Puppet Library

[staceyrebecca]

Hey guys,

The theater where I work has had a lot of puppetry books donated to us over the years and I'm in the process of cataloging and categorizing them. (There are hundreds)

I've so far gone along with the Library of Congress' system (LCCN) however I'm running across books that aren't necessarily printed in the US, and some are too old to have gone into the LOC.

Also how they're classified (by genre) is a bit muddled. Biographies are tossed into puppet plays & puppet construction is mixed up with puppetry in education. General puppetry is filled with things that could go in with marionettes, etc...I could go on.

Does anyone know if there *anywhere* in the world that has a puppetry (book) library that I could contact?

Google searches are coming up with dozens of puppet shows that I could see at various libraries... I'm sure I'm not using the right keywords...


thoughts?
Thanks guys!

 

[Buck-Beaver]

Could you not just classify them according to the Dewey decimal system? That's the international standard for book classification in libraries (not sure how commonly used it is the U.S., but I've seen it everywhere else). Wikipedia has a list of DDC classes and also a comparison of DDC classes vs. LCCN if you need more information.

 

[staceyrebecca]

Alright Mister Fancy Pants Dewey Supporter....

How can I find out what dewey number each book has been assigned to? The American Public Education system has failed me; I don't know how to classify a book under the Dewey Decimal System (although I can find one! maybe.)

So for example, Art of the Puppet by Bil Baird (we have 4 copies, wheee!) is LCC PN1972 .B24 and dewey 791.53... The only way I found this out was to look it up on the LOC website. So where can I go to find out the Dewey number for books that aren't in the LOC? Is there a way to figure this out without needing to look it up?

 

[staceyrebecca]

Another example of Dewey making me scratch my head is Hazelle and Her Marionettes by Mike Joly...

LOC has it as PN1978.U6 J66 2005 (Marionettes & Puppet making)

Dewey has it as 745.592/24 22 which is Handicrafts...I would personally probably put that book into Puppeteer Biographies.

 

[Buck-Beaver]

I don't know a lot about how libraries classify books aside from the basics of the Dewey system, so that's probably a question for a librarian at a local library. I do know that there is an official database for the Dewey system called WebDewey, but it's not free.

Have you checked with anyone at the Phoenix Public Library? Maybe they'd be willing to assist with the project?

 

[staceyrebecca]

Geeze, you want me to actually walk 100 yards to the public library? But its all the way on the other side of the park! Man...you're rough.

I guess my hope was that someone was going to say "Oh yeah, such and such has a library at their theater, call them up and they have a detailed file you can download that contains every puppet-related book known to man and every which way that book can possibly be classified..."

Which makes me think that that's what I'll do once I get all of this organized.

 

[staceyrebecca]

Atlanta Center for Puppetry arts catalogs their books by title...something I dont think will work for our library.

I called the Phx public Library (yes, I couldn't walk over, I had to call) and they suggested i talk to a Children's Librarian regarding it...because i'm not sure how a children's librarian would know any more about it than a librarian in the referece or research section would....oh wait! I know! puppets are only for children...Thats where you find all of the books about puppetry! I forgot.

I do now have a mission to come up with an effective system for cataloging these book and to get the information up on the web somehow for others to play with and implement! Hooray!

Off to save humanity, one book at a time.

-stacey

 

[dwmckim]

Probably a stupid question, but thought i'd throw it out there in case it's something you hadn't considered yet...have you tried contacting anyone from Puppeteers of America HQ?

 

[staceyrebecca]

Only a stupid question if I had already done it...

We actually had talked about contacting Steve Abrams a few days ago. I'll do that once I've got the books narrowed down to the genres that make little to no sense (Adventures of a Russian Puppet Theatre in Puppet Scripts/Plays, for example).

One of my friends is a children's librarian and is going to come down next week to help me sort things out. If nothing else, its just nice to have a warm body there who knows how to take care of rare, old books.

I think I'm on the right track though.