Happy New Year to all our readers. We’re starting things on a bittersweet note here on the Dewey editorial team—Winton Matthews, the longest-serving member of the current editorial team, is retiring this very day. Suffice it to say, he will be sorely missed by his colleagues at LC and OCLC, and, we suspect, by his many friends in the worldwide community of Dewey users. We told you a bit about Winton’s many contributions when he celebrated his 40th anniversary with the Library of Congress in mid-2007. Today, we’d like to share part of the resolution that the Editorial Policy Committee passed at Meeting 130 in his honor:
Whereas Winton Matthews has been a member of the Dewey family since August 1968, when he joined the former Decimal Classification Division at the Library of Congress as a decimal classifier; . . . assisted in the preparation of the 1980 publication, Proposed Revision of 780 Music; . . . contributed many sections to the first version of the Manual, which was published as a separate in 1982; . . . was appointed assistant editor of the DDC in April 1985; . . . served as Dewey’s liaison to the ALA Cataloging Needs of Public Libraries Committee, and, more recently, as the Dewey liaison to the Committee on Cataloging Children’s Materials; . . . assisted translation partners with the development of interoperable expansions; . . . reviewed drafts of Dewey translations, inciting gratefulness (and some fear and trembling) in the hearts of translation partners on receipt of his advice; . . . witnessed firsthand and played an active role in Dewey’s transformation from a print only to print and electronic tool; . . . participated in the development and testing of four Editorial Support Systems; . . . has served as the editorial team’s guru of the Editorial Rules and indentions; . . . has generously shared his Dewey knowledge with his colleagues, and offered (mostly) gentle criticism on wayward proposed developments and wrong indentions; . . . has coordinated the editorial team’s efforts to map Library of Congress subject headings to Dewey; . . . has taken to heart the Dewey slogan, “It’s a big world, we’ve organized it,” by reorganizing the ancient, modern, and extraterrestrial worlds many times in the DDC, in consultation with his editorial colleagues and Dewey users around the world; . . . Be it resolved that the members of the Decimal Classification Editorial Policy Committee here assembled at the One Hundred Thirtieth Meeting of said committee, the DDC editors, and staff at the Library of Congress Dewey Section and OCLC express to Winton Matthews their deep gratitude and appreciation for his service and commitment to the Dewey Decimal Classification, their regret that he will no longer be in regular attendance at their meetings, and their wishes for his continued success and happiness in his anticipated retirement.
We will be feting Winton at a retirement party at the Library of Congress on January 15. We welcome any remembrances / good wishes for Winton as comments to this entry; if you prefer, you may send comments directly to my attention at mitchelj@oclc.org. We will include all comments in his retirement book.
Farewell, Winton, our colleague and friend, as you enter this new stage in your life!
If I have a question about using Dewey do I ask it here on this blog?
Posted by: Carrie Rodomar | February 16, 2009 at 05:20 AM