Friday, November 06, 2009

It's official. DDC says so. Pluto is no longer a planet.


While playing around with the geographic heading information for the Dewey Decimal Classification System, I discovered something totally interesting:

So remember in 2006 when there was a heated discussion among scientists about whether Pluto should be a planet or not? Pluto lost and was demoted to "dwarf planet". Several events followed this resolution.

First, a new facebook group was created, called "When I was your age, Pluto was a planet". I joined, naturally.

Second, we all contemplated an existence without Pluto. What would become of those memorization aids for learning the planets? My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us NOTHING. That's what. No pizza for you.

And third, the Dewey Decimal Classification System was updated. The classification "Pluto and transplutonian planets" was altered to "Trans-Neptunian objects". Thus all those books about Pluto are now technically about "Trans-Neptunian objects." How depressing.

And that is it. There is no hope for Pluto now. DDC is the final word.


The end.

Wednesday, November 04, 2009

speaking of awesome film clips...

This one is not to be missed. Especially if you have a mustache:) Thanks Rachel for posting this!

The Dewey Decimal System of Love

Today I listened to 3.5 hours of lecture on how to construct dewey decimal system classification numbers by subject analysis. It gets super complicated in the details. I'm taking a course on cataloging and classification this semester, and I'm really liking it.

That said, it reminded me of a book I came across several years ago called the Dewey Decimal System of Love. I've never read it, but thought the title was pretty memorable. The reviews about it on Amazon are pretty terrible, so you should probably avoid it:)

Then there is Alcatraz versus the Evil Librarians. It's written by that Sanderson guy (aka Brandon) who is finishing the Wheel of Time series (and has done a pretty good job with Book 12, from the recent reviews). But I haven't read Alcatraz OR book 12. Yet. DH read Alcatraz recently though. He liked it.

On Weird Al's Birthday, DH and I watched a bunch of clips from UHF on youtube. One of which is from a UHF television show called "Conan the Librarian." This clip is pretty awesome. After watching this clip I thought there MUST be someone with a blog called Conanthelibrarian.blogspot.com. And there is. But it has been woefully abandoned. Shame on them.

So long, and thanks for all the fish.