I love my library. It is huge and it has almost everything. But it has the craziest organization I’ve ever seen.
When I first went there I was very confused. I couldn’t figure out where the books were. It doesn’t help that they don’t use “book words”. Nowhere will you find a Fiction section. It is Popular Culture. There is no Nonfiction. It is broken up into a Science and Technology sections, a Business section, and a Humanities section.
I’m a Dewey Decimal kind of girl. I can understand when you want to browse that maybe going to the Science section will get you where you want to be. But when you look up a book and get the number it can be hard to find out where that book lives.
I looked up travel guides for Hawaii. They live at 919.6. I went to the basement to where most of the nonfiction lives. I found the 400 – 600s in one sections. On the other side of the building there was 200 and 300s. No 900s. The rest of the nonfiction is on the 3rd floor. I went up there. Searched all over and finally found the 900s tucked in behind the 100s. The section went from 909 straight to 920. There was a little sign that said “910-919 shelved in Popular Culture.”
I had to go down to the second floor to Popular Culture and found a shelf of travel guides way in the back. Should I be worried that the guides for my vacation are shelved in fiction?
Am I crazy in wanting the numbers in order on the same floor so I can figure out where they are?
