It's Team Dewey's Big Week this week, as we welcome to Dewey Manor the ten members of the Decimal Classification Editorial Policy Committee (EPC) for its 124th meeting, which kicks off today and continues until Friday. EPC members will discuss and then vote on the various proposals for changes to the DDC that the editors have developed over the course of the past year. Yesterday was training day for three new members -- Andrea Kappler (Evansville Vanderburgh Public Library, Evansville, IN; nominated by the American Library Association to succeed Jan DeSirey from January 2006), Caroline Kent (British Library, Boston Spa; nominated by the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals), and Welna van Eeden (University of South Africa Library, Pretoria; nominated by Sabinet Online Standards Committee). Winton took the opportunity to guide us all through the new draft of our Editorial rules, a 250-page document that sets out the rules governing the content of the schedules, tables, Manual, and Relative Index of the DDC. Ever wondered why we use the word "the" in the way that we do in the schedules? Because we like to follow Rule 3.3.8,* that's why. Topics on the agenda for discussion today include proposals for changes in the DDC's treatment of graphic novels and of works on terrorism, and updates to Tables 1 (Standard Subdivisions), 2 (Areas, Periods, Persons), 3C (Additional Notation for Arts and Literature), 5 (Ethnic and National Groups) and 6 (Languages).
* Rule 3.3.8: The article "the" should be used only when needed for sense (that is, only when needed to clarify meaning or assist understanding).
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