025.431: The Dewey blog

Tomes & Talismans: teaching Dewey with a post-apocalyptic sci-fi twist

In 1986, Mississippi Public Broadcasting created a show so wild that many of us who watched it as kids thought we had imagined it in a fever dream. Tomes & Talismans was a 13-part television series that was designed to educate schoolchildren about how to find library resources, but with a dark, complex plotline: at the end of the 21^st century, an alien race called "the Wipers" colonizes a polluted and overcrowded Earth, destroying data technology. But that's just the prelude! One hundred years after that, a librarian named Ms. Bookhart is the only human left on the planet, and must teach another alien race called "the Users" to use the resources of the last library on Earth to find a way to defeat the Wipers.

I was never one of those kids who always knew they wanted to be a librarian, but this series really made an impact on me after watching it in my elementary school's library in the fifth grade. I'm sure it helped guide me to a love of science fiction (I only wish I had had access to Doctor Who back then!). Library workers and Dewey fans will find a lot to love in Tomes & Talismans, especially in episode five, which is all about the DDC.

Mississippi Public Broadcasting is hosting an event on Thursday October 17^th to celebrate the series and they'll be making episodes available for streaming. Episodes will be available online for free until November 17^th. The show is worth a watch, if only for the incredible synth music of the intro and the truly fantastic 1980s hairstyles.

Art in the Stacks: Dewey-inspired artwork

Back in February 2020, I visited a library in the northwest suburbs of Minneapolis to see their Dewey-inspired art, and I'm finally taking a moment to share what I saw!

The Anoka County Library has nine branches, one of which was recently renovated and reopened in 2019. The new building of the Centennial branch is bright and airy, with a lot of open space and windows, which made finding a place for artwork a challenge. The library system's executive director, Maggie Snow, was inspired by library art she'd seen in Sweden to purchase artworks from local artists that would be placed on the shelves. Eight pieces were selected to display alongside the library's collection, loosely themed on the Dewey Decimal Classification.

Each of the artworks are accompanied on the shelf by brief artists statements. I'll share three of my favorites.

"Shaman Paddler" by artist Wayne Potratz features a cast metal and stone tribute to the beauty of Minnesota's Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. Its location is close to 977.675, the classification for the Boundary Waters.

 

"Garden of Words" by artist Karine Rupp-Stanko features paper blossoms spelling out the word "flower" in the seven most represented languages of Anoka County: Arabic, Dakota, English, Hmong, Russian, Spanish, and Somali. This artwork is located in the language section of the library's collection, the Dewey 400s.

 

Finally, artist Cecilia Schiller's work, "Running Wild," is placed in the technology section of Dewey, the 600s. The finger-operated machinery "expresses in microcosm the interconnectedness of the world." So cool!

Read more about the Anoka County Library art project in this 2019 news article: "Art in the stacks: More than books on the shelves". If your library has Dewey-inspired art, please let us know, we'd love to feature it here on the blog!

391.65: Searching for Dewey tattoos

Calling all tattooed folks! Does your tattoo reference the Dewey Decimal Classification? Do you have ink of your favorite number? If yes, please send your pictures and stories our way: email me at zingere@oclc.org. We’d love to include you in an upcoming blog post about Dewey tattoos.

Return of the Dewey Teaser

Nothing delights a Dewey editor more than a snippet of Dewey in the midst of leisure reading.  We’ve suffered nearly a year-long drought of Dewey teasers--imagine then my delight last night just before drifting off to sleep to encounter the following passage in a novel I’m reading:

Reshelving books, he began to notice plays.  Toward the end of Dewey Decimal 822, Walter became acquainted with a two-foot stretch of small blue clothbound books with gilt titles on the spines.  The plays of Shakespeare.

Dewey teaser rules are here, and teasers of the past can be found in the Dewey blog category, DDC in arts and culture.  The first person to identify the source wins a citation in the Dewey Hall of Fame.  Extra points are awarded for citing the WorldCat.org entry!

Would you Adam and Eve it?

The Believer! It's "intellectual yet playful." It's "rigorous yet amiable." It featured Tintin, Mark E. Smith, and Ian McEwan on its cover in successive months. How could it be anything other than the Dewey blog's favorite magazine? And that's even before you consider that the Believer is the only popular magazine (as far as we know) to tempt readers with featurettes that consist entirely of lists of DDC numbers recently mapped to Library of Congress subject headings. Here, for example, is an extract from the list published in February 2006 (on the same page as an interview with stand-up comedian Demetri Martin) of "Dewey Decimal Classifications of various endings":

Road closures—388.312
Retraction letters—070.44
Lost articles in literature—T3C—355
Ex-football players—796.33092, 796.332092
Same-sex divorce—306.89

Thanks to Rivka Galchen and Aaron Harnly for getting the Dewey word out in this way. Needless to say, we're all believers here at the Manor.

