025.431: The Dewey blog

Zoom and other internet meetings

What’s the best DDC number for a work about using Zoom, or other online meeting applications like Google Hangouts, Microsoft Teams, or WebEx? As with many topics, it can really depend based on the emphasis and the discipline of the book.

At 004.6 Interfacing and communications, you can find the mapped LCSH “Internet videoconferencing”. You’ll also find a see-Manual reference for 004.6 vs. 384.3 Computer communication services, which suggests 004.6 if in doubt.

You might think a work like Zoom for dummies doesn’t sound like computer science, but the DDC doesn’t limit computer science to the sort of advanced material you’d find in a university computer science department. “How-to” type works about using computer applications fit here just fine.

But take care if you have a work that isn’t really about using Zoom or similar programs. Consider a work like You’re on mute. With a chapter on dating and advice like not engaging in video calls while in the bathroom (!), it sounds more like etiquette. I’d recommend 395.5 Etiquette by situations for this work, which has online etiquette in an including note. Too bad this is in standing room and you can’t add T1—0207 Humorous treatment!

If you have a work about Zoom and similar technologies for instructional use, like Introduction to teaching with Zoom, check 371.358 Electronic distance education, which has teleconferencing in an including note.

Other numbers you might want to consider include 658.456, for business meetings, or even 060, the interdisciplinary number for meetings. Should you add T1—0285 Computer applications if able? Good question. Just because something’s happening with a computer doesn’t mean you should necessarily add it, given how much we do in our daily lives with computers now.

Above all, consider your work in hand. Computer science could be appropriate even if the work isn’t highly technical… but many other disciplines could be appropriate if they’re the focus of the work.

I’m hoping to discuss these issues further with the Editorial Policy Committee (EPC) at their next meeting—and we may have some improvements to our coverage of topics like Zoom meetings then too. In the meantime, I’d love to hear about what kind of literature you’re seeing in this area, and where you’re classing it.

Results of electronic meeting EPC 142C

During the month of October, the Dewey Editorial Policy Committee (EPC) reviewed seven exhibits. Six were approved, with one sent back for further work. This post will summarize changes from these exhibits; consult WebDewey, where all changes are live, for full details.

EPC 142C-S02.1 Library programs has introduced a new class, 025.57 Library programs on specific subjects. You can add up to three digits to this base number from 001-999 for specific subjects, such as 025.578 for creative writing programs, or 025.57929 for genealogy programs. Just keep in mind the class-elsewhere note at 025.5. Works on programs on specific subjects for specific groups will go with the group (e.g., 027.625 for children).

EPC 142C-S20.1 Religious conversion authorizes 204.24 Conversion in comparative religion, which was formerly in an including note at 204.2. For a while now, the DDC has had numbers for conversion in specific religions (e.g., 248.24 for Christianity), but not for the idea of religious conversion more broadly.

Look for a full blog post about EPC 142C-S41.1 Sign languages soon!

EPC 142C-S62.1 Arms and armor resolves some issues with 623.441 Small arms of pre-firearm origin ("Weaponry of prefirearm origin" before the changes). This expansion authorizes six new subclasses for specific types of weapons, e.g., 623.4416 Bows and arrows, and also develops for new numbers under 623.42 Specific pieces of artillery. Armor is still stuck in this "weapons" hierarchy, now at 623.4418 Armor, but hopefully the situation is more clear than before!

EPC 142C-T2.1 Counties of Kenya and EPC 142-T2.2 Regions of Denmark give more specific Table 2 notation for those two countries.

This leaves EPC 142C-S36.1 Vaping and vaping devices. This is an area that Dewey users have rated as a high priority for future development, but EPC had questions about this proposal, and we want to make sure we get it right. Expect to hear more about this in the future.

Special thanks go out to our community volunteers who worked on these proposals: Julianne Beall, Michael Cantlon, Bradley Carrington, Josh Hall, and Winton Matthews.

It’s all a conspiracy!

Are you seeing more literature about conspiracy theories? Scholars who study them have seen them proliferate in the internet’s decentralized media landscape. You may have encountered them yourself on social media.

