025.431: The Dewey blog

WebDewey install scheduled for November 19, 2018

A WebDewey install is scheduled for Monday, November 19, 2018. No downtime is expected.

EPC Meeting 141

On October 15–16, Meeting 141 of the Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC) Editorial Policy Committee (EPC) was held at OCLC headquarters in Dublin, Ohio. Often held in June, this year’s meeting was pushed back to October; with Rebecca Green’s retirement and Violet Fox joining the team, we wanted the extra time to be able to present a full agenda to the committee. As it turns out, Rebecca was able to join us for this meeting, allowing her to present the exhibits she had worked on and to say goodbye to EPC members.

This year’s meeting was the first face-to-face meeting for new member Elise Conradi from the National Library of Norway. Readers may recall that at last year’s meeting, the committee updated its bylaws, including provision for a member representing the European Dewey Users Group (EDUG), and EDUG elected Elise as its representative shortly thereafter. Member Gert de Jager, finalizing his dissertation on Dewey, was unable to attend. Also in attendance were Jody DeRidder, Marti Heyman, and Sandi Jones from OCLC. The meeting included presentations from OCLC Research Scientist Diane Vizine-Goetz, and from Stephen Schindehette, Technical Product Manager for Data Services and WorldCat Quality Management.

The committee approved two changes to the editorial rules, which govern how the editorial team works. The first establishes procedures for dealing with Relative Index terms that could be considered offensive to groups of people. This arose when the editorial team was contacted by a Dewey user from Ethiopia who identified a dated, offensive term for an ethnic group from that country. The revised rules provide guidance about when such terms should be removed. Other terms which may be considered offensive may still be retained if used by some of the people in question (e.g., “queer”). The second change to the editorial rules provides greater latitude for providing common forms of individuals’ names in the schedules. For example, at 951.93052 Administration of Kim Chŏng-ŭn, 2011-, there is now an index term for the common name of North Korea’s leader (Kim Jong-un), in addition to the form found in the Library of Congress Name Authority File.

The main business of EPC is the review of proposals for changes to the tables and schedules of the DDC. EPC 141 exhibits included proposals that will result in the following:

• An official option in the Introduction for prioritizing Indigenous groups in knowledge classification; this is the result of several years and discussions with Indigenous knowledge organization professionals.
• Clarification on how to class works about relations between two or more religions.
• Development for Orthodox Christian churches which makes clear how to express geographic notation for ecclesiastical jurisdiction vs. scope of the work; a new Manual note explains some of the complex structure of Orthodox churches and their implications for classification.
• Provision has been made for endangered languages and responses to language endangerment, both in the 400s and at 306.44 Languages for sociolinguistics.
• Updated language for transgender people and transgender identity, along with clear places in the schedules and tables for works about the LGBT community as a whole.
• Changes to the schedules for scouting organizations that enable expression of coeducational (boys and girls) scouting groups.
• The hierarchy of 629.2 Motor land vehicles, cycles will be updated to provide for autonomous vehicles, such as self-driving cars.
• Changes to the period tables under 871-878 Subdivisions for specific forms of Latin literature and 881-888 Subdivisions for specific forms of classical Greek literature that reduce the chances of building invalid numbers in WebDewey.

Finally, EPC requested more detail in a proposal that laid out an optional, chronological notation in the 200s with less emphasis on Christianity. This notation expands upon the option given in the Manual note 220-290 Optional arrangement for Bible and specific religions. We welcome any feedback on current use of, or interest in, this option.

As usual, after we’ve implemented a change in WebDewey, we’ll often make a blog post going into more detail. Stay tuned!

Recording of International Dewey Users Meeting at IFLA 2018

We were pleased to be able to coordinate the International Dewey Users Meeting at this year’s IFLA World Library and Information Congress in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The recording of the meeting is now available, featuring presentations from Elise Conradi (EDUG Chair) and Harriet Aagaard (EDUG Secretary) with an overview of the 2018 European DDC Users Group meeting, Peter Werling from Pansoft GmbH providing the latest technical updates for WebDewey, and updates from Dewey Editor Alex Kyrios and Caroline Saccucci, Head of the CIP and Dewey Section at the Library of Congress.

