025.431: The Dewey blog

Revisions to witchcraft and Wicca

Editorial Policy Committee meeting 142B wrapped up at the end of July, with six proposals considered and approved. One of those proposals was on the topic of witchcraft, a frequently critiqued topic in the DDC, so I wanted to take this opportunity to elaborate on the changes approved, now available in WebDewey.

There are three primary areas where books about modern Western witchcraft are classed:

• 133.43 Magic and witchcraft and 133.44 Spells, curses, charms
• 203.3 Witchcraft
• 299.94 Religions based on modern revivals of witchcraft [caption prior to revision]

The most prominent complaint about the treatment of witchcraft was that most works were ending up in the 133.4 hierarchy, a class focused on occultism. This was especially a problem with works about spells and charms—since the 130s were the only area that had an explicit place for spells, nearly all works about spells were being classed there, even if they had titles naming a religious practice, such as The only book of Wiccan spells you'll ever need. The Manual note 130 vs. 200 directed catalogers to use the 200s for religious works, but then went on to tell catalogers to prefer the 130s if they weren't sure if a work was religious or not; since there is still a significant cultural stigma surrounding witchcraft in many areas, this meant catalogers were not recognizing when these works should be classed in the 200s. How could we revise the DDC to direct attention to the fact that a significant number of these works are religious/spiritually based, and thus should be classed in the 200s?

The proposal text has more information about the multiple approaches I considered, in consultation with people who practice various forms of witchcraft and Paganism (you can view the full 8-page proposal). The final proposal which was approved has a mix of new numbers, new notes, and new manual instructions to help classifiers find the best place for these works.

New numbers include 203.32 Spells, curses, charms for works that are not based in a specific cultural tradition of witchcraft, and 299.942 Wicca. With the add instructions given at 299.942, numbers can now be built for works about Wicca spells (299.942332) and, for example, therapeutic Wicca spells (299.9423326). (This new spells number can also be used with other religions with "Add as instructed under 290" notation, such as Santería.)

A new note at 203.3 Witchcraft helps clarify what should not be classed in that number. This note, what we call a scatter class-elsewhere, now reads "Class specific cultural traditions of witchcraft with the tradition, e.g., witchcraft as practiced in African religions in 299.6133, religions based on modern revivals of witchcraft in the Western world in 299.94". So what should be classed at 203.3? A new class-here note reads "Class here interdisciplinary works on witchcraft". Here's an example: Magic, witchcraft, and religion : an anthropological study of the supernatural, a work that features comparative studies of multiple societies' witchcraft traditions—a perfect candidate for classification at 203.3.

Finally, what I consider the most significant change: instead of a manual note that directs catalogers to place works in the 130s if in doubt, the manual note, now renamed 200 vs. 130, directs catalogers who are not sure if a work is religious/spiritual to prefer a number in the 200s. This helps ensure that even when catalogers are not as familiar with witchcraft as they are more widely practiced religions, they should take time to discern where a specific work should be classed and not default to the 130s. My hope is these changes, taken together, result in more appropriate placement of works about witchcraft, and more of those works being classed in the 200s.

Thank you to everyone who gave feedback on this proposal, including Jane Cothron (Lincoln County Library District), Helen Imre (Franklin Township Public Library), and Rebecca DeLio (Denver Public Library), as well as others, including both witchcraft practitioners and library workers. Their feedback was incredibly helpful in making these revisions happen.

Results of EPC meeting 142B

The Editorial Policy Committee meets in person once a year to review proposals to revise the DDC, but there are also periodic online meetings. The most recent online meeting, EPC 142B, took place from July 6-31, 2020. EPC reviewed six exhibits; you can find the full text of those proposals at oc.lc/deweyexhibits. The results of EPC 142B:

• EPC 142B-S00.1 Conspiracy theories: approved
• EPC 142B-S20.1 Witchcraft: approved with two changes:
  • Added a new class-elsewhere note at 299.675 for hoodoo not presented as religious practice, replacing existing see-also note
  • Added Relative Index term "Hoodoo—religious practice" to 299.675
• EPC 142B-S28.1 Pentecostalism: approved with one change:
  • Changed caption of 269.4 to "Pentecostalism and charismatic movement"
• EPC 142B-S35.1 Space forces: approved
• EPC 142B-S64.1 Fermented foods and drinks: approved with three changes:
  • Changed caption at 641.46 to "Pickling, smoking, other forms of chemical preservation"
  • Added a new class-here note at 641.46 for comprehensive works on chemical preservation
  • Instead of just one base number for side dishes made with a specific food derived from plant crops and domesticated animals (641.811), created separate base numbers for side dishes from plant crops and domesticated animals (641.8113-641.8117) and from game, seafood, miscellaneous foods (641.8119)
• EPC 142B-S79.1 BASE jumping: approved

We're working on implementing these revisions to WebDewey; look for them to be published in the next few weeks. Please let us know if you have any questions about these changes or about the revision process itself.

