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CatalogingFictionLIS2005Presentation
Citation preview
Cataloging Fiction
bySergio Ragno
Rebecca SlingerBeth Theobald
Jason VeyJasmine Woodson
K.Currier, J.Oh, R.Riter, LIS 2005
Effective Cataloging• Effectively cataloging
fiction still a challenge.
• Thousands of genres and sub-genres exist.
• New varieties invented daily.
• If a customer wants a book about a vampire heroine, where do you point them?
• Just some of the possibilities:– Supernatural romance– Urban fantasy– Supernatural thriller– Plain horror– Fantasy
“Which Section?”
Genres• Fiction identifiers less
concrete than non-fiction.
• Catalogers forced to rely on subjective metadata
• What about genre crossing works?
{Classification
Today}• Catalogers seek out
aspects of fiction deemed worth indexing.
• General classification systems focus on concrete facts.
• Some schemes expanded to include classes of subject matter.
horror
action
romance
• Literary type, publication date and region remain useful bases for classification for academia.
however…
• Pleasure readers don’t know where to find a book if the book isn’t classified by its content.
The Problem
Finding a Solution
• Many scholars have devised ways to classify fiction with the reader in mind.
• But there is no easy solution to perfectly organize fiction.
Note: This is a real bookshop. For more info: http://www.mcsweeneys.net/links/events/chriscobb.html
An Attempt at Progress• In the early 1980s
Annelise Pejtersen and Jutta Austin developed the AMP Classification System.
• It took into account the subjectivity of fiction.
• The AMP system is better for indexing not shelving.
Pejtersen’s Categories• These categories are
divided into connotative and denotative characteristics.
• Connotative: Subject, frame and author’s intent
• Denotative: physical characteristics
A Different Two Categories• Rebecca Green’s
method classified by subject and attribute (i.e. author’s intended audience).
• The attribute is supposed to reflect the user’s needs and ideas —too subjective.
Teens! Kids!
They Don’t FitWhy don’t these system work?
because:
•Information systems built on existing standards (MARC formats).
•Forces fiction to fit standards developed for non-fiction.
•Value is personal and badly fits the traditional values of indexing and classifying.
The Nature of Terminology
• Value judgments must be made when choosing the right terms.
• The author’s intentions and attitudes must be divined and reflected in the vocabulary.
Baby Steps
• Michael Burgess developed an evaluative code.
• Today people would question the cataloger’s judgments.
• The system is too basic.
How Dewey Worksfor example:
• The 808 class is devoted to literary genres (poetry, drama, satire, etc.)
• Sub-class 809 for history and criticism of literature.
• Further sub-classes for national literatures.
Dewey Is Useful for Academia
• Within each sub-class are more genre and sub-classes.
• Useful for study but don’t deal with the content in fiction.
Searching Beyond
• The Online Computer Library Center (OCLC)’s Fiction Finder.
• Allows users to retrieve content information.
• Searches beyond formal characteristics.
{Continued Challenges}• The challenge of helping
readers find books easily has always existed.
• It’s been a topic in library literature since at least 1933, when Frank Haigh’s fiction classification scheme was proposed and tested.
• So where do we go from here?
“False Ceiling” by Richard Wentworth
Can Shelves Ever Be More Than 2D?
• Indexing systems in the future?
• Can point users to a location on the shelf.
• Shelving classifications are two-dimensional and limited.
The Future
There is a long way to go before (if ever) we establish an effective classification method.
the end