Books are usually shelved according to topic. That should mean that all of the books on a certain subject would be grouped together on a shelf. If that would be the case with every book, then librarians would have fewer problems.
However, there are logistical and physical problems with this concept.
Short books will get mixed in with tall books, and narrow books will get mixed in with books that will be pushed deeply into the shelf. As a result, the bindings of the larger books might warp, since they don’t have a book on both sides to support them. The bindings of paperbound books will have to be reinforced or replaced from time to time, since the adjacent hard cover books will slide against them, and case the paper binding to tear off.
This section proposes other methods of shelving, based on modern technology. It also relates to the problems of wasted space and different types of books.
A separate section of this website deals with and resolves many of the theoretical and practical issues of classifying books.
Read more about shelving issues
Read more about Jewish libraries
Go to the Jewish Home Library links page
Find out about the Jewish Home Library forum
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Keyword: Method
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