In their discussions, Elise and Caroline both mention the importance of providing assigned DDC numbers in linked data format to take advantage of the subject analysis done during classification. OCLC continues to evaluate opportunities for developing a linked data offering of the DDC as part of its ongoing work to build linked data tools and services for the larger information ecosystem.

Updates: Child rearing with respect to groups of people

Recently we published a cluster of changes approved by the Dewey Decimal Classification Editorial Policy Committee (EPC) related to child rearing. These changes include:

(1) Multiple do-not-use notes in subdivisions of 649.108 Child rearing with respect to groups of people (built with 649.1 Child rearing plus T1—08  Groups of people). These do-not-use notes point to specific numbers for parents and children of specific groups. For example:

 649.108652 Single people Do not use for works for single parents; class in 649.10243

 649.1087 People with disabilities and illnesses, gifted people Do not use for rearing of children with disabilities and illnesses, gifted children; class in 649.15

 649.1089 Ethnic and national groups Do not use for rearing of children by ethnic and national groups; class in 649.157

(2) A Manual note at 649.12-649.15 vs. 649.1024, 649.108 Child rearing with respect to groups of people to explain further how to handle (1) works about rearing a specific group of children, (2) works for a specific group of parents or others involved in child rearing, and (3) how to handle issues of preference order. For example, works for parents with disabilities (whose children may not have disabilities) are classed with the parents in 649.1087 People with disabilities and illnesses, gifted people, e.g., The parenting book for persons with a disability: From planning your family to raising adolescents. Works for African American parents about raising African American children are classed with the children in 649.15796073 African American children—home care (built with base number 649.157 plus T5—96073 African Americans [United States Blacks]), e.g., My Brown Baby: On the joys and challenges of raising African American children.

(3) New provisions for raising specific groups of children. For example, The gender creative child: Pathways for nurturing and supporting children who live outside gender boxes can be classed in the new number 649.1564 Transgender and intersex children, which has the standard-subdivisions-are-added-note: Standard subdivisions are added for transgender and intersex children together, for transgender children alone.

(4) Clarification that religious aspects belong in the 200s with religion, beginning with a do-not-use note at 649.10882 Religious groups: Do not use for religious aspects of child rearing, religious training of children in the home; class in 204.41.

The number 204.41 Marriage and family life is the broadest possible number for this topic. Works about this topic in the context of a specific religion are classed with the religion, as indicated by the class-elsewhere notes at 201-209 Specific aspects of religion:

Class treatment with respect to Christianity in 230-280

Class treatment with respect to a specific religion other than Christianity in 292-299

For some religions, the number for religious aspects of child rearing is built by adding notation from 204.41, e.g., as provided in the add table at 290 Other religions. Specific numbers for this topic not built with notation from 204.41—and a sampling of those that are—can be found by browsing the Relative Index for Child rearing—personal religion or Parenting—personal religion.

For example, Jewish spiritual parenting: Wisdom, activities, rituals and prayers for raising children with spiritual balance and emotional wholeness is classed in 296.74 Marriage and family life.

WebDewey install scheduled for October 11, 2018

A WebDewey install is scheduled for Thursday, October 11, 2018. Please see the attached file for details.

Download WebDewey Oct 11 Install Release Notes

[Unassigned] versus (Permanently unassigned)

What is the difference between numbers that are “Unassigned” and numbers that are “Permanently unassigned”?

A number that is “Unassigned” is a deprecated number: it is currently invalid, though it was valid in the past. The number and the heading are in square brackets. Notes in the History box describe the changes that made the number invalid.  For example:

It is unlikely that the deprecated number 363.42 will soon be reused for another topic—but it may eventually be reused. It is not permanently unassigned.

