucks the african american fiction section? I find it. All the books there are basically blacksploitation novels selling fake hip-hop thuggery, prostitution, and false empowerment. so i have a wtf moment. why is this even considered a necessary and valuable addition to the library catalog? then i wonder wheres the white american fiction section? wheres the gay section? wheres the award winning black authors section? why is the fiction african american young adult section here and something not representative of skillful african american authorship or literary prowess not here? that's what happend. who decided? and what impact was that decision going to have on every person who came to that branch and was curious about african american culture or was just browsing and stumbled upon this category within the collection? library's possess authority derived from dewey and that holds real ramifications for every decision to "break out" a new category at the whims of something so partial as a person.