Victims of crimes and victims of war

Guest post by Julianne Beall

We have recently expanded the social welfare provisions for crime victims, providing numbers for victims of specific crimes under 362.88 Victims of crimes. Here are examples of works previously classed in 362.88 that can now be classed in more specific numbers.

• Homicide: The hidden victims: A guide for professionals 362.882 Homicide
• Given Kachepa: Advocate for human trafficking victims 362.8851 Human trafficking (plus T1—092 for biography)
• Stalking: A handbook for victims  362.888 Stalking (plus T1—09 plus T2—73 for United States)
• Assisting victims of terrorism: Towards a European standard of justice 362.889317 Terrorism
• Identity theft victims' assistance guide: The process of healing 362.8896393 Identity theft (plus T1—09 plus T2—73 for United States)

We have relocated social welfare for victims of war from 362.88 to 363.3498 War (previously, there was dual provision, with the same topic being classed in both places). Victims of war crimes, however, are now classed in an extension of 362.88: 362.88938 War crimes.

We have also separated the Table 1 provisions for victims of crimes and victims of war. Victims of crimes continue to be classed in T1—086949 Victims of crimes, but victims of war are now classed in a new number, T1—086948 Victims of war.

Flash exhibit: traveling and Travellers

The COVID-19 pandemic has given the world a different perspective on traveling, and here in the U.S., many are still staying close to home to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. I've been thinking a lot about the joys of travel lately, which spurred the development of this flash exhibit discussing travel and Travellers.

Even those who are traveling freely within their countries or outside of them have a new perspective on health while traveling these days. In Dewey the relevant number is 613.68 Travel health. To add more access to direct classifiers to this number, I've added a new RI term for Tourism—health and mapped the LCSH Travel—health aspects.

Even if we can't travel in real life, we can enjoy artwork dedicated to travel. Books focusing on the artistic aspects of travel posters are favorites of mine, so I've mapped the LCSH Travel posters to 741.674 Commercial posters. I've also added a new built number 741.6740993 Posters—arts—New Zealand, to demonstrate the pattern in that area.

One of my favorite New Zealand travel posters from the television show "Flight of the Conchords" (shared with my sincere admiration for such a successful campaign against COVID-19!)

Speaking of travels, I found an opportunity to update the provisions we have in Dewey for the ethnic groups of Travelling People in Great Britain. LCSH has four different headings, which correspond to the recognition of these groups by UK and Ireland law:

• Irish Travellers (Nomadic people)
• Scottish Travellers (Nomadic people)
• English Travellers (Nomadic people)
• Welsh Travellers (Nomadic people)

To clarify how the LC subject headings relate to Dewey's Table 5 numbers for groups of people, I've added additional mappings.

• At T5—916 Celts, I've mapped the LC heading Irish Travellers (Nomadic people)
• At T5—91497 Romany people, I've mapped the LC headings English Travellers (Nomadic people) and Welsh Travellers (Nomadic people)
• The Scotland community has two groups of Travellers, one of Gaelic origin and the other of Romani origin. So I've mapped the LC heading Scottish Travellers (Nomadic people) to both numbers, T5—916 and T5—91497.

Of course these identities cannot be cleaved as cleanly as this mapping makes it seem, and different identities have merged and split throughout the centuries (read more about the complex history and culture of Gypsy, Roma, and Irish Traveller Communities in Britain). But indexing these headings in WebDewey can give catalogers a good place to start in finding the best place to classify a work.

If you're unfamiliar with these ethnic groups and want to learn more, this five-minute video is charming and informative: "Roads from the Past: A Short History of Britain's Gypsies, Roma, and Travellers".

 Wishing safe travels to all, whether down the block or further afield.

