An Open Letter to Heidi Tandy

[ivyblossom]

Dear Heidi,

FA is a very large archive. I'm not sure if there is an archive dedicated to one fandom that's as big as FA, in fact. Organizing and searching through that thing is complicated, just because of the sheer size of it. The focus right now is what's on what's recent; it's easier to find stuff that's brand new. That makes sense, but it's kind of piling everything on top of each other as it comes in, isn't it.

This isn't a new problem. Every time people start collecting information they hit the same wall. Back when the fandom had three fics it was no big deal, you could have them in any order you wanted. You could say, hmm, I think I want to look at that one, and everyone knew which one you meant. But the more you get, he more you need to organize and, dare I say it, catalogue it. Alphabetical just doesn't cut it; ask any student who's ventured into a library. What if your library collection went with the alphabetical system? You'd never be able to look up a call number and go look at see what's around it, there would be no browsing. There's no relationship between Adams and Adamson except that they sit close to each other alphabetically. One could write about nuclear physics and the other about pornographic scuplture. You wouldn't be able to use the system as a tool to help you find more of what you want, you see. You'd be at the mercy of the alphabet; where is that book? Where can I find that author? Meh, not useful, I tell you. Not when you've got serious volume, like many fanfiction archives do.

I have a modest proposal. Picture it: fanfiction, organized according to...

the Dewey Decimal System.

I mean, we'd have to tweak it a bit, but...imagine! You could search your digital bookshelf and find all similar fics together. You could highlight the new ones, or you could have a 'just in' section. Also organized according to Dewey, of course. But we could called the Ivy Decimal System, of course.

124: Harry/Draco
124.5 Harry/Draco, angst
124.534: Harry/Draco, "how they got together", angst
124.534973: Harry/Draco, "how they got together, angst, set in America
124.55, Harry/Draco, parody
124.55973 Harry/Draco, parody, set in America
130: Harry/Ron
130.5: Harry/Ron, angst
130.5973: Harry/Ron, angst, set in America
130.9999973 Harry/Ron, with Mary Sue, set in America

Come on, it would be beautiful! A masterpiece of organization! Subdivided by geography, style, length, whatever. And if someone comes up with a new pairing you just make a new heading, this is the beauty of the DDC! You could search it by subject, by pairing, by author...think of the possibilities! Your Snape/Remus sap fics grouped together, apart from Snape/Remus sappy fics set in America with a Mary Sue! It's how fics want to be arranged, can you hear them crying?

I hope you will consider my suggestion.

Sincerely,

Ivy Blossom, rabid aspiring librarian

Edited to add: This open letter is not a challenge or a criticism, nor is it a response to anyone turning down this idea. I was just thinking about this after cataloguing class and I wanted to tell Heidi about it, but she was not online. So I wrote her an open letter instead, because I thought some of the librarians and proto-librarians on my friends list might enjoy my inanity. That is all.

Comments

[ivyblossom.livejournal.com]

*whistles*

I'll leave your computer thing aside, since there are whole courses on that. I have yet to encounter any system that works as well as a library system for end user recall. 6 year olds can use OPACs and find things they want. I think in general people who work in other aspects of information management look down on librarians and the product of their labour, and end up just reinventing the wheel over and over again.

You can prefer LC all you like, but once you start actually cataloguing stuff using it you can see its incredible flaws. The ALA debates tossing it entirely every once in a while. Dewey is much more flexible and comphrensive. You can't create categories in LC as easily as you can in Dewey. Dewey is a philosphy, a system that can apply to anything. LC is a catalogue of what the LC has encountered so far. It's slapdash and has to be recategorized regularly. Until about three months ago LC had male prostitutes listed as women. It's just a series of decisions, it's not a logical hierarchy. It just pretends that it is.

And there's a reason all that stuff you were looking for is sorted in different places...it's not a fault in the system. When you draw from different disciplines, you get things from different stacks.

I have yet to see a fanfiction archive that's even half as logical and easy to search through as a library stack. I'll be looking forward to your new system.

[tromboneborges.livejournal.com]

*nods* I agree. One could argue either way -- that the ad hoc-ness of LC means it can easily integrate any new subject that shows up, but that the structure of Dewey means there is always a comprehensible hierarchy, even if a new subject crops up and it may be hard to find a place for it.

But in fanfic, my suspicion, at least, is that there aren't going to suddenly be entirely new subjects that appear. The only additions that need to be made are when a new piece of canon comes out and there are new characters and settings to integrate. But those are structurally predictable.

[ias.livejournal.com]

But DDC and for that matter UDC (we use both at Bath) are very easy to adapt to your Library's needs. In a scientific and technical University, we have adapted many areas to fit in with our user's needs. For example we do Pharmacy but no undergrad medicine so Pharmacy has, using LC divisions, stretched and expanded into the 610s.

Although official DDC orginally dumped networking (not computers per se, they were a subject of Physics iirc for many editions) into the 006 & 007 (the general dumping ground for new subjects, for a couple of editions, this was while they were working out a comprehensive and expandable oncology for the subject which was released in a latter edition.

But in fanfic, my suspicion, at least, is that there aren't going to suddenly be entirely new subjects that appear. The only additions that need to be made are when a new piece of canon comes out and there are new characters and settings to integrate. But those are structurally predictable.

Absolutely. I now know what I will spend my time doing on my train to Loughborough tomorrow ;)

I miss cat and class...