025.431: The Dewey blog

EPC Meeting June 16-18, 2010

Meeting 133 of the Decimal Classification Editorial Policy Committee (EPC) was held June 16-18 at OCLC headquarters in Dublin, Ohio.  This was the last face-to-face meeting of EPC during calendar year 2010.  EPC scheduled two electronic meetings, 133A and 133B, to be held during the period July-August 2010.  Meeting 134, the next face-to-face meeting of the committee, will be held at OCLC in mid-June 2011.

In Table 1 (Standard Subdivisions), EPC approved a proposal to revise the three internal add tables in light of the updated policy on standard subdivisions with extended or narrowed meanings, and displaced standard subdivisions (the policy itself was discussed at Meeting 132 and approved at Meeting 132A).  EPC also reviewed and approved changes arising from application of the aforementioned policy in Table 3 (Subdivisions for the Arts, for Individual Literatures, for Specific Literary Forms); 368 Insurance; and 380 Commerce, Communications, Transportation.  EPC discussed updates to the add tables in 398 Folklore and 900 History, geography, and related disciplines but delayed action on them until Meeting 133A (here and elsewhere, postponement of action to Meeting 133A was planned before the meeting).

In Table 2 (Geographic Areas, Historical Periods, Persons), EPC approved the developments for T2--494 Switzerland and T2--485-488 Sweden, plus the name change of T2--54912 North-West Frontier Province to Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa in Pakistan.  EPC reviewed the updates to Germany and neighboring countries and   to Turkey in the ancient and modern world, but delayed final action until Meeting 133A.

In Table 5 (Ethnic and National Groups) and Table 6 (Languages), EPC approved updated provisions for Finnic and Saami peoples and languages.  The interoperable expansion for Finnic peoples and languages prepared for inclusion in the Norwegian and Swedish translations sparked a lively discussion about the role of the English-language print edition in setting the notational framework for the standard version of the DDC.  EPC will explore this topic in depth at Meeting 134.

EPC approved selected updates in the following schedules: 004-006 Computer science; 281 Eastern churches (and changes related to Orthodox Christianity elsewhere in 200 Religion); 364.1 Criminal offenses (for terrorism); 640 Home and family management; 796 Athletic and outdoor sports and games; and 900 History, geography, and related disciplines.  In the last, EPC approved changes to the history of the ancient world; the history of Sweden; and wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Lebanon.  EPC also discussed updates to the histories of Indonesia and Africa, and to countries whose historical periods are represented by decades; final action was delayed until Meeting 133A.

EPC discussed the following schedules, but delayed action on them until Meeting 133A: 340 Law; 370 Education; 390 Customs, etiquette, folklore; and 660 Chemical engineering and related technologies.  The full versions of Table 2 (Geographic Areas, Historical Periods, Persons), 800 Literature and 900 History, geography, and related disciplines will be considered at Meeting 133A.

Several discussion papers were considered by the committee. In addition to ones informing the proposed developments in 340 Law and 370 Education, the committee considered a proposed update to historical periods and Hadith in 297 Islam, Babism, Bahai Faith.  We plan to introduce a full expansion of Islam in the 200 Religion class later next year after the publication of DDC 23 in print. Because the proposed revision for Hadith uses the revised historical periods and includes a relocation of Hadith from 297.124 to 297.125 with a significant revision and expansion under the latter number, we thought it best to speed review and approval of this portion of the 297 expansion for inclusion in the print version of DDC 23. Juli Beall posted a discussion paper here.  

Other matters considered by the committee included the placement of relocation and discontinuation notes at the end of class records in DDC 23, and proposed changes to the Introduction and Glossary in DDC 23.  EPC received a sneak preview of the final screens for WebDewey 2.0 (slated to be introduced in a few months).  The committee also heard progress reports on Dewey research, Dewey linked data, and Dewey translations.

The meeting featured a presentation on Functional Requirements for Subject Authority Data (FRSAD)) by Prof. Marcia Lei Zeng (Kent State Unversity & Chair, IFLA Working Group on FRSAD), followed by a panel discussion on implications of the model for classification systems.  EPC member Jonathan Furner (UCLA) and Diane Vizine-Goetz (OCLC Research), both members of the IFLA WG, joined Marcia in the panel discussion.

The Dewey Decimal Classification Editorial Policy Committee

Standing from left to right: Welna van Eeden (University of South Africa), Deborah Rose-Lefmann (Northwestern University), Sandra Singh (University of British Columbia), David Farris (Library and Archives Canada), Lyn McKinney (Billings Senior High School, MT), Andrea Kappler (Evansville Vanderburgh Public Library, IN).