Recording of Dewey virtual update

Last week's webinar was a tremendous success! We'd like to thank everyone who attended, including people from 20 different countries, representing five continents. While it's always nice to share Dewey news over breakfast at ALA Annual, there's much to be said for this broader reach. (Special thanks to those of you who joined at quite early or late hours by local time!)

A recording of the session here is available on YouTube (with captions!). If you're part of the WebDewey Community Center, you can view a recording and the presentation slides here (login required). As always, feel free to get in touch if you have further questions, and stay tuned for future sessions!

Art in the Stacks: Dewey-inspired artwork

Back in February 2020, I visited a library in the northwest suburbs of Minneapolis to see their Dewey-inspired art, and I'm finally taking a moment to share what I saw!

The Anoka County Library has nine branches, one of which was recently renovated and reopened in 2019. The new building of the Centennial branch is bright and airy, with a lot of open space and windows, which made finding a place for artwork a challenge. The library system's executive director, Maggie Snow, was inspired by library art she'd seen in Sweden to purchase artworks from local artists that would be placed on the shelves. Eight pieces were selected to display alongside the library's collection, loosely themed on the Dewey Decimal Classification.

Each of the artworks are accompanied on the shelf by brief artists statements. I'll share three of my favorites.

"Shaman Paddler" by artist Wayne Potratz features a cast metal and stone tribute to the beauty of Minnesota's Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. Its location is close to 977.675, the classification for the Boundary Waters.

 

"Garden of Words" by artist Karine Rupp-Stanko features paper blossoms spelling out the word "flower" in the seven most represented languages of Anoka County: Arabic, Dakota, English, Hmong, Russian, Spanish, and Somali. This artwork is located in the language section of the library's collection, the Dewey 400s.

 

Finally, artist Cecilia Schiller's work, "Running Wild," is placed in the technology section of Dewey, the 600s. The finger-operated machinery "expresses in microcosm the interconnectedness of the world." So cool!

Read more about the Anoka County Library art project in this 2019 news article: "Art in the stacks: More than books on the shelves". If your library has Dewey-inspired art, please let us know, we'd love to feature it here on the blog!

New proposals available for EPC meeting 142B

Six exhibits will be discussed at the Editorial Policy Committee online meeting 142B, taking place during July 2020. You can find the text of all six proposals to revise Dewey at oc.lc/deweyexhibits.

• EPC 142B-S00.1 Conspiracy theories
• EPC 142B-S20.1 Witchcraft
• EPC 142B-S28.1 Pentecostalism
• EPC 142B-S35.1 Space forces
• EPC 142B-S64.1 Fermented foods and drinks
• EPC 142B-S79.1 BASE jumping

We're happy for any feedback, whether positive or negative; feel free to provide comments on this blog post, in the Dewey Contributors Google Group, or via email to dewey@oclc.org or any EPC member. Please submit your feedback by Friday July 24, so EPC members can consider it before they begin the voting process on July 27.

Dewey Demystified video series

Guest post by Kate Brown, Adult Non-Fiction Librarian, Clinton-Macomb Public Library (Michigan)

In the months that the Clinton-Macomb Public Library has been closed due to COVID-19 we've offered programs through Zoom and on Facebook Live. We've had story times, trainings on databases and book discussions and recommendations. Our enlivened Facebook page seemed a good place for a program I've always wanted to do on the basics of the Dewey Decimal system. Many Library customers seem mystified by the arrangement of non-fiction titles. I suspected that a basic understanding of the Dewey decades would enhance their ability to browse the collection productively and enjoyably. With this in mind, our four-person Adult Non-Fiction team put together a five-day Facebook Live series called Dewey Demystified.

We each have responsibilities for different Dewey decades. We decided right away to present on our own decades, so we were able to work with areas of the collection that we knew well and to focus on the most popular sections within those areas. While the program was intended to highlight the types of materials found in each Dewey decade, it also ended up being something of a team-building experience, as we met frequently over Zoom to consult with each other and to practice our presentations.

We brought our own styles and ways of presenting the material to the project. We all created PowerPoint slides, but we didn't try to make all the slides look the same. In choosing the images of books we considered the timeliness, popularity and attractiveness of materials, as well as how representative they were of the Dewey decade. We made sure that there wasn't a day when only one person presented and tried to keep each of the daily program under twenty minutes. Whenever possible we made comments and asked questions during our co-workers' presentations. A friend of the Department Manager's came up with the idea of using the app My Talking Pet to make it appear that her dog, Sally, was contributing to the program. Sally gave an amusing introduction that touched on Melvil Dewey's issues with women. Later Sally wondered why her little cousin, a wolf, was not in the Dewey decade with dogs. She also recommended two books of dog-focused poetry that happened to be favorites of mine.

