Twelve Vietnamese librarians, led by Professor Pat Oyler of Simmons College’s Graduate School of Library and Information Science, visited the Library of Congress May 22 and 23. They are participating in a program to prepare a new generation of Vietnamese librarians for leadership roles. After successful completion of the program, they will receive a master’s degree in library and information science from Simmons. As part of their visit to LC, the librarians were briefed by Dennis McGovern, chief, Decimal Classification Division, and Julianne Beall, assistant editor, DDC.
This is a happy time to brief Vietnamese librarians about Dewey, because the Vietnamese translation is almost ready to go to press. The translation is based on Abridged Edition 14, with expansions in areas where literary warrant is high in Vietnam, including interoperable expansions beyond the provisions in DDC 22 where needed. The Dewey editors worked closely with Mr. Vu Van Son, editor of the DDC Translation Project, National Library of Vietnam, on expansions in the Table 2 and history provisions for Vietnam, and on the notation for peoples and languages of Vietnam. The New and Changed Entries for April and May, 2006, include changes in DDC 22 inspired by this work. For example, T2—597 Vietnam now has nine new subdivisions in DDC 22, e.g., T2—5971 Mountain region of northern Vietnam. Each of the twelve provinces in that region is named in the including note in DDC 22. In the Vietnamese edition, each province has its own number, e.g., T2—59712 Cao Bà̆ng. The numbers are the same, except in length, in order to keep the notation meaningful.
A similar approach has been taken for expansions in connection with other translations, e.g., the German translation of DDC 22.
Recent Comments