025.431: The Dewey blog

No more Major League Baseball until spring

It seems that before I had the chance to blog the annual fall World Series ritual, it was over: four games, clean sweep. Having been a Boston Red Sox fan for as long as I can remember, I’m delighted by the outcome.   

As a ball game, where the ball is hit by a bat (as opposed to 796.352 Golf where the ball is hit by a club, or 796.354 Croquet, where the ball is hit by a mallet), the sport sometimes dubbed “America’s pastime” is classed in 796.357 Baseball. Championship games (as a group) have sufficient literary warrant to justify their own classes; thus, the World Series is classed in 796.357646 World series games.

Like some, but not all, other sports—let the classifier beware!—baseball uses a modified set of standard subdivisions given under 796.332 American football (at 796.35701-796.35709 Standard subdivisions of baseball is the note: “Notation from Table 1 as modified under 796.3320202-796.332077”). There are three important differences. The first involves 796.3320202.  Synopses and outlines, which would normally class here, have been discontinued to 796.33202 Miscellany; in their stead Handbooks and guides find a home in 796.3320202, under which we also find 796.33202022 Official rules and 796.33202024 Spectators’ guides. The second involves the relocation of Management from 796.332068 to 796.332069, while Grounds and their layout reside in 796.332068. The third involves the relocation of teaching from 796.332071 to 796.332077 Coaching. Other sports-centric interpretations of the standard subdivisions include clubs and leagues in standing room at 796.33206 Organizations, facilities, management and collectibles as a topic approximating the whole of 796.332075 Museum activities and services Collecting.

Since baseball clubs are in standing room at 796.35706, both the Boston Red Sox and the Colorado Rockies class in 796.35706 Baseball clubs, without geographic subdivision (built with 796.357 Baseball plus T1—06 Organizations, as modified under 796.332 American football). Fenway Park, where games 1 and 2 were played, is classed in 796.3570687447 Baseball grounds in Norfolk County, Mass. (built with 796.357 Baseball plus T1—068 Grounds and their layout, as modified under 796.332 American football, plus T2—7447 Norfolk County, Mass.); Coors Field, where games 3 and 4 were played, is classed in 796.35706878883 Baseball grounds in Denver (built with 796.357 Baseball plus T1—068 Grounds and their layout, as modified under 796.332 American football, plus T2—78883 Denver).

How important is the geographic aspect of wine?

The Decimal Classification Editorial Policy Committee (EPC) is considering our proposals for new subdivisions under the number for wine in home and family management, which is also the interdisciplinary number (641.22 Wine), and under the number for commercial processing of wine (663.2 Wine).  In addition to the existing numbers for white wine, red wine, and sparkling wine, we are proposing new numbers for rosé wine and fortified wine.  We are also proposing that ice wine appear in an including note as a kind of wine that should get its own number if sufficient literary warrant develops.

At each of the numbers for white wine, red wine, rosé wine, sparkling wine, and fortified wine, we are proposing to give a note following the pattern "Class here specific X wines (specific brands, estate wines, varietals)."  We are not sure about the literary warrant for specific brands, such as Blue Nun or Yellow Tail, but we wanted to suggest that "specific wines" includes all kinds of named wines.  The intent is to allow addition of standard subdivisions—especially geographic subdivisions—for a specific named wine.  At 641.2223 Red wine, for example, the note would read "Class here specific red wines (specific brands, estate wines, varietals)."  No specific named wine approximates the whole of red wine. Without the proposed note, a work on North American Pinot Noir belongs in standing room at 641.2223 Red wine; with the proposed note, the work could be classed in 641.2223097 Red wines of North America (built with 641.223 Red wine plus T1—09 Geographic treatment plus T2—7 North America).

In theory, as an alternative, we could give specific named wines their own numbers, so that all works on Pinot Noir could be kept together, then subarranged geographically.  In practice, there are so many different named wines that most will never get their own numbers.  Literary warrant for specific named wines varies so much from one country to another, and over time, that any short list of specific wines with literary warrant will appear unsatisfactory and biased to many Dewey users.