We've had positive feedback on our program and the videos remain available on the Clinton-Macomb Public Library's Facebook page (parts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5). We'd be happy to provide more details and to answer any questions if you'd like to offer a similar program.

394.2: The Dewey blog turns 15

“Blogging. I know, I know -- it's soooo, like, 2004.” With those words, and the wonderful post title “Blogalicious”, the Dewey blog came into being. The Dewey blog was started by Jonathan Furner, then an editor and now an EPC member and professor of library & information science at UCLA. He brought a wonderful color to the blog, writing as the “Vicar of Dewey Manor” (I’ve occasionally tried to bring back “Dewey Manor” as a name for the Dewey offices). In April 2006, he returned to UCLA, where he had worked previously.

Most older posts on the Dewey blog just list “Dewey” as an author. As you can see by peeking with the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine, the author used to be listed, appropriately, as Jonathan. As the blog was reconfigured to have multiple contributors, the cited author listed on those early posts changed accordingly. A few different authors along the way were attributed, including me, which… I won’t mention where I was in June 2005!

This is blog post number 1,008 on the Dewey blog. (Something to look forward to: 1,009 is scheduled for this Friday!) We’ve had about 10 regular authors and more guests, though an exact number is hard to pin down due to the aforementioned display quirk. We’ve had over 1.25 million page views (!) and 681 comments.

Over the years, you’ve probably noticed all sorts of content here, from lighthearted teasers and current events tie-ins to longer, more scholarly and technical posts. We like to mix things up, remaining accessible but also providing deeper dives when appropriate.

As we look to the next 15 years, what do you want to see from the Dewey blog?

OCLC Dewey Update Virtual Meeting

Please join us on 14 July 2020 from 2:00 pm – 3:00 pm EDT for our OCLC Dewey Update Virtual Meeting. This meeting replaces the OCLC Dewey Update Breakfast session that was originally scheduled to have been held at ALA Annual this year.

In this session, you will hear from:

• Violet Fox and Alex Kyrios, Dewey Editors, as they share the latest news, including new classification numbers, future plans, and how you can get involved in making changes to Dewey
• Eric Childress, Community Manager, as he showcases the WebDewey Community Center
• Michele Zwierski, Cataloging Services Manager, Nassau Library System and Editorial Policy Committee (EPC) Chair, as she discusses Dewey Decimal Classification in the context of a library system or consortium

There will be time to take questions you have at the end of the presentations, and we will answer as many as time allows.

Register now

UPDATE, July 22: The recording is now available! See today's post for full info.

Flash exhibit: Black Lives Matter

Post by Violet Fox and Alex Kyrios

Since the most recent death of an African-American man in police custody, protesters have gathered around the world to speak out in support of the Black Lives Matter movement. George Floyd is just the most recent name to be added to the list of Black lives destroyed by police brutality and racial discrimination. Here in the U.S., many librarians have been working to compile resource lists to shed light on the history and context behind the protests. We expect many works will be published about these protests, adding to existing literature about mass incarceration and racial discrimination in the criminal justice system, and the about the history of Black struggles for justice and peace. The books listed below are fundamental for understanding today’s protests; let’s explore where libraries are classing these works.

The new Jim Crow : mass incarceration in the age of colorblindness by Michelle Alexander describes how systemic racial discrimination lives on even after the civil rights movement reforms of the 1960s. The United States has the highest rate of incarceration in the world, and young African-American men have been imprisoned at a rate far higher than their percentage in the population. This book has been classed by LC at 364.973 Criminal justice—criminology—United States, but you can see from the OCLC Classify tool that about 25% of WorldCat records for this book have an alternate class number: 305.8960973, a built number representing the sociological aspects of African Americans.

Law enforcement in the age of Black Lives Matter : policing black and brown bodies, edited by Sandra E. Weissinger and Dwayne A. Mack, is a fascinating look into the policing of minority communities. Chapters include “The Psychological Impact of Policing on African American Students” and “Police Use of Force: Practices, Policies, and the Law,” as well as chapters reflecting on immigrants’ experiences with border police and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Libraries have classed this book at 364.3496073 African Americans—criminal offenders. Despite the questionable “criminal offenders” wording being used in WebDewey to describe people being policed, this classification does appropriately focus on the people who are being policed, not the police themselves.

