On August 4, our dear colleague Letitia (Tish) Reigle passed away. Tish was a member of the Library of Congress U.S. General Division's Dewey Section (and its predecessor, the Decimal Classification Division) for the last 35 years. We cannot begin to estimate how many thousands of Dewey numbers she assigned to works represented by LC bibliographic records during those years—primarily to works in science and technology—but that is only part of the story. Tish’s suggestion “We really need a provision for topic x” nearly always led the Dewey editorial team to consider some improvement to the classification. A recent example of a change prompted by a suggestion from Tish is the recasting of T1—0286 from “Waste technology” to “Green technology (Environmental technology)” in DDC 23, but there are many more such instances scattered throughout the five full editions of the DDC developed during her tenure at LC (DDC 19 - DDC 23). Until recent health problems sidelined her a bit, Tish was the key party arranger and decorator for any event in the office, and the Dewey archivist. A conversation with Tish could range from 16th-century English history to current Scandinavian crime fiction. She adored her family and her dogs. Tish was a great colleague and friend to all. We will miss you terribly, dear Tish.
Julianne Beall, Eve Dickey, and Joan S. Mitchell (on behalf of the Dewey Section and Dewey editorial team)
I am so sorry to hear that Tish has passed away. I had a very pleasant telephone conversation with her when I was in DC in May, during which we discussed the Norwegian author Jo Nesbø. She knew much more about him than I did! Please extend my condolences to her family.
Posted by: Elise Conradi | August 09, 2011 at 04:04 AM