Dewey Teaser: It's deep

We're taking a break today from our blanket coverage of the shenanigans in San Antonio, simply to bring you the news that, yes, Laura was right -- the conversation we related in last week's Dewey Teaser did indeed occur in the show Surface (NBC), "an expansive drama series that centers on the appearance of mysterious sea creatures in the deep ocean." What might have thrown people off the scent was the "clue" that we provided, since Surface is of course currently broadcast in the US on Monday, not Tuesday nights as we accidentally on purpose informed you. The supposed connection to Tuesdays, and the appearance in our transcript of characters called "R" and "L," is what probably led a number of readers to suggest Gilmore Girls. But Surface is all about Rich and Laura, not Rory and Lorelai, and the episode in question went out on Monday, January 9, at 8pm. The New Dewey Teaser begins next week -- bet you can't wait! -- and in the meantime we're going to hand things over to Tish Reigle for her expert summary of that special scene. It's exclusive to the Dewey blog, and won't be on the DVD. Take it away, Tish!

Laura is a (very annoying) biologist who saw the sea creatures while doing a research dive off the California coast. Rich is a regular guy whose brother was "killed" by the sea creatures during a fishing trip in the Gulf of Mexico. He eventually hooks up with Dr. Laura as they both try to tell world about this new animal. However, some "government agency" is trying to keep the existence of these animals secret and is willing to kill to do so. So Laura and Rich are always running and hiding while trying to gain more evidence of the creature. They finally hook up with a news station and show the tape of the sea creature (although it is treated as another "Nessie" story). Success! But they are still being chased by agents of this secret organization. Hiding out at a friend's house, Laura is retrieving her emails when she comes across one from somebody who truly seems to know something about the sea creature. The mystery emailer wishes to meet Laura and check some of her evidence. Laura and Rich are wary but the other person offers to give them a token of good faith. Emailer: "100 Leary Street. The code is 576 dot 80162 ..." Laura: "The code for what?" Emailer: "... AR." Later we see Laura and Rich running up the steps of a public building -- a library. Rich: "Wait a minute, we're being given the gift of literacy?" Laura: "Explains the code." Rich: "What's that?" Laura: "Dewey decimal system." Inside, Laura and Rich scan the books until they find 576.80162. It's the Origin of the Species. Behind the book is an envelope with false IDs, credit cards, money. 576.8 is the number for evolution but I would place Origin of the Species in 576.82, natural selection. Where the 0162 comes from, I don't know. Why the book is cuttered AR and not DAR or OR is also puzzling ... My daughter patiently stopped, rewound, played, close captioned this section several times and the number definitely seems to be 576.80162 AR. Surface is a sci-fi show. Not the greatest and definitely has holes in the plotline that a fleet of trucks can drive through. But I like the storyline of a boy and his sea creature.

Dewey Teaser: Back from the dead

No surprises last week, then -- everyone recognized the extract from Mike Thaler's The librarian from the black lagoon (Scholastic, 1997). But you know those rumors we were spreading of the Old Dewey Teasers' imminent demise? Greatly exaggerated. You wouldn't believe how excited we are to keep the Old Dewey Teasers alive for one final, final hurrah. And how eternally grateful we are to our resident culture vulture Tish Reigle, decimal classification specialist here at the Manor. Without further ado, then: Who's talking? Which TV program? (Clue: Tuesday nights ...) And what's up with the weird number?

[L is checking her email.]

Mystery emailer: 100 Leary Street. The code is 576 dot 80162 ...

L: The code for what?

Mystery emailer: ... AR.

[Later: L and R run up the steps of the public library.]

R: Wait a minute, we're being given the gift of literacy?

L: Explains the code.

R: What's that?

L: Dewey decimal system.

Dewey Teaser: Nine and out

It's been quite a while since our last Dewey Teaser, but needless to say it posed minimal problems for regular readers. (Megan and Rainey, we're talking about you.) The Red Scare's little outburst did indeed appear in The Tick, no. 6 ("Villains, Inc.") of November 1989. Now: this week's teaser is the final one in its present form. Next week's teaser will be the first of our brand spanking New Dewey Teasers -- for details of which you will just have to wait. In the meantime: What's the source of this classic piece of Deweyophilia?

"... [I]f you catch her in a good mood, she'll recite the Dewey decimal system by heart. They say Mrs. Beamster has a crush on Mr. Dewey and that she carries his picture in a lead locket around her neck."

Jam can be pumped, but not shaken

Happy 394.2614, everyone. We've got lots of good stuff lined up for you, but today we're just going to ease in gently with a pointer to Biblia's Dewey rap, "Check It Out." (Comprehensive works on rap go at 782.421649.)

Dewey Teaser: Eighth note

The Dewey Teaser lives on. Thanks to everytwo of you who flooded our inbox last week with suggestions of DDC-related quotes from classic works of literature, we're able to stumble on with our exciting competition -- maybe even limp into the New Year. How about that? This week's teaser, which comes courtesy of Nick, could be the trickiest yet. In fact, if you get this one, we will be forced to make serious inquiries as to what exactly it is that you think you're doing with your life. Nevertheless: here goes. Whence comes this misguided speech?

"What better place to begin my reign of Communist terror and oppression than a memorial to that decadent and imperialist American, Melvil Dewey, hated originator of the Dewey Decimal System!! I, The Red Scare, will ruin this place for everyone!!"