Invisible no more : police violence against black women and women of color by Andrea J. Ritchie documents years of police violence towards Black women and girls and women of color. Ritchie describes how racial profiling and aggressive enforcement of minor offenses lead to repeated interactions with law enforcement and can ultimately end up with abuse by the police causing the deaths of marginalized women. Libraries have classed this work at 363.232 Patrol and surveillance, which is where many works about racial profiling have been classed. “Police brutality” is also indexed there. Do we need more specific numbers in this area?

When they call you a terrorist : a Black Lives Matter memoir by Patrisse Khan-Cullors and asha bandele is the story of Khan-Cullors, one of the cofounders of the Black Lives Matter movement. From a difficult and impoverished childhood, Khan-Cullors emerges with the awareness that only through building community and speaking truth to power can the Black and queer community she loves survive. Take a look at the classification chart for this book from Classify:

Some libraries have classed this work in 323.092 Civil rights leaders, while others have placed it with 305.8960973, and another third have classed it outside of the DDC, with biographies. (Some libraries prefer to collocate biographies rather than adding T1—092 to different numbers.) While most books in WorldCat have a relatively clear consensus about where they should be classed, this chart demonstrates dissension.

To help librarians classify similar works in the future, we’ve made a few updates to WebDewey this week. We’ve added new built numbers: one for the 2014 protests in Ferguson following the death of Michael Brown, 323.1196073077865090512, and one for the 2020 protests in Minneapolis, 323.1196073077657909052. As we’ve seen in this post, there are several areas you should consider when classifying such works, so while these two new numbers are appropriate for works on the protests themselves, works focusing on the role of police should probably use a different base number. Unfortunately, the experiences of Michael Brown and George Floyd are not unique. WebDewey shows the components of these numbers, so you can use different Table 2 notation and Table 1 time periods for similar protests, e.g., Baltimore protests after the death of Freddie Gray 323.119607307526090512.

We’ve also mapped the LCSH “Black lives matter movement” to 323.1196073 African Americans—civil rights. As always, we welcome your comments and feedback, on this topic or any Dewey topic, at dewey@oclc.org. If you haven’t already, please see the post from OCLC Next on this topic.

What isCaption?

If you’ve been monitoring WebDewey’s update notification feature in the past few months, you may have noticed some big sets of changes coming through that may look confusing. Here’s an example from just this week:

So what’s going on here? It looks like there’s a lot appearing and disappearing at the same time. (You may also notice they’re all built numbers, as marked by the puzzle-piece icon.) Much of this is a quirk about how the system processes additions and deletions. At 513.0284, for example, it looks like “Abacus” was removed… or was it? It’s struck out in red but still present later on in that line. If you expand that line you’ll see this:

That gives you a better sense of the change. There’s a new Relative Index term “Arithmetic—equipment,” and the existing term of “Abacus” is still there.

This is part of a project the editors are doing with the help of a volunteer that we call isCaption. It’s based on a code that we put into the MARC fields ($9 isCaption) for a Relative Index link when we want it to display as the default caption in WebDewey. This subfield doesn’t display in WebDewey, but here’s how it looks in our internal Editorial Support System (ESS):

Where nothing is marked isCaption, WebDewey defaults to using the first term alphabetically. Since that can give a misleading sense of what a number is for, we use isCaption to pick a term similar to what we’d use as the caption for that number if it were a non-built number. In the case of 513.0284, it’s a perfectly good number for a work on the abacus, but the meaning of the class is wider (i.e., about all arithmetic equipment). Sometimes in the isCaption project, including with 513.0284, we’re adding new Relative Index terms to serve as isCaption. In other cases, we can select an existing one.

So far, we’ve reviewed all of the 700s and 900s as part of this project, and now we’re into the 500s. In a print environment, we didn’t need to worry about this sort of thing when we indexed a built number. Since the wealth of built numbers is a great strength of WebDewey, we want to make sure they appear with good context.

