Friday, February 13, 2009

Navajo

Inspired by the ECVHS book A Rainbow at Night: The World in Words and Pictures by Navajo Children by Bruce Hucko (0811812944). The publisher assigned number is 973'.04972, but this number seems to be mostly unused in our district.

Instead, Native American books seem to have been given some of the following numbers:
  • A general 970 number for "History of North America." This seems much too broad to me.
  • 970.004 for "Ethnic and national groups" in general in North America. This still seems a little broad to me.
  • 970.00497 for "general history and civilization of North American native peoples in North America." This number has the specificity of native peoples and would be be good for Native Americans in general, but doesn't seem to be right if you want to distinguish specific groups. Plus, it violates the "no more than 4 digits right of the decimal" rule that some schools use.
  • 970.1, which is an optional number for "North American native peoples"
  • 970.3, which is an optional number for "Specific native peoples"

They are all slight variations and the DDC guide seems to draw distinctions in number usage based on how specific books are with regard to particular group, time period, and location. So, for now I guess I'll go with what seems to be most commonly used in our district: 970.3.

Antidepressants

In processing Antidepressants by William Dudley (1601520417) for ECVHS, I noticed some antidepressant books are in 615.78 for "Drugs affecting nervous system" and some are under 616.8527 for "Depressive disorder." Some others yet are under 362.29 for "Substance abuse." It would be hard to tell if there really were a problem or not with these numbers without looking at the books to see if the emphasis is what has determined their placement, but it's yet another topic to check.

Thursday, February 12, 2009

Genetic Engineering

For an "Opposing Viewpoints" book Genetic Engineering (073773857X), I saw that we have some "genetic engineering" books in the following places:
  • 174.2 for occupational ethics related to medical professions
  • 174.28 for occupational ethics more specifically related to "experimentation" within medical professions
  • 174.957 for bioethics
  • 174.9574 ?
  • 174.966 for ethics related to chemical engineering and related technologies
  • 303.483 for "Development of science and technology" under social science "social processes"
  • 306.46 for "technology" under social science "culture and institutions"
  • 660.65 for "genetic engineering" as a part of biotechnology under chemical engineering and related technologies

There are even more! The most common numbers seem to be 660.65 and 174.957. It would seem to me that books that are simply descriptive would fall under 660.65 and that books like this one that are aimed at "pro/con" discussions would go in 174.957 and so I'm using 174.957. Having said that, I think this topic is pretty messy across the board.

Pyramids

I was just processing a book for ECVHS about pyramids from around the world, Pyramids by Charles George (1601520271). The publisher assigned number is 909 for world history, but this seems way too broad and that the book would just get buried (no pun intended) there. Since it features pyramids from more than just Egypt, it can't take a 932 number. In looking in our catalog, it looks like people have also used 726.8, an architecture number for mortuary chapels and tombs. Another number is 690.68, which is also for mortuary chapels and tombs, but from the discipline of building planning, engineering, construction, etc. I decided to spring for 726.8.