DEWEY DECIMAL CLASSIFICATION (DCC)

Born 1876 in the mind of Melvil Dewey who has long since passed away. His Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC) is a system for classifying and organizing works in libraries in such a way that almost anyone who can count can find and return books in their proper place. Not as much as a problem for chained libraries with hand written books. But in a modern libraries with the number of books ever increasing, this system is quite useful. Its only real competitor (in the real world) is the Library of Congress Classification (LCC). The DDC is widely known to be the easier of the two systems. The LCC systems is also extremely American-centric as evidenced in its categories such as "Class D - World History (everyone except American History)", "Class E American History" AND "Class F - American History", and "Class F - Local History of the United States and British, Dutch, French, and Latin America". The DDC was of course a product of the USA also, yet open enough to diverge from it's roots to be used in over 200,000 public and private libraries in 135 or more countries while the LCC remains mainly used US university libraries. So why does the LCC remain in use? I'll come back to this question.

Its proprietary. Yup, 134 years since its invention, the better system is still locked up in trademarks and copyrights. One would think its not possible. But some searching will reveal that current combinations of laws and congressional acts make it possible hold innovation hostage over 300 years (proprietaries can outlive nations). Many of the libraries using DDC are doing so illegally. The copyrights and trademarks supposedly designed to encourage Mr. Dewey's mind to create such a system in exchange for the US government's guarantee that it remains his to buy, sell, and trade have been acquired in a corporate takeover. Its not entrusted to his descendants. Not a foundation or charity. Its sold out to a corporation.

Meanwhile, librarians are worried. Books are being digitized and libraries are closing down due to lack of visitors and support. The Internet has taken a big share of the market. Never mind that Internet access costs money and libraries are free to customers or at least its much cheaper to pay for a library card. While the apparent majority can afford the expense, what of the ones who cannot? Some of the librarians seem willing to do almost anything to save their real world books on real world shelves in their real world buildings. This seems to be why they've willingly allowed the current state of affairs.

When I was a teen, I loved going to the library. Yes, I was a geek, still am. When I was relocated to a middle of a desert trailer park, I thought I might not get to a library for many years. But, there was a county library branch just a few blocks away; open from sunrise to sunset. Very small. Very, very small, but they could get any book there for me within a week by picking up the phone and asking for it. How did I know which book to ask for? They had a DDC index. They had a building, tables, chairs, a few shelves, a few books, a phone, a librarian, a type righter, and a DDC index. They did not have, electricity. Thus no computers, thus the hours of operation.

Currently libraries are under the thumb of the Online Computer Library Center of Dublin, Ohio. On the surface its non-profit membership corporation. Yet they are putting competitors out of business and/or acquiring libraries and other corporations. That should raise red-flags. A single corporation is gaining control of more and more libraries. Their software systems take control away from the libraries and centralize it to themselves. No longer can librarians search for and checkout books at the library. Now everything, even locating the book in the library, must be done on the computer over a network, even if your *at* the library. You see the librarians are compelled to input all the records into the system and _delete_or_physically_removed_ the old catalogs. Now only the OCLC knows where to find the books. But there is a charge to access the data. There's even a charge for using a scanner too many times. The very data the librarians provided is sold back to them. It is reminiscent of the lesser known variety of the chained libraries, sometimes called the "cadged library". In these, the books are unchanged but the readers are forced to be locking into a cage with them until they are finished reading. Now, its the librarians, chained to the OCLC through the computers. "Exaggeration" you say? Librarians must carry an RSA SecurID key fob that creates a new 6-digit number every 60 seconds. It keeps them bound to the computer. And, they must use the key along with their personal pin to access their own computers for *any* use.

So who's the members in this 'membership' corporation? The chained librarians of course.