025.431: The Dewey blog

Christmas Literature

“Dickens was facing financial ruin when he imagined Ebenezer Scrooge,” writes Jonathan Yardley in his review of Les Standiford’s The Man Who Invented Christmas: How Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol Rescued his Career and Revived Our Holiday Spirits.  Standiford’s work, with its stretch-the-truth main title, gives the background story to the writing of A Christmas Carol in 1843.  Pamela Dolan, inspired by an interview with Standiford to reread A Christmas Carol, begins a blog entry:

“If I could work my will, every idiot who goes about with ‘Merry Christmas’ on his lips, should be boiled with his own pudding and buried with a stake of holly through his heart.”

What sort of Scrooge could say such a thing, you ask? Why, Charles Dickens’ Scrooge, of course, the original meanie himself. If you haven’t read A Christmas Carol recently, you should go back to give it a try. I did, and I was surprised by the colloquial vigor of much of the language and the power of the familiar story to move me.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen a stage or screen version of it that has really touched me all that much, but reading it straight through the other night I was astonished to find myself with big tears dripping down my cheeks as I turned the last page. I’ll definitely take the time to read it aloud to my children this season.

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens and Standiford’s book about it are both classed in 823.8 English fiction, 1837–1899 (built with 82 base number for English literature, as instructed at 820.1–828 Subdivisions of English literature, plus T3A—3 Fiction from Table 3A Subdivisions for Works by or about Individual Authors plus 8 Victorian period, 1837–1899, from period table at 820.1–828 Subdivisions of English literature, as instructed at T3A—31–39 Specific periods). 

Themes can be expressed in Dewey literature numbers only for works by or about more than one author, when one can use Table 3B Subdivisions for Works by or about More than One Author and Table 3C Notation to Be Added Where Instructed in Table 3B, 700.4, 791.4, 808–809.  For example, The Oxford Book of Christmas Stories is classed in 823.0080334 Collections of English fiction about holidays by more than one author from multiple periods (built with 82 plus T3B—300, as instructed at T3B—3001–3009 Standard subdivisions; collections; history, description, critical appraisal of fiction, plus 80 from add table under T3B—1–8 Specific forms, as instructed at 801–809 Collections displaying specific features or emphasizing specific subjects . . . , plus T3C—334 Holidays, which has the note “Including religious holidays, e.g., Christmas”). 

Sweden Goes Dewey: Part 2

Earlier this month, we reported on the National Library of Sweden’s decision to adopt the DDC. Two more events have happened since that announcement.  On December 5, the governing board of the Swedish Library Association discussed the importance of using the same classification system throughout Sweden, and recommended that Swedish libraries in general consider adopting the DDC.  Stockholm University Library has become the first library to follow the National Library of Sweden in the decision to switch from SAB to DDC—the library executive group announced the decision to adopt the DDC on December 17.

More discussion among Swedish libraries will take place early next year.  An announcement has just been posted for a seminar on Dewey and the role of classification in a national and international context, to be held February 5 at the National Library of Sweden.

Animal Sounds

National Public Radio (NPR) has been running a series “Sounds Wild,” described thus:  “Take a walk through remote areas of the planet with this series of field recordings from unusual animals. You'll hear roars that penetrate through three miles of tropical forest; maniacal laughs that break the Australian bush dawn; and a barking, bugling, colorful-billed bird.”  Among the animal sounds available thus far are those of the superb lyrebird, the keel-billed toucan, the laughing kookaburra, Leach’s storm petrel, the bare-throated tiger heron, the eastern dwarf tree frog, the sand goanna, the coatimundi (coati), and the black howler monkey.

Comprehensive works on animal sounds—including sounds of invertebrates (e.g., insects) and vertebrates (e.g., frogs, birds, mammals)—are classed in 591.594 Acoustical communication, which has the note “Class here animal sounds” and which has the LCSH “Animal sounds” editorially mapped to it in WebDewey.  An example is Naturally Wild Musicians: The Wondrous World of Animal Song.  The upward hierarchy includes 591.5 Behavior, 591 Specific topics in natural history of animals, and 590 Animals. 

