Dewey: The Organization Side

Michael Panzer wrote about “Relationships, spaces, and the two faces of Dewey” yesterday on Metalogue, a blog hosted by Karen Calhoun.  Michael's piece expands on the topics he addressed in his talk at the Dewey Breakfast/Update at ALA Annual 2008 with a focus on the discovery side of Dewey.

The Dewey editorial team spends most of its time focused on the development of the DDC (the "organization side") to enable use of the system for discovery. About a year ago, I wrote about how frequently we update the DDC and where those updates appear.  In upcoming posts, we’ll discuss how statistics from WorldCat and suggestions/feedback from Dewey users around the world feed into the development process.  (We have a request out right now for user feedback on the treatment of literary periods for writers who write under more than one name.)   Regular readers of this blog already know the critical role the Decimal Classification Editorial Policy Committee (EPC), our ten-member international advisory board, plays in advising us on development of the DDC.  EPC just completed electronic Meeting 129A to resolve some minor open issues arising from Meeting 129.  Last Friday, we sent the first electronic mailing to EPC for topics under consideration at Meeting 130, to be held at the Library of Congress November 18-19, 2008.  The agenda for Meeting 130 has just been posted on the Dewey web site.