Seated from left to right: Karl Debus-Lopez (Library of Congress), EPC Chair Caroline Kent (British Library).Vice Chair Anne Robertson (Australian Committee on Cataloguing), Jonathan Furner (University of California Los Angeles)

-- Posted by Giles on behalf of Joan Mitchell

Historical Periods of Islam; Hadith

Draft for Comment by August 1, 2010
297.09 History, geographic treatment, biography
297.125 Hadith (Traditions) [formerly 297.124]

We have been working with the Arabic DDC translation team based at Bibliotheca Alexandrina on expansions and revisions to 297 for Islam. Most of the changes will not be ready in time to affect DDC 23 (scheduled to be published in mid-2011); instead, most will be exposed in connection with the separate publication of the 200 Religion Class and in WebDewey.

One area in which we have been working with the translation team (especially with Ossama Mahmoud and Iman Khairy) is an expansion for Hadith (Traditions), now at 297.124. Since there is no way to expand for Hadith in 297.124 without immediate reuse of numbers, we propose to relocate Hadith to 297.125 Hadith (Traditions). Because of the relocation, we believe that the expansion should be included in DDC 23 if possible.

We have also been working with the Arabic translation team on revising the historical periods for Islam as a religion under 297.09 History, geographic treatment, biography, making them more specific to the history of Islam in much the same way as we did in DDC 22 for the history of Judaism under 296.09 Historical, geographic, persons treatment. The focus is on historical periods important in religious history; caliphates primarily important for political history are not used to structure the proposed development. We would like to introduce the revised development under 297.09 in DDC 23 so that the new history periods can be used with the new development for Hadith. (Note: The new caption for T1—09 History, geographic treatment, biography in DDC 23 is shown in the draft schedule: “History, geographic treatment, biography” instead of “Historical, geographic, persons treatment.” See this 2008 Dewey blog entry for explanation. Additional changes have been made elsewhere in the referenced draft schedules since 2008.)

The draft for historical periods of Islam at 297.09 and Hadith at 297.125 is available for review on the discussion page of the Dewey web site. We seek comments:
•    Does the proposed draft provide a general framework for the historical periods of Islam as a religion and for Hadith that can be used for organization of and access to diverse collections throughout the world?
•    Can you help us improve the English descriptions for Arabic terms?
•    If the proposed schedule is included in DDC 23, would your library use the full numbers
for Hadith?
•    Do the Relative Index entries provide appropriate access to the development?

Please comment directly to this blog entry or by one of the alternative methods given with the draft by August 1, 2010.

CrissCross and Concepts in Context

The CrissCross research project was first mentioned in this blog in a report on the 2006 meeting of translators and representatives of national libraries and bibliographies using the DDC; the meeting had the theme “Dewey Numbers in Authority Files.”  The project has been funded by the German Research Foundation and conducted by the German National Library and the Cologne University of Applied Sciences. Michael Panzer, now DDC assistant editor, was once team leader of CrissCross.

Here from the CrissCross site is a brief description:

In CrissCross the subject headings of the German subject headings authority file (SWD) are mapped to notations of the Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC). The method chosen for the mapping procedure is a directional one: the German subject headings function as initial vocabulary, the DDC as target classification. Appropriate DDC numbers are added directly to the particular SWD data record. The SWD Subject Groups serve as a starting point for the creation of work packages.

The mapping is carried out as specific as possible (Deep level mapping); if necessary, institutional notations are built according to the DDC number building instructions. Due to the referential polysemy of many subject headings, one subject heading can be assigned to several DDC classes (One-to-many mapping). The strength of correspondence of SWD terms and DDC classes is expressed by a code, the so-called "Degree of Determinacy" (abbreviated: Det). In future retrieval systems the Degrees of Determinacy shall be used for ranking as well as for regulation of recall and precision of search results.

The CrissCross web site has more information and many links to publications, presentations, and related projects.

If you can be in the home of CrissCross in July, you are invited to a conference.

Conference title:
Concepts in Context – Cologne Conference on Interoperability and Semantics in Knowledge Organization

Venue:
Cologne University of Applied Sciences, Cologne, Germany

Date: July 19th and 20th, 2010

Short conference description:
In cooperation with the German National Library (DNB), the Institute of Information Management (IIM) at the Cologne University of Applied Sciences would like to invite you to attend the Cologne Conference on Interoperability and Semantics in Knowledge Organization Concepts in Context on July 19th and 20th at the Cologne University of Applied Sciences in Cologne, Germany. The first day gives a review of the CrissCross project. The attendance of the event is free of charge. You will find the programme as well as further information and a registration form on the conference website: http://linux2.fbi.fh-koeln.de/cisko2010/index_en.html.

