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national origin. That means that every property that is brought to us can't do that either. Does that make
sense?"
Johann nodded.
"Okay, then. My church just finished rehabbing the basement and made repairs on the heating system. It
has room for eight boarders, two of which are singles. It's just a couple of blocks from the library where
you say you'll be spending the bulk of your time.
"So, Brother Johann, how do you feel about living in a Presbyterian Church?"
VI: Systems
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"I'd say he's somewhere between a kid in a candy store and a guy trying to take a drink out ofNiagara
Falls ," Gloria Maze commented, as she inserted her sorting rod into the large stack of punch-holed book
catalog cards. She lifted some out of the bin and deposited them neatly to the back. "Every time I poke
my head back there, he's somewhere else just examining the books themselves, not even looking at the
contents."
"Well, what would you expect?" Martha shook her head. "He's discovered almost four centuries of
advancement in every field of knowledge. It's a lot to take in at one time."
"Marietta, it's been four days, morning to closing time, taking a break only to say his prayers and he's not
even looking at the knowledge.Just the books and the bindings. If I see him run his fingers across the
catalog numbers on another spine, I swear I'm going to scream."
Mariettasmiled. "Gloria, do you think he's figured out what they are? The catalog numbers, I mean."
Gloria stopped and looked atMarietta thoughtfully. "We're the idiots. He's never been exposed to
modern library science, why would he have known? That must explain the sad look that comes over him
every time he looks at the numbers on the spines. He must think we've defaced the books somehow but
can't bringhimself to accuse us of it."
"Well, it's high time to begin his education." Setting aside her catalog cards, Gloria walked into the stacks
located behind the circulation desk and quickly found the two volumes she was looking for. Both women
walked back to the main library room where Johann was sitting, studying yet another book.
"Brother Johann, do you have a moment?"
"Of course, my ladies," he said while standing up.
"Brother,"Marietta began, "We thought this might be helpful to you."
The women laid the volumes on the table and stood on each side of Johann. Gloria motioned him to take
his seat and continued. "Brother, these are the keys to the library. It's the instructions to the system that
we use to keep the books organized so people can find what they are looking for. It's called the Dewey
Decimal System.
"These numbers," Gloria indicated the numbers on the spine of the book that Johann had in front of him
on the table, "indicate that this book is about Geography. That's a nine hundred classification, see? It's
also got the same number on the inside title page right here."
Gloria turned to the page and pointed to the 910.285 on the page. "There were several different systems
for cataloging books depending on the needs of the library, but most public libraries used the Dewey
system. You'll also see the Library of Congress number," she said, pointing to the ISBN 1-879102-69-7
on the same page, "but since we don't use that system, we don't have any publications on how it worked
in our library here, or at the school libraries, for that matter."
Mariettatook over. "See, Brother, each hundred means a different thing. 000-099 is General
information, 100-199 is where we store books on Philosophy,200 -299 is for Religion and so on. Then
the tens digits mean what subcategory the books fall under and so on. 207means the book covers
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Education and Research in Christianity, 252 is where published texts of sermons are kept, and 255 is
where information on religious congregations and orders are kept."
"Why don't you look through these and if you have any questions, just come up and ask us."
* * *
Johann was stunned. This was a true book on how to find books. The letters he had written to other
monks on ideas to find order in their monastic libraries seemed the scribbling of a child next to this
two-volume set. Crossing himself and saying a quiet prayer of thanks, he opened the first book and
carefully began to study this incredible system from the future.
* * *
The next day was very hard on Johann. He kept to his well-appointed cell (no, suite, was more like it) in
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