Project Needles: Classification

or, How I Assigned Call Numbers to My Knitting Needles

A Librarian's Tale

If the titles did not trigger red flags,
you have now been officially warned: NERD ALERT.

After completing a survey of priorities for the user population (in this case, just me), portability will factor into the storage of the collection, with a minimum of repackaging and an option for decentralization (AKA I will continue to keep my needles in two specific locations for convenience, and relabeling all my needles would be super insane).

Crafting equipment comes with its own controlled vocabulary, so it's a natural step to use this vocabulary when creating an organization hierarchy for knitting needles... things like:

• Needle size: US sizes for user comfort
• Needle type: circular, double pointed, straight
• Needle length: 6", 8", 16", etc.
• Needle material: metal, wood, bamboo, plastic, etc.

can translate to a call number for relatively easy recognition of the object:

In my opinion (and I may be the only one hanging out in this paragraph -- hello, brave souls who are still reading!), this structure can be easily extended, so that no matter how large this specific collection gets, the chances of running out of unique identifiers is slim.  I will not be assigning Cutter numbers! (cataloging humor, stop me plz)

How a user population can use these assigned call numbers for search and retrieval is its own issue.  I may need to get a whiteboard...

**This post is dedicated to my husband; he met me before grad school and he's stayed with me, even though I talk like this now.**