MCLS Blog

Dewey Decimal System Helpless To Categorize New Jim Belushi Book

August 22nd, 2006 Aaron Smith

The Onion reported:

Members of the OCLC Online Computer Library Center’s Editorial Policy Committee, which oversees the Dewey Decimal System library classification system, were no closer Monday to assigning a definitive call number to the recently published Jim Belushi book Real Men Don’t Apologize.

“With all due respect to the author, we remain unsure how to categorize this particular work,” said committee chair Leslie Buncombe, who, despite repeated readings, still wasn’t sure if Real Men… was “an actual book.”

“What is it? Autobiography? Self-help? We can’t even tell if it’s fiction or nonfiction,” Added Buncombe: “Too bad it can’t be shelved by its ISBN number. Maybe it’s Fantasy Biography? I don’t even think there’s a code for that.” If no decision is reached within the week, librarians may be forced to shelve it in the “phantom zone” between Jenny McCarthy’s book of marriage tips and novels in which a cat helps solve a mystery.

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