In the DDC, works on conspiracy theories have long gone in the hierarchy of 001.9 Controversial knowledge, though subject to the scatter class-elsewhere note instructing you to class controversial knowledge concerning a specific subject with the subject.

One of our partners at the Library of Congress alerted us to growing literature about conspiracy theories, so we created an exhibit to propose a new number for them. EPC approved it in their July electronic meeting, so let’s welcome the newest Dewey number: 001.98 Conspiracy theories!

The new class has a similar scatter note to the one at 001.9, to reiterate that works on conspiracy theories concerning a subject still go with a subject. The new class is perfect for works about conspiracy theories themselves, and those that deal with a variety of conspiracy theories across disciplines, such as Are conspiracy theories valid? It may also be appropriate for works on a single conspiracy theory with wide-ranging scope (e.g., Ancient aliens and the Illuminati, though don’t overlook 366 Secret associations and societies for works about the Illuminati).

When classifying such works, don’t forget about the first-of-two rule. Works on conspiracy theories may well have overlap with other topics at 001.9. For example, a work positing a conspiracy covering up the existence of the Loch Ness monster would class at 001.944 Monsters and related phenomena.

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.

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!

Updates to 005 Software development, software, data, security

Guest post by Julianne Beall

Recently multiple updates to the computer science schedule were published in WebDewey. The core changes were to 005 Software development, software, data, security, but there were matching changes in terminology across 004-006 Computer science; software development, software, data; special computer methods—and other places where notation is added from 004-006.

Previously, the DDC pattern was to treat "software development" and "computer programming" as rough synonyms. To follow current usage, that has changed. The new treatment is explained at the start of a new Manual note:

005.1 vs. 005.13          Software development vs. Computer programming

"Software development" is the phrase currently used to comprise the entire sequence of activities between the definition of requirements for a software product and the implementation of that product in a working environment, while "computer programming" refers especially to one activity in that sequence, the creation of the software product. This narrow sense of "computer programming" comprises such steps as generating pseudocode to meet software requirements, identifying algorithms to carry out the program's logic, and especially the coding of the algorithms in a programming language. Previously, however, the phrase "computer programming" was often used to refer to a larger array of activities, including, for example, testing, debugging, and producing external program documentation.

Changes to the schedules and Relative Index support the new approach. For example, the caption for 005.1 was changed from "Programming" to "Software development," and the caption for 005.13 was changed from "Programming languages" to "Computer programming." The class-here note at 005.13 Computer programming names two topics previously classed in 005.13 ("coding of programs; programming languages") plus "computer algorithms"; the latter topic was previously in a class-here note at 005.1. An example of a work previously classed in 005.1 that now would be classed in 005.13 Computer programming is Understanding coding by building algorithms. An example of a work that still belongs in 005.1 Software development is Software development and professional practice.

The updates also include some new subdivisions of 005.1 Software development, e.g., 005.1112 Agile software development. An example of a work that can be classed in the new number is Agile software development: Current research and future directions.

Except at the general level of works classed in 005.1+, software development and computer programming are still classed in the same number; the caption now has "software development," but there are two Relative Index entries, one for software development and one for programming. For example, the record for 005.26 Software development for personal computers has two Relative Index entries:

Personal computers--programming

Personal computers--software development

The term "software" has been substituted in place of "program" (meaning computer program) in most places throughout 004-006, e.g., at 005.3 Software.

Details of Updates

To find all the details in 004-006 associated with this change, click the Updates button in WebDewey, then enter date range: start 2019-08-13, end 2019-09-05, and notations: 004 to 007. 

New batch of EPC 142 exhibits posted

As part of the editorial team's ongoing efforts to get the Dewey community involved in the editorial process, the next round of proposals for Meeting 142 of the Editorial Policy Committee are now available for public review and comment on the Dewey Exhibits page. The following exhibits are now available:

• EPC 142-S52.1 Cartography, map drawing, map making vs. Maps
• EPC 142-S79.1 Gaelic games
• EPC 142-S79.2 Podcasting
• EPC 142-S79.3 Pickleball and racquetball

This is in addition to the initial six posted last month. The meeting will take place September 23-24, 2019, so you have some time. You may share comments via email to dewey@oclc.org or to individual EPC members, or use the Dewey Contributors Forum.