Incidentally, if you are not seeing records for “Unassigned” numbers in WebDewey and you want to see them, check the Preferences page to be sure that “Record Options” is set to show them:

A number that is “Permanently unassigned” is an optional number. The number and the heading are in parentheses. For example:

Currently, there are six optional numbers labeled “Permanently unassigned.” All those optional numbers are intended to meet local needs for organizing works on religion, or iconography of religion. All six numbers will remain permanently unassigned. The promise is that no standard DDC development will ever use those numbers, because that would inconvenience libraries using them as optional numbers.

Suggestions for use of “Permanently unassigned” numbers have changed over time. The note at 298 in DDC 17 (1965) said simply: “If it is desired to give local emphasis and a shorter number to a specific religion, class it here.” DDC 22 (2003) listed options A-E in the record for 290 Other religions:

(Options: To give preferred treatment or shorter numbers to a specific religion, use one of the following:

(Option A: Class the sources of the religion in 220, other specific aspects of the religion in 230-280, comprehensive works on the religion in 230; in that case class the Bible and Christianity in 298

(Option B: Class in 210, and add to base number 21 the numbers following the base number for the religion in 292-299, e.g., Hinduism 210, Mahabharata 219.23; in that case class philosophy and theory of religion in 200, its subdivisions 211-218 in 201-208, specific aspects of comparative religion in 200.1-200.9, standard subdivisions of religion in 200.01-200.09

(Option C: Class in 291, and add to base number 291 the numbers following the base number for that religion in 292-299, e.g., Hinduism 291, Mahabharata 291.923

(Option D: Class in 298, which is permanently unassigned

(Option E: Place first by use of a letter or other symbol, e.g., Hinduism 2H0 (preceding 220), or 29H (preceding 291 or 292); add to the base number thus derived, e.g., to 2H or to 29H, the numbers following the base number for the religion in 292-299, e.g., Shivaism 2H5.13 or 29H.513)

In DDC 22 the note at 298 read:

(Optional number used to provide local emphasis and a shorter number for a specific religion other than Christianity; prefer the number for the specific religion elsewhere in 292-299; or optional number used for Christianity if option A under 290 is chosen. Other options are described at 290)

Some librarians found the number of suggested options in 200 Religion confusing. After doing a survey in 2005 to see which of the options were being used the most, and with the support of the Editorial Policy Committee, the Dewey team reduced the number of suggestions for optional treatment, dropping option D. That does not mean, however, that libraries using 298 as recommended in option D in Edition 22 need to stop doing so. The suggestions are just suggestions; use of these optional numbers is up to the local library.

WebDewey Install Scheduled for September 23, 2018

A WebDewey install is scheduled for Sunday, September 23, 2018. Please see the attached file for details.

Download WebDewey Sept 23 Install Release Notes

WebDewey downtime

We will be doing some testing in WebDewey next week and as a result, we anticipate a small window of downtime. The test is scheduled for Tuesday, September 11, at 8:00am ET and the service will be unavailable for approximately 30 minutes.

The WebDewey install scheduled for September 9, 2018 has been postponed

Please watch this space for updates.

 

WebDewey Install Scheduled for September 9, 2018

A WebDewey install is planned for Sunday, September 9, 2018. Please see the attached file for details.

Download WebDewey Sept 9 Install Release Notes

Dewey by the Numbers

Here’s a brief snapshot of the DDC 23 EN database (the database associated with the English-language version of DDC 23) as of 1 September 2018:

Dewey at IFLA 2018

The International Dewey Users Meeting will take place at this year’s IFLA World Library and Information Congress on Tuesday, 28 August, from 8.30-10.30 in Lounge 1 at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Center.

Please join Elise Conradi, EDUG Chair, and Harriet Aagaard, EDUG Secretary, to hear an overview of the 2018 European DDC Users Group meeting. Peter Werling from Pansoft GmbH will provide the latest technical updates for WebDewey. You will also hear from Dewey Editors Alex Kyrios and Violet Fox, and from Caroline Saccucci, Head of the CIP and Dewey Section at the Library of Congress. Light refreshments will be served. Please click here to register.

