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