Works on sounds of a specific taxonomic group of animals are classed with the group, as instructed in a scatter note under 591 Specific topics in natural history of animals: “Class a specific topic in natural history of animals with respect to a specific taxonomic group of animals with the group of animals . . . .”  For example, comprehensive works on sounds of birds are classed in 598.1594 Acoustical communication of birds, built with 598 Aves (Birds) plus 1 General topics of natural history of animals from add table under 592–599 Specific taxonomic groups of animals, as instructed by footnote at 598 “Add as instructed under 592–599,” plus 594 from 591.594 Acoustical communication, as instructed under notation 1 in add table under 592–599: “Add to base number 1 the numbers following 591 in 591.3–591.7, e.g., beneficial animals 163, marine animals 177.”  Examples are Why Birds Sing: A Journey through the Mystery of Bird Song and Bird Song: Biological Themes and Variations.

Works on insect sounds are classed in 595.71594 Acoustical communication of insects, built with 595.7 Insecta (Insects) plus 1 plus 594 as described above.  An example is Acoustic Communication in Insects and Anurans: Common Problems and Diverse Solutions.  By the first-of-two rule, 595.7 Insecta (Insects) is preferred over 597.8 Amphibia (Amphibians), which has the note “Class here Anura (Salientia).” 

So far, the NPR series “Sounds Wild” includes only sounds of vertebrates.  Until sounds of invertebrates like insects are added, “Sounds Wild” would be classed in 596.1594 Acoustical communication of Chordata, built with 596 Chordata, which has the note “Class here Vertebrata (Craniata, vertebrates), Tetrapoda (land vertebrates) . . . ,” plus 1 plus 594 as described above.  The class-here note means that vertebrates—also land vertebrates—approximate the whole of 596, which makes further addition possible.

Two Museums

Two Museums

Currently I’m on vacation in Australia, being a tourist in my original home. Over the last few days I’ve visited two museums in the Sydney area, one well-known and one less known.

The Powerhouse Museum is very popular – when I was there, it was full of young children looking at the special Star Wars exhibit.  Its history goes back to the 19^th century, but it opened on its present site (the former Ultimo Power Station) with its current name in 1988.  My favourite item in its collection is the destination board from Sydney's Central Railway Station, with the names evoking railway lines and stations throughout New South Wales (many now closed to passenger traffic).

The Powerhouse describes itself as “science + design” but the best Dewey category for it is 600 Technology (Applied sciences), so that the Dewey number for the museum would be 607.349441.  That number is an irregular use of standard subdivisions: you start with 607.3 Other aspects of education and research, then add notation 4 from -074 Museums, collections, exhibits in Table 1 (following the instructions at 607.3), then add -9441 Sydney metropolitan district from Table 2 (following the instructions at -74 in Table 1).

Less well-known is the Museum of Fire in Penrith, about 50 kilometres west of Sydney.  (I was the only visitor there on a Saturday afternoon.)  This is devoted to the history of fire fighting, and has a large collection of fire engines and other fire-fighting equipment.

In Dewey, the interdisciplinary number for fire fighting is 628.925 Fire fighting technology, so the Dewey number for the Museum of Fire would be 628.9250749441.  This is a regular standard subdivision, built by adding -074 Museums, collections, exhibits from Table 1 to the base number 628.925, then adding -9441 Sydney metropolitan district from Table 2.  (Penrith is in the including note at -9441 in Table 2.)

Measles

“The number of deaths across the world caused by measles has fallen by 74% in the past seven years,” from an estimated 750,000 to 197,000.  Measles deaths were reduced in Africa by 89%, in the eastern Mediterranean region by 90%, but only by 42% in the South-East Asian region, where two-thirds of global measles deaths occur.  The goal of the Measles Initiative, which involves intensive vaccination campaigns, is to reduce measles deaths worldwide by 90% by 2010.  For more information, see the World Health Organization web site.

Works on the incidence of measles and on public measures to prevent measles are both classed in 614.523 Measles, a subdivision of 614.5 Incidence of and public measures to prevent specific diseases and kinds of diseases.  Examples are Measles: An Historical Geography of a Major Human Viral Disease from Global Expansion to Local Retreat, 1840-1990, and Measles. 

General works on immunization are classed in 614.47 Immunization, which has the note: “Class here vaccination.”  Above that number in the hierarchy, at 614.4 Incidence of and public measures to prevent disease, is the see reference: “For incidence of and public measures to prevent specific diseases and kinds of diseases, see 614.5.”  The see reference has hierarchical force; consequently, works on immunization for a specific disease are classed with the disease under 614.5 Incidence of and public measures to prevent specific diseases and kinds of diseases.

