In Rebecca's report on EPC Meeting 135, she mentioned that the agenda included a proposal on some modifications to the work methods of the Decimal Classification Editorial Policy Committee (EPC). At Meeting 135, EPC approved a new approach to the review of additions and changes to the DDC that would permit some routine updates to be automatically implemented and then reported to EPC after the fact. Examples of such updates include certain name changes for geographic areas (ones submitted by the national library with jurisdiction over the area and confirmed by the editors), notes that follow a standard pattern found elsewhere in a schedule or table, and changes in note types.
Yesterday, we posted two such routine changes that made their way into the DDC by the implement-first / notify-EPC-second route. At the request of Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec, we updated the geographic name for Vallée-de-l'Or Regional County Municipality at T2—714139 to include the initial article "La." This is the form found in the Quebec geographic name authorities and the official toponomy database for Quebec.
We also closed off the period for the administration of Malas Zénāwi (the Prime Minister of Ethiopia who died on 20 August 2012) in the class-here note under 963.0721. We decided against the introduction of a new historical period in Ethiopia at this time; the acting prime minister is expected to stay in place until new elections in 2015. If we had recommended the introduction of a new historical period, we would have sought EPC’s electronic approval in advance of introducing such a change.
The changes to T2—714139 and 963.0721 are already in WebDewey, which is updated on a daily basis. We also post selected updates to the tables and schedules on the Dewey web site on the Updates to DDC 23 page. Minor corrections plus updates to the Relative Index and mapped headings are only available in WebDewey. New built numbers that only appear in the index are available in WebDewey and dewey.info.
Comments