Murder in a Grand Rapids Library?

Was Dewey Decimal,
 a long time resident in libraries,
murdered in the library
or did he just die of old age. 

 

 Let us start our investigation in the Granville Library, just southwest of Grand Rapids, Michigan.  

The Granville Public Library is part of the county wide library system in Grand Rapids - KDL -Kent District Library.  There are 18 branch libraries in the district, and each has a clue to what happened to poor Mr Dewey.  The first clue was a notice standing near the reference desk.

Yes, that is what the sign says and yes, that is what they have done! 

 Librarians reading this should remember to start breathing again! 

 

I can hear people asking "Well, what are they going to use then?  LOC ??   (Library of Congress)  I was wondering the same thing and went looking for American history.  The old Dewey classifation numbers had been replaced. What I found now was subject headings.

 

 

Oh, just like being in a bookstore.  In fact that was the comment I heard from librarians.  "We changed from Dewey so we would be more like bookstores that shelf books by subject matter."  
      OK. Fair enough. So I dove into the stacks to get a first hand view of how the system worked.

Well the book labels are a lot less complicated.  No long string of numbers and letters. I have several books on US presidents and 15 or 20 on Lincoln. How do they differentiate one Lincoln book from another. 
    Lets look at a shelf full.

Starting on the left is a book named Stuntman by Hal Needham, Willie Nelson, Bob Newhart, Paul Newman, Isaac Newton, John Newton, Code Talker (?)  2 volumes of Stealing Buddah's dinner (?)  Five Easy Decades (Jack Nicholson) Heaven is here (?) Nietzsche, Nightingales, and The Arrogance of Power.  If we look closer we see the name of the person who is the subject of each book.

 

The two books labeled"Newton" are biographies of two different Newtons, Isaac and John.  I assume there is a method to know which book is which. 
     A very nice lady at the reference desk told me how good the system was and how it solved some problems for people who were looking for a particular subject. All the books on that subject will be together.
      Later I stopped at another KDL branch Library and one of the workers there seemed less enthusiastic. She offered a couple examples. Where would a person find a book on the sinking of the Titantic?  Obviously under Travel, sub heading boats.  Then she gave a worse example. She said there was a book dealing with accounting that was titled "Cooking the Books".  You can probably guess  the subject matter where it was shelved!  Yes, Cookbooks!!
No system is perfect.  In all my years of using the public library I never did learn the Dewey System, but was able to locate books of interest. 
       Perhaps Mr Dewey will just die of old age.  Time will tell.
But now I would love to show you the rest of the Granville Library.

     The brick building has some pleasant architectural features. Here are some of them I was able to photograph.

MAIN ENTRANCE

     The brick pillars near the front entrance continue to form this pleasing arc. There are two of these extensions of pillars into this arc shape.

 

To the left is the inside view of the picture above.

The picture above shows the column wall attached to the main library where a large semi-circular roof covers an area where people can sit or some type of performance can be held for an audience in the large bricked area in front of the covered "porch".   Note on the right the columns and arches continue as seen below where the large parking area can be seen.

Inside the building is spacious and open. The center wide area extends all the way to the other end of the building.  The atmosphere is inviting and comfortable. All the normal things you expect to find in a library are here in abundance. 

On the right is a part of the open and spacious reading and study area.  The information desk (below) is located where it is easily seen and accessed. The two ladies that worked there were most helpful and were enthusiastic about the change to a subject based shelving system.  I don't think they are going to miss Mr. Dewey. 

 Beyond the information desk is the main entrance. The woodwork and wall treatment combine with the warm friendly staff to make this a place where you can feel comfortable and relax with a good book.

 And here is the place where people can check out books on their own.  Normally there are staff people busily working behind this counter, but I waited until no one would be in the picture.
But before we check out we should notice the logo in the childrens area.

 Now we can  end our visit to the Ganville Public Library and check out some good reading. The younger readers get a special library card (Below)
 (Wish I could use such a fun card. - Maybe the keyring size cards are for parents...or maybe Granville kids have cars??)







Katie is not waving "Goodbye" but "Hello - Welcome back"