New Dewey MARC discussion paper available for comment

By now, you’re probably used to citing Edition 23 in MARC records when cataloging with Dewey. Edition 23 was introduced in 2011, and what you see today in WebDewey is still considered Edition 23. Since the DDC is now maintained via continuous updates rather than discrete editions, we have no plans to have an Edition 24. That means just citing a number as being from Edition 23 becomes less and less useful over time, since numbers can change within an edition (that was true in the past too, but is more acute now).

To address this, the editorial team has put forth a discussion paper to the MARC Advisory Committee (MAC) outlining the problem. We’ve suggested a way forward that largely preserves current practice if you’re using a print version (whether print on demand or older print editions) and uses dates in a new subfield if you’re using an electronic version (like WebDewey).

The full paper is available on the Library of Congress’s MARC Standards site. There are some discussion questions at the end—we’d love your feedback on these or any other aspect of the paper. Note that since this is a discussion paper rather than a formal proposal, MAC will not be deciding whether or not to implement the outlined changes right away, but rather how to proceed. This is a great chance for you to be involved in that discussion.

What would this change mean for your workflow? Are there other approaches we should consider? You’re welcome to leave comments here or send them to dewey@oclc.org. Please have feedback in by Monday, June 22 in time for MAC to consider.

Why are the disciplines within the 600s so disparate? An explainer

One question that people sometimes ask about Dewey is about why the 600s are a hodgepodge of seemingly unrelated topics. The caption of the 600 hierarchy is Technology, which makes it hard to understand how such disparate topics as medicine, engineering, cooking, child rearing, management, and construction would fit under one main class.

For the first 14 editions of the DDC, the caption for the 600s was Useful arts (as opposed to the 700s, labeled Fine arts). The categories of 600s in the first edition of the DDC are not too far removed from what exists currently in WebDewey; the divisions of the 600 hierarchy in 1876 were:

610 Medicine
620 Engineering
630 Agriculture
640 Domestic economy
650 Communication and commerce
660 Chemical technology
670 Manufactures
680 Mechanic trades
690 Building

As discussed in Philosophy of Technology and Engineering Sciences (page 47), the broad idea of "technology" was not a conceptual category when Melvil Dewey wrote the first edition of the DDC. Similarly, in a 1901 draft of the Library of Congress Classification, these topics were grouped together as "Useful Arts, Agriculture, Manufactures" in what would eventually become the "Technology" category.

In the contentious 15^th edition (1951), the caption of the 600s was changed to Applied science, while in the next edition (1958), the caption was revised again, to Technology. Some interim editions have listed the caption as "Technology (Applied sciences)," but the caption has remained Technology through the current edition.

To focus on just one part of the 600s, Melvil Dewey and his wife Annie were closely involved in the development of the discipline of home economics. (Melvil was very interested in economy and efficiency, founding the very first library instruction program in 1887 at Columbia under the name School of Library Economy.) At the Lake Placid Conferences on Home Economics, held annually from 1899 to 1908 at the Deweys’ resort, attendees worked to define the concepts involved in the new discipline and founded the American Home Economics Association. They proposed different names to represent the different aspects of the field (including "euthenics" and "ecology") and worked to combat the marginalized position of home economics compared to other disciplines (primarily because it was seen as inconsequential and women's work). The attendees of the Lake Placid conferences even proposed a new additional provision for home economics in the DDC within the 300s, because sociology and economics were seen as having more prestige than home economics. You can read more about this fascinating history in the 2004 article "Classification and the Definition of a Discipline: The Dewey Decimal Classification and Home Economics" by Anne M. Fields and Tschera Harkness Connell.

Understanding this history gives us greater understanding of just how malleable our conceptions of categories and disciplines can be, even though they can feel locked in place by systems like the DDC. Does knowing that the captions were once "Useful arts" and "Applied sciences" help make the disciplines located within the 600s make more sense? Would changing the caption of the 600s to Applied sciences (or something else) make it easier for users to find works? Let us know what you think!

This is the latest post within my series discussing frequently asked questions about Dewey. Previous posts have included: 

• How do the editors decide which concepts get a Dewey number? An explainer
• Why are the 200s so heavily focused on Christianity? An explainer
• What's the distinction between myth and religion in Dewey? An explainer

EPC 142B exhibits available for review

Three new proposals to revise Dewey are now available for public review at oc.lc/deweyexhibits. These exhibits will be part of EPC meeting 142B, and the Editorial Policy Committee will review and vote on them in July. The proposals now available are: 

• EPC 142B-S20.1 Witchcraft
• EPC 142B-S28.1 Pentecostalism
• EPC 142B-S79.1 BASE jumping

The editorial team has a few more exhibits in the works for this meeting, which we'll post to oc.lc/deweyexhibits when they're ready for review.