How important is the geographic aspect of wine?  Should we allow addition of standard subdivisions—especially geographic subdivisions—for all specific named wines that fit the categories of white wine, red wine, rosé wine, sparkling wine, or fortified wine, as we are proposing?  EPC and the DDC editorial team would appreciate your advice.  Please reply directly to this blog entry by November 2, 2007. If you prefer, you may also send comments and suggestions directly by the same date to dewey@loc.gov.

Language, language everywhere

Today’s blog—our 400^th—is brought to you by the number 400. Oh, you ask, have they mistaken the Dewey blog for Sesame Street?  But, indeed, this blog is brought to you by 400 Language, as have all the blogs that have preceded it and as, almost assuredly, will all the blogs that follow it.

Language, of course, is fundamental to human society, since it is the central technology we use for communicating with each other. Over the course of human history, it has been the primary medium for recording and disseminating knowledge. Imagine where we would be without language, that is, if we could communicate with each other only through visual images, sound, touch, pointing, etc.  Even now, automatic image retrieval, for instance, is based largely on linguistic metadata attached to images. Not dissimilarly, the meaning of classes in the Dewey Decimal Classification is largely mediated through the use of language via captions, notes (e.g., scope, including, class-here), and Manual entries.

Given the centrality of language to our enterprise, it may seem ironic that the 400s—at 51 pages in DDC 22—constitute the shortest of the main classes.   The substance of the 400s largely mirrors, on the one hand, Table 4. Subdivisions of Individual Languages and Language Families, and, on the other hand, Table 6. Languages; the former outlines the subject matter of linguistics, while the latter enumerates a significant proportion of the known individual languages and language families used by humankind. But language also plays a fundamental role elsewhere in the classification scheme: Table 5. Ethnic and National Groups is based largely on language; for instance, Indic peoples in T5—914 South Asians are defined as “people who speak, or whose ancestors spoke, Indic languages.”  By extension, although Table 2. Areas, Periods, Persons was not explicitly developed along language lines, there is a correlation between geographic areas and languages, as we need to communicate with those others who live in the same area. Table 2 also contains an explicit provision to express geographic regions in terms of specific languages, T2—175 Regions where specific languages predominate, to which notation for specific languages from Table 6 may be added. Table 3. Subdivisions for the Arts, for Individual Literatures, for Specific Literary Forms pairs up with 800 Literature (Belles-lettres) and rhetoric to class language-based art forms. (And just so Table 1. Standard Subdivisions won’t feel left out, we should also point out T1—014 Language and communication.) Thus, rather than the brevity of the 400s denigrating the importance of language, it is instead the omnipresence of language throughout the tables that reflects its underlying importance to all knowledge organization.

Vive la langue! (Thanks, 400.)

Dewey at AASL

Are you going to the American Association of School Librarians (AASL) 13th National Conference in Reno next week?  If yes, please join us for the Dewey Breakfast/Update on Friday, October 26, 7:00–8:00 a.m., in the Silver Baron Ballroom D at the Silver Legacy Resort.

Libbie Crawford and I will be addressing several topics related to Dewey in a global and local context—our plans for updating 370 Education (we are seeking direct advice from school librarians on several issues), new approaches to the development of the abridged edition of Dewey, Dewey training on the web (coming soon!), and special group purchase options for WebDewey / Abridged WebDewey.  There will be an open discussion period, too—bring those burning Dewey questions and suggestions!

Please RSVP to crawforl@oclc.org by October 24, or stop by the OCLC Booth (#1025) during the Exhibit Hall Block Party on October 25 and tell us in person that you plan to join us.

A Giant Effect on Little Disks

The 2007 Nobel Prize for Physics was announced last week, and it is shared by two scientists who independently discovered giant magnetoresistance: Albert Fert and Peter Grünberg.