Results from recent poll and survey

In April the Dewey editorial team publicized a short poll in which we asked library workers to rate the importance of topics that the editors had identified as needing development. A few weeks later we distributed a longer survey designed to ask broader questions about identifying subjects which needed updates. We got hundreds of responses to these questionnaires and we're glad to be able to shape our work in accordance with your insights!

Some of the topics that came up as being high priority for libraries:

• food intolerance
• vaping
• low-income neighborhoods

We still haven't had any takers to help us move forward with updating these topics, so please let us know if you'd be willing to help.

We also asked people to identify which of the main classes were the highest priorities for potential revisions. As you can see below, survey respondents identified 000 Computer science, information & general works, 600 Technology (Applied sciences), and 300 Social sciences as areas in which revisions would be most useful to their users.

We also asked people if they'd be willing to contribute to editorial work to make the DDC better for their users—many people were on board, which is exciting! One of the things we heard most frequently is that people wouldn't be willing to contribute because they didn't have the expertise. If this is a concern you share, let me assure you that you don't need to be a subject matter expert. I mean, I'm not an expert in sewage systems but I'm working on a small update to that part of the schedules right now. Librarians are great at researching any topic—that's a skill you can use to collaborate on updating Dewey for the benefit of your users! Your expertise in how your library's users are using the DDC is incredibly valuable for proposing revisions.

To learn more about contributing, visit http://oc.lc/deweycontributors and don't hesitate to get in touch at dewey@oclc.org.

001.942: World UFO Day

World UFO Day, a holiday created for extraterrestrial enthusiasts to search the skies for unidentified flying objects, takes place tomorrow, July 2^nd. World UFO Day marks the approximate anniversary of the Roswell Incident when, in 1947, a balloon crashed just outside of Roswell, New Mexico, sparking decades of UFO fervor. Although the United States military reports that the accident involved nothing more than a routine surveillance balloon, these claims have not stopped ufologists and other conspiracy theorists from spreading stories of spaceship landings and government cover ups.

To bone up on your UFO knowledge in general, look for works classed at 001.942 Unidentified flying objects (UFOs). The Relative Index reveals that works about Alien abduction and Human-alien encounters should be classed here as well. Titles at this number include UFO’s: a scientific debate and A close look at close encounters.

Books about the Roswell Incident itself should be classed at 001.9420978943 Roswell Incident, Roswell, N.M., 1947. Build this number using the following procedure, 001.942 Unidentified flying objects (UFOs) + T1—09 History, geographic treatment, biography + T2—78943 Chaves County. Books at this number include The Roswell report: case closed and The Roswell UFO crash: what they don’t want you to know.

If you’re not convinced by what you read in the 001s, head to the 800s to find UFO books that are decidedly fiction. Class collections of fiction works on UFOs from two or more literatures in 808.838762 Science fiction, built using the steps 808.83 Collections of fiction + T3B—308762 *Science fiction. Works at this number include The year’s best science fiction: thirty-fifth annual collection.

And remember, Dewey users, the truth is out there.

EPC Meeting 140

On June 12–13, Meeting 140 of the Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC) Editorial Policy Committee (EPC) was held at the Library of Congress (LC) in Washington, DC. When we meet at LC, Dewey classifiers at the Library have the opportunity to attend and to observe EPC deliberations. But this year’s meeting was also marked by the number of persons we usually expect to see, but who were unable to attend, which included EPC members Gert de Jager and Paula van Strien, OCLC Research Scientist Diane Vizine-Goetz, and Karl E. Debus-López, Chief of the U.S. Programs, Law, and Literature Division in which the CIP and Dewey Section at the Library of Congress resides. And while on the subject of who was there and who wasn’t, we note with regret that this was the last face-to-face EPC meeting for Andrea Kappler, who will be completing 12 years of service on EPC at the end of this year. Thank you, Andrea!

