Just came from Barnes & Noble

[Orrex]

The "Science" section occupied--and I'm not kidding--a single three-foot-wide section of shelving. "Crafts," by comparison, occupied four times that, while "New Age and Spirituality" took up the equivalent of 14.7 football fields.

Okay, I'm exaggerating that last bit, but I mean it about their Science section.

[onager]

1. How 'bout that Borders subsection of New Age--"Speculation"

:rofl:

If they were honest, they'd move the entire "Religion" section there as well.

Speaking of which...

Your post caused me find this great link. Here's an organization we should all join, even if we are not biologists: "Biologists Helping Bookstores."

Apparently, "No Free Lunch" was supposed to be in "science". Ah! I found it squeezed in the top corner of the science section.

It's surely not going to sell there, what with it being virtually hidden and mis-categorized. I pick it up and move down to the Theology:Church section to place it where it belongs, where I find a delightful surprise. Another Dembski book, Intelligent Design, is already there!

...To see if a secret splinter cell of BHB hasn't already helped Borders, I recheck "Dembski" on the fantastic microcomputer device again. Yep, Borders has his Intelligent Design book in Theology, and No Free Lunch in Science.

Borders are clearly a very confused company. I am honored to assist.

http://biologistshelpingbookstores.blogspot.com/2007/07/borders-7302007_30.html

[realisticphish]

2. obviously i'm biased

being a library student, and having worked in a library, but I LOATHE people who move books around in a childish "protest." If you have a problem, talk to the cataloguers. They may be perfectly willing to recatalogue a book (after all, much of the time cataloguing is done on a quick perusal of the back cover and table of contents; there's not enough time to get in depth with each item). But Librarians and book store employees HATE this.

Not to mention that most libraries (in the U.S.) borrow a lot of cataloguing info from the Library of Congress. I looked at the LOC catalogue for Dembski, and found exactly what the author in the clipping said. "No Free Lunch" is catalogued in Natural history - Biology (QH). "Understanding Intelligent Design" is found in The Bible (BS, a classification which amuses me to a great extent).

It's not the responsibility of cataloguers at libraries or book stores to analyze the arguments of the authors, but to classify the book depending on the subject of the book. The book is "about" evolution, thus there it goes. A book about intelligent design is considered to be theology, so there it goes.

Sorry for the rant, but this behavior annoys me to no end. There's enough work to do keeping a library running smoothy without having to fix petty protests (which in my experience, the right is guilty of FAR more often than left. But there's my bias showing again ;))

:rant:

[onager]

3. Some comments agreed with you.

One poster noted that the books are pre-classified at the corporate level, and the store employees have no say.

Another one who used to work in a book store took the other view:

I too used to work in a bookstore, and I think you are doing a good thing. Yeah, workers might be told to reshelve a few things, but we were always paid by the hour, so we would just be doing something else if not that.

I've never moved books around. But I have been known to turn Ann Coulter books face-down. It's a nausea thing.

[realisticphish]

5. in a bookstore, perhaps

but the aim of a library is to provide information to people, and to have as broad a range of opinions as possible. IMHO, messing with the organization of books or other materials equates to suppression of free speech.

A little extreme? Perhaps, but we as liberals need to make sure that we don't do exactly what we criticize in our opponents. We talk about protest and free speech, and then some demand that the God Hates Fags people be arrested, or intimidated into silence.

Turning books face down? Meh. Not as big a deal, IMHO. It's still THERE, you just don't have to look at the Lovecraftian horror that populates the cover ;)


*also, as to bookstores, they are private as well, so it's not as big of a deal. Still childish, but whatever. Libraries, however, are a different matter, being public property, and entrusted with providing any information that the patrons need, regardless of the content.

[cosmik debris]

8. In a book store,

When they discover the book is not in it's assigned place, they will assume that it has been shop-lifted and they will order a new copy. Thus you help the author's sales figures and defeat the purpose of the "re-location".

[progressoid]

9. I once checked out the latest Coulter and O'reily books from the library so no one else could.

But it's just too creepy having those things in one's possession.

[nickgutierrez]

4. And the entirely redundant "Religious Fiction" department.

:D

[realisticphish]

6. haha

[mr blur]

7. I also hate the way that "Spirituality" has been hijacked

by the Woo and religious whackjobs. As if you can't have a spiritual aspect to your life unless you believe fantastical nonsense. One woman I know once told me, "You're the least spiritual person I've ever met!" I'm not of course but coming from her it was a compliment as what she actually meant was that I don't waffle on about "auras" and crystals and psychics and the like.

[Deep13]

10. The astronomy section at Borders is quite inadequate. nt

[Orrex]

11. At this B&N, it was a subset of the one-shelf Science section