Giant magnetoresistance has revolutionised data storage, by making it possible to store much larger amounts on information on very small hard disks, not only on computers, but also on such devices as iPods.  To quote from the press release announcing the prize: http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/2007/press.html

A hard disk stores information, such as music, in the form of microscopically small areas magnetized in different directions. The information is retrieved by a read-out head that scans the disk and registers the magnetic changes. The smaller and more compact the hard disk, the smaller and weaker the individual magnetic areas. More sensitive read-out heads are therefore required if information has to be packed more densely on a hard disk. A read-out head based on the GMR effect can convert very small magnetic changes into differences in electrical resistance and there-fore into changes in the current emitted by the read-out head. The current is the signal from the read-out head and its different strengths represent ones and zeros.

The Dewey number for the Nobel Prize for Physics is 530.079, built by adding to 530 Physics the standard subdivision T1--079 Competitions, festivals, awards, financial support.  There are two zeroes in the number because the schedules contain an entry for 530.03-530.09 Standard subdivisions.  Works on the engineering of the tiny hard disks that this discovery has made possible go in 621.3976 External storage (Auxiliary storage), because that number has an including note for hard disks.

David Balatti

We received word last week that David Balatti, former director of bibliographic services at the National Library of Canada (now Library and Archives Canada), passed away suddenly in France on September 28. David served as a member of the Decimal Classification Editorial Policy Committee (EPC) 1989-2000, and chaired the committee 1996-1999.

During much of his thirty-three-year career at the National Library of Canada, David guided Dewey application to Canadian publications.  He headed the four-person NLC team that revised and expanded the geographic tables for British Columbia and Quebec in 1986.  In a letter to Winton Matthews upon completion of the tables, David wrote: “The four of us have hardly seen the light of day for the past six weeks as we’ve closeted ourselves in dreary boardrooms with a mass of maps, atlases, gazetteers, screen print and shelf list cards . . . I’d like to conclude by saying it was a great experience.”

David inspired one of our present-day principles on the introduction of new optional arrangements in the DDC.  In a discussion on the use of options at EPC Meeting 102 in May 1993, David remarked: "Options should not be used as a substitute for a decision."   He served on EPC during the complete publication cycle for DDC 21 and Abridged Edition 13 (published in 1996 and 1997, respectively).  As EPC chair, he guided the committee through the planning for DDC 22 and Abridged Edition 14 at the 1997 EPC retreat in Saratoga Springs, New York; and saw the content of those editions substantially launched during his service as chair and member.  In one of the memorable lighthearted moments at EPC, David suggested a topic be “tabled” and then had to navigate across the Anglophone divide between British and American usage—half of those present thought the tabled topic was being brought forward for consideration while the other half thought the discussion was being postponed.

We remember David’s warmth, wit, and intelligence—his presence enhanced every EPC meeting.  We send our deepest condolences to his wife, Sheila.

Gene Targeting and Medical Research

The 2007 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded to Mario R. Capecchi, Sir Martin J. Evans, and Oliver Smithies "for their discoveries of principles for introducing specific gene modifications in mice by the use of embryonic stem cells." Here is the summary from the press release:

This year's Nobel Laureates have made a series of ground-breaking discoveries concerning embryonic stem cells and DNA recombination in mammals. Their discoveries led to the creation of an immensely powerful technology referred to as gene targeting in mice. It is now being applied to virtually all areas of biomedicine – from basic research to the development of new therapies.

Gene targeting is often used to inactivate single genes. Such gene "knockout" experiments have elucidated the roles of numerous genes in embryonic development, adult physiology, aging and disease. To date, more than ten thousand mouse genes (approximately half of the genes in the mammalian genome) have been knocked out. Ongoing international efforts will make "knockout mice" for all genes available within the near future.

With gene targeting it is now possible to produce almost any type of DNA modification in the mouse genome, allowing scientists to establish the roles of individual genes in health and disease. Gene targeting has already produced more than five hundred different mouse models of human disorders, including cardiovascular and neuro-degenerative diseases, diabetes and cancer.