The EPC Regulations for the Conduct of Committee Business (a.k.a. the bylaws) have been updated; the biggest change is that the bylaws now call for EPC to include a representative from the European Dewey Users Group (EDUG). (Update: Elise Conradi, Dewey Project Manager at the National Library of Norway, was elected to represent EDUG on EPC, beginning in January 2018.) In other business, Michele Zwierski was elected as EPC Vice-Chair for 2018–19.

We are making a change in our terminology to distinguish between the provision and elimination of numbers, on the one hand, and the movement of topics between numbers, on the other hand. Going forward, we will use "authorization" for the approval of a new number and "deprecation" for the withdrawal of approval from an existing number. When speaking of the movement of topics, we will use "relocation" and "discontinuation" in their current senses, but will introduce a new term, "continuation." Thus, we will use "discontinuation" and "continuation" for the movement of topics to a new location in the upward or downward hierarchy, respectively, of the old location, and will use "relocation" for the movement of topics that end up outside the hierarchy of the old location. This change in terminology will go into effect as we enter approved changes from EPC 140. We will soon be posting relevant changes to the Glossary and Introduction.

The main business of EPC is the review of proposals for changes to the tables and schedules of the DDC. EPC 140 exhibits included proposals that will result in the following:

• T1—0286 Green technology (Environmental technology) can appropriately be used for sustainability if the focus is on technology. Many works about sustainability, however, emphasize social aspects; 304.2 Human ecology Is being designated as the interdisciplinary number for sustainability.
• Revisions under 323.3 Civil and political rights of other social groups and 649.1 Child rearing will be done as a part of a continuing project to regularize use of T1—08 Groups of people.
• To match geographic reality, both Gaza Strip and West Bank are being relocated to subdivisions of T2—5694 Palestine; Israel.
• Subdivisions are being authorized under T6—965 Nilo-Saharan languages, the last major group of African languages not previously subdivided in DDC. Since subdivisions of T5—965 Peoples who speak, or whose ancestors spoke, Nilo-Saharan languages are defined by instructions to add notation from T6—965 Nilo-Saharan languages, the development in Table 6 will be mirrored in Table 5.
• Within 004–006 Computer science, clarifying notes are being added to several classes under 005.7. Literary warrant justifies expansions for a variety of topics under 004.6 and under 006.3.
• Several subdivisions of 158.1 Personal improvement and analysis (all methods of personal improvement) were approved.
• A vague caption, U.S.-centric bias, and a desire to eliminate an anomaly in how controversies on a topic are treated motivated a proposal to remove the development at 363.4 Controversies related to public morals and customs. Most of the topics have interdisciplinary numbers elsewhere, but relocations are required for topics where the number for interdisciplinary works have been at 363.4 numbers.
• EPC approved an expansion under 364.67 Corporal punishment for torture, along with provisions for the topic in other disciplines, such as military intelligence and police services.
• A new span is being developed at 613.71481-613.71486 for fitness exercises derived from specific combat sports, with an add instruction for the specific sport.
• Because the number-building engine cannot interpret instructions under 930-990:01-09 to add appropriate historical period numbers, entries for localities of many countries will be added, each with an internal add table specifying where the appropriate historical period numbers are found. These developments also permit simplifying the add instructions under 324.91–324.99 and 330.93–330.99 so they can take advantage of the new entries.
• Provision is being made for early history time periods (the Hallstatt and La Tène periods) for countries in central and western Europe.

The implementation of these changes in WebDewey will generally be accompanied by blog posts. Keep your eyes open!

Other EPC exhibits take the form of discussion papers; rather than requesting EPC approval for specific changes, such exhibits explore options for future proposals. EPC 140 included discussion papers on the following topics:

• Adopting a narrower sense of "computer programming" and then replacing the current distinction at 005.1 and 005.3 between programming and programs with a distinction between software development and software.
• Developing a notation to accompany the optional alternative arrangement in the 200s; this notation would be in a one-to-one relationship with the notation of the standard arrangement.
• Providing Table 2 notation for indigenous nations by adding Table 5 notation for the indigenous people to Table 2 notation for the continent plus T1—04. Other features explored in the discussion paper are options under both (a) 305.81–305.89 Specific ethnic and national groups and (b) 930–990:00404 Indigenous nations to add notation 001–999, so that all literature about a specific indigenous group can be collocated.