Tuberculosis, Malaria, and Drug Resistance

The May 14 Science has a special section, “Tuberculosis & Malaria,” focusing on research into two “infectious diseases with high mortality and morbidity, particularly in the third world,” with articles about malaria including “Malaria's Drug Miracle in Danger,” “If Artemisinin Drugs Fail, What's Plan B?” and “The Selection Landscape of Malaria Parasites,” the last emphasizing the adaptive mechanisms of “the most virulent of the human malaria parasites, Plasmodium falciparum.”  The May 22 Lancet has a report “Multidrug-Resistant and Extensively Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis: A Threat to Global Control of Tuberculosis.” The Science and Lancet articles cover many aspects of the diseases, but a recurring theme is development of drug resistance in the pathogens and difficulties in finding effective drug therapies to combat drug-resistant versions of the diseases.

Comprehensive medical works on drug resistance in communicable diseases are classed in 616.9041 Medical microbiology, which has the class-here note “Class here drug resistance in microorganisms” and the Relative Index entry “Drug resistance—microorganisms.” In WebDewey the LCSH “Drug resistance in microorganisms” and the MeSH “Drug Resistance, Microbial” are editorially mapped to 616.9041.  The number 616.9041 is given in the schedule because notes are needed; it  is actually a “number built according to instructions under 616.904,” as the note in the entry says (built with 616.904 Special topics of communicable diseases plus 1 from 01 Medical microbiology in the add table under 616.1–616.9 Specific diseases).  An example of a work about drug resistance classed in 616.9041 is Antimicrobial Resistance and Implications for the Twenty-First Century.

At 616.9041 is the scatter class-elsewhere note “Class medical microbiology of a specific disease or group of diseases with the disease or group of diseases, plus notation 01 from table under 616.1–616.9, e.g., medical microbiology of tuberculosis 616.99501.”  Works on drug-resistant tuberculosis that focus on the pathogen are classed in 616.99501 (built with 616.995 Tuberculosis plus 01 Medical microbiology from the add table under 616.1–616.9 Specific diseases, following the footnote instruction at 616.995).  In the add table at 01 Medical microbiology is the note: “When the cause of a disease or class of diseases is known to be a single type of microorganism, use 01 without further subdivision for works about the type of microorganism.” Because tuberculosis is known to be caused by a bacterium, the 4 from the subdivision 014 Medical bacteriology is not added for tuberculosis.  An example of a work classed in 616.99501 is Evolution of the Mechanisms of Drug Resistance in Mycobacterium Tuberculosis.

Works on drug-resistant malaria that focus on the pathogen are classed in 616.936201 Medical microbiology of malaria (built with 616.9362 Malaria plus 01 Medical microbiology from the add table under 616.1–616.9 Specific diseases, following the footnote instruction at 616.9362).  Because malaria is known to be caused by a protozoan, the 6 from 016 Medical protozoology is not added for malaria.

General works on drug therapy are classed in 615.58 Drug therapy, which has 615.5 Therapeutics in the upward hierarchy.  At 615.5 is a scatter class-elsewhere note: “Class therapies applied to a specific disease or group of diseases with the disease or group of diseases in 616–618, plus notation 06 from table under 616.1–616.9, notation 06 from table under 617, or notation 06 from table under 618.1–618.8, e.g., therapies for cardiovascular diseases 616.106.” Since class-elsewhere notes have hierarchical force, that note applies to drug therapy.  Works that focus on drug therapy to fight a specific drug-resistant disease are classed with the disease plus notation 061 Drug therapy from the add table under 616.1–616.9 Specific diseases. Works on drug therapy for tuberculosis are classed in 616.995061 Drug therapy for tuberculosis, e.g., Development of New Antituberculosis Drugs.  Works on drug therapy for malaria are classed in 616.9362061 Drug therapy for malaria, e.g., Antimalarial Chemotherapy: Mechanisms of Action, Resistance and New Directions in Drug Discovery.

Rare and Endangered Water Lily

“Smallest Waterlily in the World Saved from Extinction – by Kew Gardens” (Guardian), “Nymphaea thermarum” (Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew), and “Waterlily Saved from Extinction” (BBC) are stories about a water lily from Rwanda. Here is an excerpt from the BBC story:

Two years ago, this delicate bloom went extinct in the wild due to over-exploitation of its habitat.

Luckily its seeds were kept in storage - and were used by Carlos Magdalena to regrow the plant at Kew Gardens - just outside London.

It took him months to find the ideal conditions for growth. He hopes now that the Thermal Lily will flourish once again in the hot springs of Rwanda.