Register for eCourse: Using WebDewey and Understanding Dewey Decimal Classification

ALA Publishing and OCLC are pleased to announce the return of the popular eCourse, Using WebDewey and Understanding Dewey Decimal Classification. Violet Fox, Dewey Editor, will serve as the instructor for this 4-week facilitated eCourse starting on Monday, 10 September 2018.

With the expert instruction of Violet Fox, you will gain a comprehensive grounding in Dewey Decimal Classification® (DDC) principles and practices. Starting with the basics, this eCourse will teach you how to:

• Navigate within WebDewey to determine appropriate DDC numbers
• Build numbers using the WebDewey number building tool
• Apply numbers that help patrons browse your library

Plus, experienced users will benefit from guidance building more complex numbers and learn how to make more effective use of WebDewey.

To learn more and register for this eCourse, please visit the ALAstore.

Register for this eCourse

Vegan Cooking and Vegetarianism

Recently we added a new number for vegan cooking as a subdivision of vegetarian cooking in the context of 641.563 Cooking for health, appearance, personal reasons:

641.5636 Vegetarian cooking

641.56362    Vegan cooking

This development parallels the provision for vegan diet as a subdivision of vegetarian diet in the context of personal health (613 Personal health and safety) under 613.2 Dietetics:

613.262 Vegetarian diet

613.2622     Vegan diet

We also clarified the provisions for vegetarianism. At 613.262 Vegetarian diet we provided a definition note: “Plant-based diet that excludes meat from land animals but may include milk products, eggs, seafood.” In the class-here note we named “lacto-ovo vegetarian diet, pescatarian diet” to make clear that those versions of the vegetarian diet approximate the whole of 613.262. We also identified 613.262 as the interdisciplinary number for vegetarianism and provided notes pointing to other numbers where aspects of vegetarianism can be classed. Here is the Notes box for 613.262 Vegetarian diet:

Similar notes (adjusted for the different context) are given in the Notes box for 641.5636 Vegetarian cooking:

Here are examples of works that can be classed in the numbers for vegetarian and vegan diet, for vegetarian and vegan cooking.

613.262 Vegetarian diet:

The smart girl's guide to going vegetarian: How to look great, feel fabulous and be a better you

Vegetarian sourcebook: Basic consumer health information about vegetarian diets, lifestyle, and philosophy

613.2622 Vegan diet:

So, why become vegan?

Never too late to go vegan: The over-50 guide to adopting and thriving on a plant-based diet

641.5636 Vegetarian cooking:

Vegetarian cooking at home with the Culinary Institute of America

Almost vegetarian: Delicious recipes for plant-based meals

641.56362 Vegan cooking:

Roberto's new vegan cooking: 125 easy, delicious, and real food recipes

The oh she glows cookbook: Over 100 vegan recipes to glow from the inside out

FAQs of a New Dewey Editor

Since I started as Dewey Editor, it's been fascinating to hear people’s responses when I tell them about the position, both from people within the library world and outside of it. I'd like to share some of the most frequently asked questions that I've received.

[incredulously] People still use Dewey?!

YES!! It's the world’s most widely implemented library classification, used in over 130 countries around the world. Here in the United States, it's used by most public and school libraries. Elsewhere, such as in Europe, it’s also used in national bibliographies and academic libraries.

What exactly do you do all day?

One of the biggest parts of my job is researching publishing trends to ensure that the numbers in Dewey are up-to-date and that people who are classifying materials have clear directions for how to apply the DDC for resources in new or changing subjects. That also includes revising the current schedules; for example, right now I'm working on a proposal to update the language used in the schedules for LGBT issues. It's a collaborative effort; the editors all give each other feedback on finding the best approach for various challenges. Other editorial tasks include answering questions from library workers around the world about using the DDC and staying current on changes in other classification systems.

You're located at the Library of Congress? Don't they have their own classification?

