025.431: The Dewey blog

Provinsi Indonesia

By population, Indonesia is the fourth largest country in the world, and the largest Muslim country.  So it's about time that Dewey provided for its top-level political divisions, the 33 provinces / provinsi.  And we have been working on this for some time now, as you might remember if you read this blog back in October last year (Why don't they ever ask us?), and again in May this year, when we had to leave the May 2006 Java Earthquake  in standing room because we didn't have Table 2 numbers for provinces of Indonesia.

But from tomorrow you will be able to use specific Dewey numbers for all the provinces of Indonesia.  The May 2006 Java Earthquake will be at 551.220959827090511 for geologic works, at 363.34950959827090511 for works on disaster relief, and at 959.82704 for works on the earthquake’s affect on the life and history of the region.

Those first two numbers are built by adding to the base numbers 551.22 Earthquakes and 363.3495 Earthquakes and volcanoes, firstly  T1--09 Historical, geographic, persons treatment, then T2--59827 Yogyakarta from Table 2, --09 Historical and geographic treatment from the add table at --093-099 in Table 1, and 0511 for 2000-2009 from T1--090511 in Table 1.  The last number (959.82704) is built with the instructions at 930-990: use the base number 9, then add T2--59827 Yogyakarta from Table 2, and 04 from 959.804 for the historical period 2000-.

And last Friday there was yet another natural disaster, this time involving Mount Karangetang on Siau Island, which is part of North Sulawesi (Sulawesi Utara).  For this you would use T2--59842 North Sulawesi (Sulawesi Utara) from Table 2. 

The expansion for T2--598 Indonesia and East Timor and T2--951 Western New Guinea (Irian Barat) is available as the August 2006 update in pdf format and Word  format from links on our New and Changed entries.

Finding Fiction

A few weeks ago, we reported on a talk presented by Juli Beall at the ALA Annual Conference in which she discussed a research project she and Diane Vizine-Goetz are collaborating on to improve access to fiction in FictionFinder. Well, in the week between ALA and the ISKO Conference in Vienna, Diane worked furiously and managed to come up with an expanded presentation, available here. The theme is the same (broadening retrieval in FictionFinder using Dewey to identify fictional works across the arts beyond those classified in literature itself—films, television programs, graphic novels, etc.). The ISKO presentation includes preliminary statistics about the number of records involved and a discussion of how OCLC FRBR work sets (see here for the OCLC FRBR work-set algorithm and here for a background paper on FRBR itself) are used to group related records. Here’s a photo of Juli in the midst of presenting hers and Diane’s findings at ISKO.

ALA Awards, Part 2

Sylva Natalie Manoogian received the John Ames Humphry/OCLC/Forest Press Award during the International Relations Round Table (IRRT) Chair’s Program on June 26, 2006, at the ALA Annual Conference in New Orleans. The award, given for significant contributions to international librarianship, was established in 1987 in honor of Mr. Humphry, the executive director of Forest Press* from 1977 to 1985.

Ms. Manoogian was recognized for her tireless efforts to rebuild the Gulbenkian Library of the Armenian Patriarchate in Jerusalem, her contributions as a consultant to libraries and librarians in Armenia, and the cooperative spirit she has fostered among librarians from the nations of the Caucasus. Ms. Manoogian retired as Principal Librarian from the Los Angeles Public Library in 1999, and is currently a Ph.D. candidate in Information Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles. In the attached picture, Ms. Manoogian (far right) is seen receiving her award standing next to Jeannette Pierce (middle), IRRT Chair and Librarian for History, Political Science, and Africana Studies at Johns Hopkins University, and me (far left).

*Forest Press, the former publisher of the Dewey Decimal Classification, became a division of OCLC in 1988. OCLC retired the Forest Press imprint in 2002.

