Summary: | Many libraries in Sweden have since 2008 started to switch their classification system fromSAB (The Swedish classification system) to Dewey (Dewey decimal classification system).Kungliga Biblioteket (National Library of Sweden) decided to switch classification systemfrom SAB to DDC in 2008 and recommend that all libraries in Sweden should also follow. Inrecent years, a number of public libraries have started the transition to DDC. Our thesisfocuses on the public libraries and the librarians view on the matter. The discussed questionsof the thesis are:1. How do the public libraries see a possible transition to DDC?2. Why have some of the public libraries changed their library system to DDC and others havenot?The empirical material of the thesis consists of 47 questionnaire responses that wherethereafter analyzed. Five of the public libraries that answered our questionnaire had began thetransition process to the DDC, thirty-nine of them only used SAB, although more than half ofthem where open to make the transition at some point in the future. Some of the publiclibraries didn’t want to change to DDC because they considered it a system that would not suitthe Swedish conditions very well and therefore preferred the Swedish system (SAB) more.Librarians are divided between those who are positive towards a transition to DDC and thosewho are not. We tried to analyze the librarians’ views from a psychological view based on atheory on individual ́s reactions towards organizational change. However, what we couldinterpret from the answers on our questionnaire, many of the librarians' considerations andthoughts regarding DDC are somewhat similar to earlier discussions about Dewey, which leadus to believe that there has not been made huge progress on the matter.
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