Interdisciplinary and comprehensive biological works on gene targeting are classed in 572.877 Genetic recombination, where the LCSH "Gene targeting" is mapped, e.g., Gene Targeting Protocols. 

Comprehensive works on mice used in medical research, including transgenic mice produced by gene targeting, are classed in 616.027333 Mice (Mus), a subdivision of 616.027 Experimental medicine.  Works on mice used in medical research on a specific disease or group of diseases are classed with the disease plus notation for experimental medicine, e.g., mice used in medical research on cardiovascular diseases 616.1027 Experimental medicine on diseases of cardiovascular system (built with 616.1 Diseases of cardiovascular system plus 027 Experimental medicine from add table under 616.1–616.9 Specific diseases), e.g., A Handbook of Mouse Models of Cardiovascular Disease.  A work focusing on experimental research about genetic aspects of cardiovascular diseases would be classed in 616.104227 (built with 616.1 Diseases of cardiovascular system plus 042 Genetic diseases [Hereditary diseases] plus 27 from 027 Experimental medicine as instructed at 0421–0423  Microbiology, special topics, rehabilitation in the add table under 616.1–616.9 Specific diseases).  In the add table, notation 042 Genetic diseases has the note: "Class here genetic aspects of diseases with complex causation, medical genetics."

My nearest Dewey library

The nearest library using Dewey to my office at OCLC has changed.  Previously, it was either the library at John Sells Middle School or the library at Dublin Coffman High School.  The OCLC Dublin campus is about halfway between them, so both are about 500 metres from my office as the Canada goose flies.

However, this week the OCLC Library & Information Center -- the special library serving the needs of OCLC staff -- completed its conversion from the Library of Congress Classification to Dewey.  So the nearest library using Dewey is now less than 50 metres from my desk, on the same floor of the same building.  (And in my humble personal opinion it makes the OCLC Library much easier to use).

Works on the OCLC Library & Information Center would go at 026.02 Libraries and information centers devoted to library and information sciences.  This number is built by adding to 026 Libraries, archives, information centers devoted to specific subjects and disciplines the digits 02 from 020 Library and information sciences, following the instructions found at 026.001-026.999 Libraries and information centers devoted to specific subjects and disciplines.  You drop the final 0 from the number 020 because Dewey numbers longer than three digits cannot end in a zero.

Computers and music, part 2

This is the second in a three-part series of postings on computers and music in DDC 22.   Part 1 examined explicit provisions in the schedules for treating this topic area. In this part, I look at various processes applied to music and indicate where each process should be classed if performed by a computer. Part 3 will discuss the classification of a representative sample of specific computer technologies and products, as used with music.

The major processes applied to music that we will consider are creation, performance, and recording.  Although there are other musical processes (e.g., conducting, music appreciation), these are the ones we are most likely to find computers involved in.

By the creation of music I refer not only to composition (781.3), but also to improvisation (781.36), arrangement (781.37), and orchestration (781.374). As noted in the previous posting, a note at 781.30285 Music composition—Computer applications instructs the classifier not to use that number for computer composition, but to class works on the topic at 781.34. However, 781.30285 has not been bracketed, which implies the existence of computer applications applied to composition—perhaps that aid composition—that do not qualify outright as computer composition. A software application that analyzes compositions for part-writing errors would class in 781.30285, as would an application that analyzes compositions for orchestration possibilities. A further question arises, whether, for example, computer improvisation should be classed at 781.34, given that improvisation is a subclass of composition, or whether it should be classed at 781.360285 Music improvisation—Computer applications. A note that disallows the use of a standard subdivision does not have hierarchical force; therefore, computer improvisation classes under 781.36, not under 781.34.  However, a work such as Computer improvisation of blues melodies should class in 781.6431360285 Blues—Computer improvisation, built with 781.643 Blues plus facet indicator 1 plus notation 36 (from 781.36 Improvisation), as instructed at the add table at 781.63–781.69 Other traditions of music, plus notation T1—0285 Computer applications.  (A note at 780 instructs us to “class a subject with aspects in two or more subdivisions of 780 in the number coming last.” Thus, music tradition ranks higher in the citation order than composition.)

