(no subject)

[the_rck]

Interesting. I searched for The Silmarillion in our public library's catalog (someone had mentioned it being good as an audiobook, and I wanted to see if the library had it in that format. They don't). The Silmarillion, itself, is catalogued as straight up fiction and shelved under the author's last name. The standalone volumes containing specific parts of The Silmarillion are catalogued as English literature, using the Dewey decimal system (specifically, 823 call numbers which are 'English fiction'). That means the three sub-parts the library owns are shelved in an entirely different location (on a different floor even) than the single, complete volume is. Why on earth would they do that? And is it even worth mentioning to the library staff? They seemed pleased, a while back, when I let them know that the title of a movie was misspelled in their cataloguing record. Well, not pleased exactly, just glad to know and be able to fix it.

(And I note, looking at Wikipedia's list of Dewey's 800 call numbers that, in each sub-category, there is a number for 'literature' and a number for 'fiction' as well as numbers for 'poetry' and 'drama' and a couple of other categories that could be literature. I wonder what makes a particular item 'literature' as opposed to some other category. Literature tends to be a higher status category, so who decides?)