A few months ago, a local library system made headlines by announcing their plans to dump the Dewey Decimal Classification system. Librarians around the state were shocked (although some were thrilled), library patrons were puzzled, and I realized that maybe we could all use a reintroduction to Melvil Dewey and his classification system. This month, and every other month or so, I’ll be suggesting titles from one of Dewey’s ten categories. Fiction readers, fear not; I'll try to have some books for you too!

In 1873, when he was a mere 21-years-old, librarian Melvil Dewey developed a radical for its time 10-category classification system for all of human knowledge. The first category, the "naughts" or numbers beginning with "0," contains an interesting hodgepodge of topics that don't really fit anywhere else. Here you'll find encyclopedias and books about journalism, computers, UFO's and other "unexplainables."

Since we're on the topic of radical ideas, let me suggest two books: What is Your Dangerous Idea? and What Have You Changed Your Mind About? both by John Brockman. Every year at his web site, www.edge.org, Brockman proposes a question and invites some of today's leading thinkers to write about it. So we have Jordan Pollack on the fine line between separation of church and state and the religious intolerance of past regimes; Rupert Sheldrake on the inexplicability of animal navigation is terms of present-day physics; or Sam Harris on the indifference of Mother Nature. Both books provide plenty of food for thought and discussion.

Last month, libraries celebrated Banned Books Week, a reminder not only of the dangers of censorship, but of the power of books to change lives and whole civilizations. In Books that Changed the World, Robert Downs discusses 16 books he believes had a profound effect on the world. Included are The Bible, Civil Disobedience, Das Kapital and Uncle Tom's Cabin, among others. What books do you think changed the world?

As I mentioned earlier, the 000s are home to books about "unexplainables" and a perfect introduction to the topic is Life: Strange but True: 100 of the World's Weirdest Wonders by the editors of Life magazine. Curious about Roswell, N.M.? Ever wonder what's really going at Loch Ness? You'll find the "answers" to those questions and many more.

Along with UFO's and ghosts, the 000s are home to books about conspiracy theories. To that end, may I suggest Are Conspiracy Theories Valid? by Stuart Kallen, part of the At Issue series for students. Kallen gathers persuasive essays on both sides of the various conspiracy theories, providing the reader with ammunition to argue either viewpoint. A similar title is The Rough Guide to Conspiracy Theories by James McConnachie.

More 000 Titles
The Nobel Book of Answers: The Dalai Lama, Mikhail Gorbachev, Shimon Peres, and Other Nobel Prize Winners Answer Some of Life's Most Intriguing Questions for Young People edited by Bettina Stiekel
Discover's 20 Things You Didn't Know About Everything by the editors of Discover magazine
A Pound of Paper: Confessions of a Book Addict by John Baxter
Glad You Asked: Intriguing Names, Facts, and Ideas for the Curious Minded by Michael Feldman
Getting into Guinness: One Man's Longest, Fastest, Highest Journey Inside the World's Most Famous Record Book by Larry Olmstead
We Interrupt This Broadcast: The Events that Stopped our Lives…from the Hindenburg Explosion to the Virginia Tech Shooting by Joe Garner
Breaking News: A Memoir by Martin Fletcher
Stet: An Editor's Life by Diana Athill
Cronkite Remembers (three DVDs) produced by Mary Dore

Some 000-related Fiction
The Poet of Loch Ness by Brian Jay Corrigan
The Loch by Steve Alten
The Silverville Swindle by Kym O'Connell-Todd and Mark Todd
Submerged by Alton Gansky
The Thing From Another World (DVD) starring James Arness and Margaret Sheridan
Gone Tomorrow by P.F. Kluge
Player Piano by Kurt Vonnegut

I hope I've piqued your curiosity for the mishmash that are the 000s and that you'll spend some time browsing the shelves. For more titles, visit the Jefferson County Public Library web site (www.jeffcolibrary.org) or ask your librarian for suggestions.