The Olympic Torch Relay is coming to a close, and the Olympic Games 2012 are almost upon us! While the torch has arrived in the City of London just yesterday, along its course it also brushed Deweyland in several ways.
After it had been ignited purely by sunlight at the site of the ancient Olympic Games on May 10, the torch has then crisscrossed the United Kingdom for almost 70 days now. The OCLC staff in Sheffield had the chance to get really close to the action, as the flame directly passed the office.
As reported by Caroline Kent (British Library, moonlighting as Chief Dewey Torch correspondent, West Yorkshire) the torch arrived in Boston Spa on June 19. Boston Spa may ring a bell as being one of the two locations of the British Library. Caroline is of course very well known to Dewey users in her role as chair of the Decimal Classification Editorial Policy Committee (EPC) and as CILIP DDC Committee Chair. Thanks to committee member Terrance Mann for the greats stills!
The games will be kicking into high gear tomorrow with the Opening Ceremony and the first medal traditionally being awarded before lunchtime on Saturday to the winner of the women's 10m air rifle competition (you guessed it, folks: in standing room at 799.312).
As you probably have also guessed by our last blog posts, we have some things in our quiver to provide some Dewey perspective on the proceedings. In fact, before Edition 23 was published last year, we made sure that all sports recognized by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) were represented in the DDC. Being recognized by the IOC (or, more accurately, having as a governing body an international federation that is recognized by the IOC) is just one of several prerequisites of becoming a sport that is actually contested at the Olympic summer or winter programs, a process that may take years or even decades given the already very full Olympic schedules.
Some of the recognized sports we will not see in London over the next couple weeks include Dancesport (793.33), Cricket (796.358), Bowling (794.6), Chess (794.1), and Bridge (the last meaning Contract bridge, 795.415). Golf (796.352) and Rugby sevens (a variant of Rugby Union, which is in a class-here note at 796.333) are not part of this year's program, but have been selected for the highly contested two open spots for the games in 2016.
Stay tuned! Don't miss anything and follow us on Twitter (@DeweyTeam). Yes, indeed, the Dewey team has a Twitter account! We would like to connect more directly with our users, get input and feedback, and keep everyone updated about all things DDC. While we plan to focus on #DeweyOlympics for the next few weeks, feel free to let us know what you would like to see or hear from us on Twitter.
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