Browsing the Relative Index for “water lilies” yields:

Water lilies                   635.93329
Water lilies—botany       583.29
Water lilies—floriculture  635.93329

A work limited to botany of water lilies would be classed in 583.29 Nymphaeales, which has the class-here note “Class here Nymphaeaceae (water lilies).”  Since the genus Nymphaea is not mentioned in the schedule—unlike the family Nymphaeaceae—and there is no note like that at 583.734 Rosa (Roses) “Subdivisions are added for the genus as a whole and for individual species,” the classifier should assume that the genus Nymphaea does not approximate the whole of the number 583.29 Nymphaeales and that no further addition is possible for a work limited to the genus Nymphaea.   

The interdisciplinary number for water lilies and the number for technology of growing water lilies is 635.93329 Water lilies—floriculture (built with 635.93 Groupings by life duration; taxonomic groupings plus 329 from 583.29 Nymphaeales, following instructions at 635.933–635.938 Taxonomic groupings).  An example of a work classed in 635.93329 is Waterlilies and Lotuses: Species, Cultivars, and New Hybrids. A work on lotuses alone would be classed in 635.9333 Lotuses—floriculture (built with 635.93 plus 333 from 583.3 Ranunculidae, which has the including note “Including . . . Nelumbonales (lotuses) . . . ,” following instructions at 635.933–635.938).  The work being classified, however, gives fuller treatment to water lilies than to lotuses—and even if the treatment were equal, the first-of-two rule would lead to use of  635.93329 (not 635.9333).

Browsing the Relative Index for “rare plants” yields:

Rare plants                                 333.9532
Rare plants—biology                     581.68
Rare plants—resource economics    333.9532

The biology number, 581.68 Rare and endangered plants, has the following notes:

Standard subdivisions are added for either or both topics in heading

Including recently extinct species

An example of a work on biology of endangered plants is Threatened Plants of South Marlborough: A Field Guide, classed in 581.68099375 Rare and endangered plants of Canterbury Region, New Zealand (built with 581.68 plus T1—09 Geographic treatment plus T2—9375 Marlborough District, following instructions in the footnote at 581.68,  instructions at 09 Historical, geographic, persons treatment in the add table under 581 Specific topics in natural history of plants, and instructions at T1—093–T1—099 Treatment by specific continents, countries, localities; extraterrestrial worlds).

At 581 Specific topics in natural history of plants is the class-elsewhere note: “Class a specific topic in natural history of plants with respect to a specific taxonomic group with the group, plus notation 1 from table under 583–588, e.g., useful monocotyledons 584.163.”  Because class-elsewhere notes have hierarchical force, a work about biology of rare water lilies would be classed in 583.29168 Rare Nymphaeales (built with 583.29 Nymphaeales plus 1 General topics of natural history of plants from add table under 583–588 Specific taxonomic groups of plants plus 68 from 581.68 Rare and endangered plants, following instruction at 1 in the add table under 583–588).

The interdisciplinary and resource economics number for rare and endangered plants is 333.9532 Rare and endangered plants. In the upward hierarchy is 333.95 Biological resources, which has the class-here note: “Class here biodiversity.” Class-here notes have hierarchical force. The entry for 333.9532 has the following notes:

Class here threatened, vanishing plants

Subdivisions are added for either or both topics in heading

Add as instructed under 333.7–333.9

The last note is a footnote that allows addition of notation from the add table under 333.7–333.9 Natural resources and energy.  An example of a work for which the footnote can be applied is Conserving Europe’s Threatened Plants: Progress towards Target 8 of the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation. (The Global Strategy for Plant Conservation is part of the UN’s Convention on Biological Diversity.) The work is classed in 333.953216094 Conservation of rare and endangered plants of Europe (built with 333.9532 Rare and endangered plants plus 16 Conservation and protection from add table under 333.7–333.9 Natural resources and energy —the entry for 16 has the note: “Standard subdivisions are added for either or both topics in heading”—plus T1—09 Geographic treatment plus T2—4 Europe, following instructions at T1—093–T1—099 Treatment by specific continents, countries, localities; extraterrestrial worlds). 

When 333.9532 is used for a specific species or taxonomic group that does not approximate the whole of plants, no further addition is possible.  An example of a work about a specific species classed in 333.9532 is Recovery Plan for Hackelia venusta (Showy Stickseed).

Where would a work limited to the botany of Hackelia venusta be classed?  According to the executive summary of the work itself, Hackelia venusta belongs to the “forget-me-not family (Boraginaceae).” Also, “Hackelia venusta” is a see reference to the LCSH “Lesser showy stickseed,” and that heading has “Hackelia” as a broader term, and “Hackelia” has “Boraginaceae” as a broader term. Other reference sources also place Hackelia venusta in the Boraginaceae family, e.g., United States Department of Agriculture PLANTS Profile “Hackelia Venusta (Piper) H. St. John Lesser Showy Stickseed.”  The DDC entry for 583.94 Polemoniales has “Boraginaceae (forget-me-not family)” in its including note and “Boraginaceae” linked to it in the Relative Index.