Library Drops Dewey Decimal System By Organizing All Titles Under ‘B’ For Books

SEATTLE—Debuting a new, streamlined classification system, librarians at the Seattle Central Library announced Wednesday that they have officially dropped the Dewey Decimal System in favor of organizing all titles under “B” for books. “This is going to make things so much easier for staff, as well as for patrons who may not know the intricacies of the old proprietary system,” said head librarian Margaret Grady, gesturing toward a giant pile of thousands of books under a piece of computer paper printed with the letter “B.” “Once you get the hang of it, it’s really simple—they’re all right there in one place. It’s far more intuitive, too. Now, no one who wants a book on, say, analytic geometries has to remember that those are all under classification 516.3. They just come in, think to themselves, I am looking for a book—I’ll look under ‘B’ for book, and they’re off to the races. Not to mention, it makes reshelving a breeze. We’re hoping the ALA will consider making this the new nationwide standard.” At press time, Grady was overhead informing a patron that the DVDs had all also temporarily been filed under “B” until they thought of another place to put them.