Reconsidering Dewey

This topic has popped up at Library conferences in the past few years, and I thought it might be a bit stale, but I went anyway and was glad I did.  

This Canadian Library presented their shift from Dewey to a system called C3.  C3 is a customer-centered classification system offering book store browsing plus an easy numerical system that offers assistance for shelving and look up.  

Some tips they gave for handling the transition from Dewey to non-Dewey were as follows:

Step 1- know when it's over and it's time to break up with Dewey. 
Step 2- learn from competition.  Go outside the box of traditional assumptions.  
Step 3- Think more like a customer.  Look at word based systems.  C3 is good for nonfiction collections of 30-50,000 items. 
Step 4-learn how to engage in risky behavior - calculated risks.
Step 5- think lean-start with one small area then build up
Step 6- engage staff
Step 7- let go of perfectionism
Step 8- expected the unexpected and roll with it
Step 9- nourish the culture of innovation - embrace the fail. 
Step 10- consider this as a springboard to further innovation

One of their key objectives in the transition was to make things easy for their customers, not themselves.  They looked at policies and procedure and rewrote them if necessary.  For example, now they have a "customer promise" rather than a code of conduct.  It outlines what the library will do for the customer, and what they expect in return from the customer.  

Moving from Dewey resulted in a complete culture shift.  In the end they said, as with any culture shift, they would not have been successful if staff had not been actively involved from the beginning.