I have fond memories of lazy Saturday afternoons in Sonoma's Carnegie library. The filtered sunlight, the polished wood, and the books. The library has since moved to bigger quarters, but the memories linger. In those innocent days I thought all libraries were organized by Dewey Decimal call number. At least the public libraries in Petaluma, Santa Rosa, and Napa were. It wasn't until high school that I ventured into the local community college's library and discovered the Library of Congress Control Number system. (Years later in Bonn, I was delighted to discover at least two different systems in use in the city and university libraries.) Edd Dumbill of Behind the Times has drawn my attention to a NY Times article [free registration required] on a law suit by the owners of the Dewey Decimal system, Online Computer Library Center, against a library-themed hotel in New York.
"The Dewey Decimal System is a product, a trademark, a brand name," said Joseph R. Dreitler, a lawyer for the Online Computer Library Center, a nonprofit library cooperative that filed the suit last week in Federal District Court in Ohio. "The idea here isn't to put the Library Hotel out of business. The idea is to protect Dewey and the Dewey Decimal System trademark."
It is pointed out in the article that Melvil Dewey sometimes gave poorer libraries his system for free. I'm sure the lawyers wouldn't allow such generosity these days. Imagine squandering ones intellectual property on libraries.
[Addendum 09/24/03: As soon as I posted this entry, I knew I'd be regretting it. The story about the OCLC's lawsuit is more complicated than my petty attempts at legalistic humor. There's an interesting thread on the Library & Information Science listserv linked in KGK's comment.]
Posted by jim at September 24, 2003 11:06 AM | TrackBackNote that OCLC is not suing a library, but a commmercial enterprise that apparently refused to credit the ownership of the DDC in any of its documents, advertising or the site itself, despite requests from the brand owner.
The lawsuit is a topic of current debate on at least one Library & Information Science listserv (thread here).
Posted by: KGK on September 25, 2003 11:09 AMI spent many a Saturday at the old Sonoma Library, usually spooling through 19th-Century Sonoma Index-Tribunes on microfilm. I enjoyed reading the obituaries which often detailed violent, wild-west shootout deaths. As an enthusiast of the Mountain Cemetery, I recognized many names from the family plots I'd trodden over. I remember old man Wooster came to a particularly violent death in front of a saloon on the plaza. A marble obelisk marks his resting place.
My other memories of that library are the large framed photo of Jack London steering his ship, and the kind old librarian who let me pay off $4.25 worth of overdues a quarter a week.
Oh yeah, and sliding down the iron railings with friends, all of us flying high on candy from Food City across the street.
Posted by: Ratso~~ on October 1, 2003 08:50 PMAs a follow up, harvested from the jESSE list on 2003/11/25:
OCLC and The Library Hotel settle trademark complaint
DUBLIN, Ohio, USA, 24 November 2003-OCLC Online Computer Library Center, Inc. and The Library Hotel (New York, New York) have reached a settlement agreement regarding the use of the Dewey Decimal ClassificationŽ system trademarks by The Library Hotel.
Full text at:
http://www.oclc.org/news/releases/20031124.htm
One contributor to the list, noting that press release states that "The Library Hotel will make a financial donation to a non-profit organization that promotes reading by children" as part of the settlement, called it "an appropriate settlement."