They do. But there's a team of classifiers here at the Library of Congress who assigns Dewey numbers to new materials. (If you speak MARC, that team supplies the numbers in the 082 field.) The Dewey classifiers assign over 60,000 class numbers each year; that provides libraries that use Dewey with authoritative class numbers for the new resources they receive. The editorial team relies on the classifiers to let us know when there are areas of the DDC that aren't as robust as they need to be.

How many people are on the editorial team?

There's just four of us: two full-time editors, and two part-time senior editors.

So, what, y'all are *in charge* of Dewey?

Not really. The editorial team and the classifiers are just some of the people who make Dewey magic happen. Once editors research potential changes to the schedules, they bring those proposals to the Editorial Policy Committee, a 10-member group of people representing libraries from around the world. The EPC gives feedback and votes on whether to implement the changes that the editors propose. The DDC is owned by OCLC, so we work closely with teammates in Dublin to explore new ways of using Dewey data to provide access to users. The editors also collaborate with software company PANSOFT, the current developers of WebDewey, to make updates that make WebDewey easier and more effective to use.

LCC rules, DDC drools.

That’s not a question.

What's your favorite Dewey number?

They’re all beautiful in their own way.

What's the future look like for Dewey?

So bright we've got to wear shades. Right now we're working to make improvements to the system which feeds data into WebDewey so schedule changes are made more smoothly and new updates can be rolled out. We're excited about OCLC projects which will harness the subject access provided by Dewey classification into enabling new modes of discovery. And we're looking forward to making community feedback a more integral part of the way that the DDC is maintained and updated to ensure a truly global perspective. Stay tuned!

Welcome to our newest editor

We're pleased to welcome Violet Fox to the editorial team! Violet joined us on June 18 and is based out of the editorial offices at the Library of Congress. She previously worked in cataloging and metadata at the University of Illinois at Chicago and at St. John’s University in Collegeville, Minnesota. She received her MLIS from the University of Washington in 2013 and has an undergraduate degree in history.

Her professional interests include exploring the ethical implications of classification and empowering library workers to be an active part of making subject access more responsive to user needs. Violet previously worked in the Dewey office as a summer intern in 2012 and 2013, mapping the most frequently used LCSH to DDC for access in WebDewey. In her spare time, Violet sends snail mail, visits offbeat museums, organizes zine events, and writes about roadside attractions in her own zine.

Happy retirement, Rebecca!

Rebecca Green retired as Dewey editorial program manager June 30—but not quite; she is still working on a proposal or two for Editorial Policy Committee Meeting 141 (scheduled for October).

Rebecca joined the Dewey editorial team in 2007 and became editorial program manager in 2016. Prior to joining OCLC, Rebecca was an associate professor in the College of Information Studies at the University of Maryland, where she had been a member of the faculty since 1989.

In the Dewey schedules, Rebecca focused on the 000s, 200s, 320s, 400s / Table 4, and 700s, where her efforts led to new or enhanced developments in many areas, including 3D printing, big data, biometric identification, computational linguistics, computer security, digital media, handheld computing devices, natural computing, noSQL databases; information storage and retrieval (ISAR) systems (including the Web as an ISAR system), institutional repositories; concepts of God, local church, voodoo, Latter Day Saint movement, Orthodox church; political ideologies; prescriptive linguistics vs. applied linguistics; schools, theories, and methodologies of linguistics; regularization of language variations; 20th and 21st century art styles; concertos, keyboard vs. accompaniment. Rebecca was also involved in long-term efforts to implement a major revision for angiosperms and to determine how best to represent indigenous nations.

Rebecca enjoyed working with Dewey as data. She has worked to expose additional history-of-numbers information in the WebDewey History box, to enhance Dewey data with “hidden” fields that enable WebDewey’s number building engine to function properly, to present historical period notation for localities in the 900 schedule in a way that will work with the number building engine (to be available soon), and to develop machine-assisted identification of equivalence and hierarchical relationships between Relative Index terms.