We're happy for any feedback, whether positive or negative; feel free to provide comments on this post, in the Dewey Contributors Google Group, or by email to dewey@oclc.org or an EPC member.

Flash exhibit: Cybercrime

This week, Wired magazine published a fascinating article about Marcus Hutchins, a British hacker who at age 22 foiled the global WannaCry ransomware attack of 2017. Attributed to North Korea, the attack infected out-of-date Windows computers around the world with “ransomware,” a form of malware that locks users out of their data unless they pay a ransom (typically in cryptocurrency) to the hackers. Working from his basement in rural England, Hutchins found a “kill switch” in the malware that rendered it harmless.

Nevertheless, Hutchins was arrested in the United States later the same year, in connection with separate malware he had created in his youth. He had initially worked with malware that infected networks of computers to be used in a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack, which effectively shuts down a website by flooding it with spurious traffic.

In the DDC, computer security threats such as DDoS attacks are classed at 005.87, for computer security threats. See references there draws off malware to 005.88, and computer crimes to 364.168. While comprehensive works on malware are classed at 005.88, one focused on a specific threat such as DDoS attacks stays at 005.87. With today’s flash exhibit, we added new indexing there for distributed denial-of-service attacks, supplementing existing indexing on the broader concept of (non-distributed) denial-of-service attacks.

Moving over to the criminology schedules, we find computer crimes at 364.168 Business, financial, professional offenses, which has computer crime and while collar crime in a class-here note. We added a new index term “Cybercrime”, which previously had no keyword access in WebDewey. We also added a built number, 364.168092, for biography of white collar and computer criminals.

Works on hackers and hacking can ultimately go in either computer science or criminology. Unless you’re working with a very narrow definition, hackers aren’t necessarily criminals to begin with. But what if the choice of number is less obvious? Do a browse search for “Hacking” in the Relative Index:

The base heading shows where the interdisciplinary number is—in this case, computer science. Prefer that number if you don’t have a work of criminology. Everyone is innocent until proven guilty in the DDC!

Flash exhibit: Crafting

Our most recent flash exhibit is about crafting! Lots of folks have turned to arts and crafts while sheltering in place. While patrons may not be able to access physical resources to help them learn or expand their knowledge while many libraries are closed, some libraries have virtual craft circles or provide access to online craft tutorials. This resurgence is a perfect opportunity to provide additional access in WebDewey for a few specific arts and crafts.

While some libraries put all their knitting books in 746.432 Knitting, the asterisk at that number provides the opportunity to add as instructed under 746 to provide more subdivisions for different aspects of knitting. Since I've been knitting a lot of hats in the past few months, I've created a new built number for 746.4320432 Costume--Knitting—arts, which can be used for hats, scarves, sweaters, gloves, socks, or any other article of clothing.

Some of the hats Violet has knitted during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Last year there was a great article in The Washington Post about libraries screening episodes of Bob Ross's "The Joy of Painting" while hosting paint-along events. If you're brushing up your own painting skills, you might be interested in works about painting nature. I've created new built numbers in WebDewey for 751.4543 Oil painting—nature and 751.42243 Watercolor painting—nature.

Kirigami is the Japanese technique of folding and cutting paper into objects or designs. Some libraries have put works about kirigami in handicrafts under 745.54 Papers, but the note there to "Class paper cutting and folding in 736.98" makes it clear that kirigami should go in that hierarchy. I've added a Relative Index term for Kirigami at 736.982 Origami to provide better access.

Finally, many people have taken the initiative to make homemade masks to help stop the spread of COVID-19. I couldn't find many books about sewing your own medical masks, but I bet we'll see at least a few being published in the coming months. One potential number for those works would be 646.5 Construction of headwear. You might see the RI term Masks—home construction at 646.478 Costumes and think that's the right place, but take a look at the other terms at that number: 646.478 is for costumes used for parties and theater, not for everyday wear (close attention is needed to spot the difference between "costumes" and "costume"!). Go a step up in the hierarchy to 646.47 Construction of garments for special purposes, and you'll see a note that says, "Class accessories for special purposes in 646.48". Following that note to 646.48 Accessories construction gives us a note that says "Class headwear in 646.5", which seems like the best place for works about sewing medical masks.

