RE: memes and SOP

From: Lawrence DeBivort (debivort@umd5.umd.edu)
Date: Mon Apr 30 2001 - 12:25:46 BST

  • Next message: Dan Roland: "Re: memes and SOP" 

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From: "Lawrence DeBivort" <debivort@umd5.umd.edu>
To: <memetics@mmu.ac.uk>
Subject: RE: memes and SOP
Date: Mon, 30 Apr 2001 07:25:46 -0400
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    Good morning,

    Each of your items may be SOP, but other than #3 it is not clear to me why
    the rest would be memes. A meme is a linguistic or behavioral practice that
    embodies a belief and is by virtue of the practice disseminated from person
    to another. Perhaps you are looking for library procedures that embody
    beliefs? This will be different from non-memetic library procedures that are
    merely based on a librarians beliefs. Only if the procedure disseminates a
    belief can it be considered memetic. (There will be some on this list who
    consider that if it only disseminates behavior it it memetic, but I
    distinguish between this and what I consider "real" memes.)

    I would consider the Dewey system to have memetic properties as it 1)
    categorizes human thought, thus creating artificial boundaries within
    continua of knowledge (to say nothing of misclassified materials!), 2) the
    system (any categorization system?) tends to impede multi-disciplinary
    thinking.

    Thanks for the summary of some of your findings, Dan -- this is
    thought-provoking. What is happening in the library that has the effect of
    spreading specific beliefs?

    - Lawrence

    -----Original Message-----
    From: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk [mailto:fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk]On Behalf
    Of Dan Roland
    Sent: Monday, April 30, 2001 7:22 AM
    To: memes list
    Subject: memes and SOP

    Please excuse the newbie questions here.

    I have been working on a list of what I think are memes in public
    libraries:

    1. charging fines for overdue materials.
    2. requiring a library card in order to check out materials.
    3. arranging materials according to the Dewey Decimal system.
    4. security systems to guard against book theft.

    and I am curious to hear from the more learned on this list as to
    whether or not these do consitute memes and why.

    Another name for each of these in organizational parlance would be
    "standard operating procedure" and I would also be curious to any
    comment on the difference.

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    This was distributed via the memetics list associated with the
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    For information about the journal and the list (e.g. unsubscribing)
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