More than 50 convention attendees joined us to hear about and discuss new and ongoing Dewey-related projects. This time the presentations were grouped around the core theme of (semi-)automatic number building and classification.
Libbie kicked things off by updating everybody on Dewey products and services, including an overview of the new number building assistant now available in WebDewey. The high quality of numbers generated by the number building assistant makes possible the related user contribution feature, i.e., the ability of sharing user-built numbers with the entire Dewey community. My presentation gave a quick walk-through of user contribution and tried to assess how this feature opens up new possibilities of connecting with Dewey users.
Juli Beall continued with a presentation on how Classify can be used as a recommender of Dewey numbers for classifying, and how the number building assistant in WebDewey can be leveraged to save important numbers for future use.
To close the program Juli was joined by Caroline Saccucci, head of the Dewey Section at the Library of Congress, to discuss how AutoDewey enables catalogers at LC to semi-automatically assign Dewey numbers based on existing LCC numbers to works of literature. For simple cases, AutoDewey can reduce processing time to a mere 10 seconds per title.
If you haven't done so, check out the new number building feature in WebDewey and don't hesitate contributing numbers you think would be of interest to other WebDewey users. It will help improve Dewey for everybody. See you in Chicago!
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