Pneumonia and COVID-19

Guest post by Julianne Beall

In the March 2 blog post COVID-19 (Coronavirus disease 2019), we said that we were not sure where to tell you to class works on COVID-19. Now we have updated WebDewey with three new subdivisions of 616.241 Pneumonia:

• 616.2412 Bacterial pneumonia
• 616.2414 Viral pneumonia
• 616.2416 Fungal pneumonia

We have indexed "COVID-19 (Disease)—medicine" to 616.2414 Viral pneumonia.

What about the non-respiratory complications of COVID-19? These two notes under 616.1-616.9 Specific diseases are relevant:

Class a work treating all the complications of a disease with the disease, e.g., all the complications of diabetes mellitus 616.462

Class a work that focuses on one specific complication with the complication, e.g., peripheral nerve disorders associated with diabetes mellitus 616.856

Thus, a work about all the complications of COVID-19 would be classed with COVID-19 in 616.2414 Viral pneumonia, but a work that focused only on renal failure as a complication of COVID-19 would be classed in 616.614 Renal failure.

The number 616.2414 Viral pneumonia can be added at various places in the 610s and elsewhere. For example, the interdisciplinary number and social services number for viral pneumonia in humans (including COVID-19) is 362.1962414. The number for incidence of and public measures to prevent viral pneumonia in humans (including COVID-19) is 614.592414.

Flash exhibit: Happy May Day!

Our newest flash exhibit is about International Workers' Day or Labour Day, which takes place in most nations on May 1st. The history behind this day is fascinating and an opportunity to make Dewey ever so slightly more internationally oriented.

Last week I noticed that Labor Day was listed as a Relative Index term at 394.264 Holidays of September, October, November. That’s true for the United States, Canada, and some Australian states, but not generally true from an international perspective—most nations celebrate their Labour Day on May 1st. That stems from a commemoration of a movement that started in May 1, 1886. On that day activists called working people to arms: "One pound of DYNAMITE is better than a bushel of BALLOTS!" Hundreds of thousands of workers across the U.S. walked off their jobs. In Chicago, labor demonstrations were peaceful until a bomb was detonated on May 4th in Haymarket Square, killing at least eleven people. In 1889, an international coalition of trade unions and socialist groups designated May 1 as a day to celebrate the working class and remember those who were executed for the bombing.

To reflect the dates which different countries celebrate Labor/Labour Day, I've replaced the RI term Labor Day with Labor Day (United States) and Labour Day (Canada), both still classed with September holidays at 394.264. In contrast, May Day already has its own class number, 394.2627, which can be used for either the Northern Hemisphere’s springtime festivals or labor holidays. I've given a few new built numbers in that area to countries that have particularly large observances: 394.26270954 Labour Day (India) and 394.26270947 Labour Day (Russia).

I’ve also added a new built number for the LCSH Haymarket Square Riot, Chicago, Ill., 1886. While we might expect to see works about the Haymarket affair at a number about labor movements, the bombing was quickly associated with anarchists. The police decided that an anarchist had thrown the bomb and set about working to prove it; eight anarchists were convicted of conspiracy, and four of them were hanged. While many libraries have classed works on this topic with 335.83 Anarchism, in the economic systems hierarchy, they seem better suited for 320.57 Anarchism, along with other works about political ideology. The new built number for the Haymarket affair is 320.570977311 Anarchism--political ideology--Chicago (Ill.).

What other areas of the DDC don't reflect an international perspective? We’d like to hear about them and work with you to address them! Get in touch at dewey@oclc.org.

Violet's photo of the Chicago Haymarket sculpture by Mary Brogger

Recording of webinar on creating Dewey proposals

During our most recent webinar on April 14th, Alex and I gave participants a more in-depth look at the process for creating proposals to revise Dewey. We were also joined by our charming guest, Mary Kiely (Cataloguing/Acquisitions Librarian at Dublin City University) who shared her experience in working with the editors to create a proposal for new numbers for Gaelic games. 

If you weren't able to join us, you can now find the recording online as well as our slides (including speaker's notes). We love chatting with library workers around the world during these webinars, so if you have a topic you'd like us to cover, please get in touch at dewey@oclc.org.