The relationship between the performance and the recording of music is complex. On the one hand, music is often recorded in some way (e.g., using print notation, on a piano role) before being performed. On the other hand, performances are recorded so they can be played back.  One is tempted to differentiate between non-sound recording that enables performance and sound recording of performance, but reality is rarely so clear-cut. For example, I once had the privilege of working with a visually impaired choir accompanist. She learned her part from a tape recording of the accompaniment, played just slowly enough that she could hear the music and immediately play it. In her case, it was the sound recording that enabled performance.

In any case, we have three major performance-and-recording processes with possible computer involvement. The first process (the non-sound recording) involves the notation of music at 780.148 Musical notation, abbreviations, symbols.  Software that automatically produces notated music from sound would then class in 780.1480285 Musical notation—Computer applications. This may appear to contravene the principle of not adding multiple standard subdivisions to the same number. However, as section 8.6 of the DDC Introduction explains, standard subdivisions can be added to notation for standard subdivisions with changed or extended meanings (or as the schedules describe it, notation from Table 1 that has been modified).  The second process (the sound recording) classes at 781.49 Recording of music if the focus is on musical techniques; however, if the focus is on engineering techniques, the appropriate class is 621.3893 Sound recording and reproducing systems; if the focus is on the signals by which the sound is recorded, the appropriate class is 006.5 Digital audio. Since 006.7 is part of the computer science schedule, the addition of T1–0285 would be redundant. In contrast, although 621.3893 need not involve a computer, the note at 006.5 (“Class digital audio engineering in 621.3893”) suggests that we should not add T1–0285 at 621.3893 either. However, the addition of T1–0285 to 781.49, yielding 781.490285 Recording of music—Computer applications, is altogether appropriate.  The third process (performance) typically classes with the instrument or instruments involved in the performance. As discussed in the previous posting, DDC has a dedicated class number for the computer as a musical instrument, 786.76. 

Toys and Lead

Recalls of toys because of excessive lead have been much in the news in the last few months.  The U. S. Consumer Product Safety Commission "Toy Hazard Recalls" page lists many toys recalled recently because of concerns about lead.

Works on product safety of toys (and recalls of toys considered unsafe) are classed in 363.19 Product hazards, where toys are mentioned in the including note, e.g., Toy Safety: Make Playtime a Safe Time.  Because toys do not approximate the whole of 363.19, notation 0973 cannot be added to specify that a work about toy safety is limited to the United States.  (Lead is mentioned in the including note at 363.1791 Toxic chemicals, a subdivision of 363.17 Hazardous materials.  In the table of preference at 363.1 Public safety programs, 363.17 appears at the top, above 363.19; however, the "unless other instructions are given" clause applies here: under 363.17 Hazardous materials is the note: "For hazardous materials as components of articles that become hazardous products, see 363.19.")

No case of lead poisoning has been associated with the recently recalled toys, for which we are thankful.  Works on the medical aspects of lead poisoning in children, including prevention, testing, diagnosis, and treatment, are classed in 615.925688083 Lead poisoning of children (built with 615.925 Human toxicology of specific inorganic poisons plus 688 from 546.688 Lead plus T1—083 Young people ["Class here children"]), e.g., Lead Poisoning in Childhood.  (General works on poisoning are not classed in 616 Diseases; however, since poisoning can be considered an environmental disease, there is a reference at 616.98 Noncommunicable diseases and environmental medicine: "For poisoning, see 615.9."  Because of this reference, 618.9298 Pediatric environmental diseases, built with 618.92 Pediatrics plus 98 from 616.98 according the instructions at 618.921-618.929 Specific diseases, is not used for poisoning in children.)