She has presented scholarly papers at SIG-CR workshops, ISKO conferences, NASKO symposia, and UDC seminars on such subjects as the topical basis of see and see-also relationships in Dewey, Dewey classes as topic neighborhoods, facet detection based on WorldCat data, and the treatment of indigenous nations.

She has used her teaching skills in training interns and new editors, in preparing teaching modules, and in presenting workshops in the United States, Canada, and Sweden.

Often when teaching or preparing posts for the Dewey blog, Rebecca’s playful side appeared, as with the Dewey palindrome challenge (here and here).

We wish Rebecca well in pursuing her personal interests:

005.743

220

289.332

401.43

782.5145

786.5

Good luck, Rebecca, in this new phase of your life!

Presentation slides from ALA

We had a very successful Dewey Update Breakfast at this year's ALA Annual! Thanks to those of you who were able to attend. By request, we've made the slides from the presentation available for download. And stay tuned for more information about upcoming WebDewey enhancements.    

Dewey by the Numbers

Here’s a brief snapshot of the DDC 23 EN database (the database associated with the English-language version of DDC 23) as of 1 June 2018:

2018 European DDC Users Group Meeting

The European DDC Users Group (EDUG) held its 12th annual meeting April 26-27, 2018, at the Swiss National Library, Bern, Switzerland—the same venue as its first meeting in 2007 (presentations from that meeting are available here).

The presentations described below are available here.

The symposium on the first day began with welcomes from Madame Doffey (Swiss National Library) and Harriet Aagaard (National Library of Sweden and EDUG chair).

• Mapping for end users / Unni Knutsen and Karoline Hoff, University of Oslo Library. Progress report on a project to improve topical search results for students; the project involves search log analysis, mapping DDC to controlled subject headings to facilitate searching across multiple vocabularies in English and Norwegian with DDC as the hub, relevance ranking based on relationship types.

• Automatic classification at the DNB / Frank Busse, DNB. Progress report on automatic classification based on machine learning to assign DDC Subject Categories (for the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie) and DDC Short Numbers (adapted from Abridged Edition 15).

Following this presentation there was general discussion of the problems of automatic classification, including how to reduce and otherwise cope with high error rates.

• DDC at the Swiss National Library / Vera Uhlmann, Swiss National Library. Overview of the history and use of the DDC at the Swiss National Library: a classified catalog based on DDC 5th edition (1894), a shift in 1920s to UDC, DDC reintroduced in 1999/2000 primarily to organize the open access shelves and the national bibliography, founding of and participation in EDUG.

• Community involvement in Dewey development: Possible models for collaboration / Alex Kyrios, OCLC. Benefits and drawbacks of models under consideration: traditional model with editorial team taking the initiative and reaching out for advice, task forces of existing committees (e.g., American Library Association’s Subject Analysis Committee or EDUG), external librarian/expert pairs, passive reception of suggestions, crowdsourcing.

• What’s new in Dewey applications? / Tina Mengel, DNB, and Peter Werling, Pansoft. New features in German WebDewey (not now available in all versions of WebDewey), including improved display of DDC hierarchies and preview of subordinate classes, PDF view and printout of limited number of classes, drag-and-drop icon and marking of text in box headline, user name and date of change in institutional and personal built numbers / comments; how DNB's DDC Short Numbers are handled in the translation software and in German WebDewey.

• Making Dewey Data Actionable / Stephan Schindehette, OCLC (not present). Presented by Alex Kyrios, OCLC. Report on OCLC ontology project investigating use of DDC as linked data for faceted search, hierarchical search, cross-language search, cross-classification search, and collection analysis.

The morning of the second day there were group discussions of the role of Dewey Decimal Classification Editorial Policy Committee (EPC) and community involvement in Dewey development; linked data, including linked open data, licensing, and copyright issues; and classifying maps. Elise Conradi, National Library of Norway, represents EDUG on EPC. In the afternoon there was a business meeting.

Next year’s EDUG meeting and symposium will be hosted by the National Library of Sweden and held in Stockholm, tentatively in April.