Peter van Londen wrote:
We at the dutch Wikibooks have developed an own
system:
*http://nl.wikibooks.org/wiki/Wikibooks:Wiki_Standaard_Boeknummer
(Wiki Standard Book Number)
It is not yet fully developed, but it is not copyrighted and could be a
starting point for an international system.
In my opinion we can set a new standard for internet-books. I think we have
the power to set us apart from paper textbooks and the systems used for
that.
This is not answering your questions, but to let you know that there have
been some Wikians thinking about this as well.
Kind regards
nl:b:Londenp
2007/6/15, Cary Bass <cbass(a)wikimedia.org>rg>:
> I remember a discussion recently regarding the difficulty in cataloging
> Wikibooks. That the Dewey Decimal System is copyrighted and we cannot
> therefore use it.
>
> I'd like to make an attempt at bringing in volunteers with a skill in
> organizing and cataloging to contribute to the discussions and help put
> some organization into Wikibooks, more people with a focus on the
> community rather than individual projects.
>
> I've been looking for a way to get people encouraged to help out
> Wikibooks and this seems like a pretty good in. What I'd need from you
> is a page to orient people into this process, as well as Wikibooks as a
> whole.
>
> Ideas?
>
> -Cary
>
>
The page I started to help push for this effort, and to perhaps come up
with different methods of cataloging books, was on this page of Wikibooks:
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Wikibooks:Card_Catalog_Office
Due to the overwhelming support for this page (nearly none at all), this
page went from something very prominent and listed on the sidebar to
something shoved into the Wikibooks background, almost lost completely.
Another sign of how much effort has been put into this idea can be found
here:
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Wikibooks:Classification_Guidelines
Actually, this is just a blank page and nothing else. This is certainly
something that could use quite a bit of improvement and try to come up
with some system or concept of organizing Wikibooks content. There
really is nothing else like this on Wikibooks either, although there are
side references on other Wikibooks help pages that encourage new users
to "advertise" their books by placing them on bookshelves.
I started this effort, realizing that Wikibooks really needed this sort
of effort to develop and grow, but political infighting within the
Wikibooks community kept me heavily distracted from continuing this
effort. There is some dated discussion on the Card Catalog Office talk
page, and some acknowledgement that this is something which should be
done. Any effort to push start this concept would be encouraged, and it
should be noted that you don't need any special "administrator" tools in
order to help out with this effort.
If you or anybody else is interested, please help out on these pages and
make some reasonable suggestions.
Other suggestions including using European coding systems have been
brought up, as well as other classification systems. The reason the
Dewey system keeps coming back (seemingly from the dead) is that so many
libraries, particularly in North America but also elsewhere, use this
system and many educators are familiar with this coding system. Nearly
every time the Dewey coding format is presumed dead, somebody comes
along and picks it up again and pushes it just a little bit further on
Wikibooks.
I hope this helps.
-- Robert Horning