Sweden Goes Dewey

The National Library of Sweden has announced its intention to adopt the DDC.  The decision was approved on November 21 by National Librarian Gunnar Sahlin on the advice and recommendation of the national advisory board.  The National Library of Sweden has used Klassifikationssystem för svenska bibliotek, the Swedish classification system popularly known as SAB, since 1956. The national bibliography has been arranged by SAB since 1921. A high-level concordance already exists between the two systems, and the DDC Summaries are available in Swedish in the DeweyBrowser.

The switch from SAB to the DDC has been under study for some time at the National Library of Sweden.  In April 2005, I had the pleasure of participating in a seminar and training session in Stockholm to introduce Dewey to Swedish librarians and to discuss possible approaches to translation.  In 2006, Magdalena Svanberg (currently Executive Officer of the Department of National Co-operation at the National Library of Sweden) headed a study group (Study 3 of the Catalogue Survey) to explore the switch to the DDC.  It was also Magdalena who first suggested that we investigate models for mixed translations of the DDC.

Magdalena notes that some other libraries in Sweden are also expected to make a similar decision to switch from SAB to DDC.  The timetable for the switch at the National Library and elsewhere is still under study.  A critical element will be the existence of a useful Swedish (or a mixed Swedish-English) DDC edition to support Dewey assignment and end-user facing applications.   The National Library of Sweden is planning a seminar in early February on the future of bibliographic control—a Swedish version of Dewey will certainly be part of the discussion. 

Literary Periods for Galician Literature

Galician literature is literature written in Galician, an official regional language of Galicia, an autonomous region in northwest Spain.  The language is also spoken in the Trás-os-montes region of Portugal.  Galician language has been treated in DDC as a dialect of Portuguese, and Galician literature has been classed as Portuguese literature, with use of the period table for Portuguese.  Now that we are now preparing to introduce a new number in Table 6 Languages for Galician as a separate language (T6—699 Galician), we need a literary period table for Galician literature. 

Since Galician literature has less literary warrant than Portuguese literature, we could give a less detailed period table for Galician than for Portuguese.  There would be some advantage, however, to paralleling the Portuguese table to facilitate reclassification.

Most sources speak of a medieval period of Galician literature, ending at various dates, usually between 1400 and 1500 (Fernández del Riego 1978, 17–57; Pena 1992; Tarrío 1994, 19–68).  Often they speak of the medieval period as a Galician-Portuguese period, where it may be difficult to distinguish Galician authors from Portuguese authors—yet some authors and works are identified as Galician.  The first-of-two rule should lead classifiers to put comprehensive works on medieval Galician and Portuguese literature with Portuguese.

Most sources describe a period of obscurity for Galician literature for the 16th through 18th centuries (Fernández del Riego 1978, 58–74; Tarrío 1994, 71–94).  Most sources describe a rebirth or revival in the second half of the 19th century, and some describe a pre-revival starting near the beginning of the 19th century (Fernández del Riego 1978, 75–119; Tarrío 1994, 97–187). 

For the 20th century, the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939) and the suppression of Galician during the Franco regime (1939–1975) are important for marking the periods of Galician literature (Tarrío 1994, 191–532).  There is a period of exile literature during the Franco regime, based in Latin America, especially Buenos Aires (Maceira Fernández 1995).  World War II does not seem important for marking periods of Galician literature.

For literary periods for Galician, we tentatively recommend keeping the same dates as for Portuguese, but not subdividing the 20th century.  We recommend putting a class-here note under the 19th century for the period of revival, so that subdivisions may be added for Galician literature of that period.  Here is how the proposed entry for Galician literature would look:

869.9               *Galician literature

 

Class here Gallegan literature

 

Use the following period table for literature in Galician language from all countries and continents, for comprehensive works on literature in Galician language

 

                                    PERIOD TABLE

                                                            1          Early period to 1499

                                                            2          1500–1799

                                                            3          1800–1899

                                                                                    Class here period of revival

                                                            4          1900–1999

                                                            5          2000–

*Add to base number as instructed at beginning of Table 3

We are asking for comments on the proposed literary period table.  Please reply directly to this blog entry (or alternatively to dewey@loc.gov) by December 31, 2008. The comment period has been extended to March 31, 2009.