I’m ashamed to say that when dumping the Dewey Decimal System was suggested to me by an elementary school library volunteer, I huffed and puffed and continued to classify with those numbers.  If I only knew then, what I know now! Going Dewey-Lite has many benefits in an elementary school library and if you’re still dead-set against it for high school, just watch this movie and see how elements of this philosophy can be used in high school libraries without going whole-hog-Dewey-Lite.

This film shows how Joan Fraser-Burton and Sandra Dodge along with library volunteers at Harmony Elementary School in Chateauguay, Quebec switched to a word-oriented subject system.  Joan is the Board documentation technician at New Frontiers School Board and she tells how she was inspired by an ABQLA presentation by Pam Harland to try this out in her own school. Joan explains why this system is more suited to today’s students and how positive the results were.

The film also explains how the switch was made and how long it took.  Before you completely make up your mind, have a look at this short film and please let us know what you think!