Musqueam

At the 9th International ISKO conference in Vienna, Ann Doyle, who works in the Xwi7xwa Library, a First Nations branch of the University of British Columbia (UBC) Library, gave a presentation entitled “Naming and Reclaiming Indigenous Knowledges in Public Institutions; Intersections of Landscapes and Experience.”  She said that the Xwi7xwa Library’s “knowledge organization and naming systems aim to be consistent with Indigenous worldviews.”  She also pointed out that the general subject access tools used in other branches of the UBC Library do not have specific provisions for the Musqueam people, even though UBC’s main campus is located in the traditional territory of the Musqueam people.

The DDC also does not have specific provisions for the Musqueam people.  A check of the WorldCat database indicates that there is not currently sufficient literary warrant to justify giving the Musqueam their own number.  That does not mean, however, that the DDC has no place for the Musqueam; instead, it means that for now their place is in a broader number.

How does one find that number?  Ethnologue, about which we have written earlier, is a good place to start. Ethnologue is a rich source of information about languages, and most of the provisions for peoples in DDC are based on the languages that the people speak, or their ancestors spoke.  A search of Ethnologue for the term “Musqueam” yields the information that Musqueam is a dialect of Halkomelem, which is a Salishan language.  A search in WebDewey on “Halkomelem” yields three hits:

(1) the Table 5 Ethnic and National Groups number T5—9794 Peoples who speak, or whose ancestors spoke, Salishan languages;

(2) the Table 6 Languages number T6—9794 Salishan languages; and

(3) 497.94, the number for Salishan languages built according to the instructions at 497.6-497.9 Oto-Manguean, Chibchan languages of North America, Misumalpan, other North American languages. 

The Table 5 number is what you would use for the Musqueam people.  A history of the Musqueam in the Vancouver area from the beginning to the present, for example, would be classed in 971.1330049794 History of peoples who speak, or whose ancestors spoke, Salishan languages in Greater Vancouver.  The number is built using instructions under 930-990 History of ancient world; of specific continents, countries, localities; of extraterrestrial worlds, with base number 9 plus Table 2. Geographic Areas, Historical Periods, Persons notation 71133 Greater Vancouver Regional District plus 004 Ethnic and national groups from the add table at 930-990 plus Table 5 notation 9794 Peoples who speak, or whose ancestors spoke, Salishan languages.

Additional information about DDC provisions for indigenous American peoples may be found here and here.

A New View of Religion

We’re the first to admit that the top-level view of 200 Religion in the DDC is problematic.  In the last two editions of the DDC, we’ve reduced Christian bias and provided deeper representations for numerous religions throughout 200, but the fact remains that Christianity is still prominently featured at the three-digit level. At the present time, the only way to transform the top-level view is to use one of the optional developments suggested at 290 (we wrote about the optional developments and the results of a web-based survey on their use last October).

Ia McIlwaine (chair of the Universal Decimal Classification Consortium and former editor-in-chief of the UDC) and I are working together on a research project to study the introduction of a chronological/regional view of religion in Dewey based on the development introduced in UDC in 2000. Our research question follows: Can we use UDC’s Class 2 (Religion. Theology) as the framework for an alternative view of religion in the DDC and a model for the future revision of 200 Religion? We reported on work to date, preliminary findings, and next steps at the ISKO Conference in Vienna on July 7.  Readers might be especially interested in slide 13, which shows an excerpt of 200 Religion reordered in a chronological/regional view similar to the arrangement found in UDC.  We are working with our colleagues in the OCLC Office of Research to develop a prototype that would offer a web-based chronological/regional view of 200 Religion for all users. We are also investigating replacement of the current set of optional arrangements in the DDC with a single optional arrangement based on the same view found in the prototype (and interoperable with the standard edition of Dewey). The prototype and new optional arrangement will also facilitate dialog with users about the future structure of 200 Religion. We’ve invited Ia McIlwaine to speak at the October 2006 EPC Meeting in Washington, DC, and participate in the discussion about virtual improvements and potential long-term structural changes in 200 Religion.

DDC Workshop in Vienna

Juli and I spent last week at the 9th International ISKO Conference in Vienna (watch for more on that meeting next week). Just prior to the conference on July 4, Juli participated in a one-day DDC Workshop held in conjunction with the 10th Conference of the German Chapter of ISKO. At the request of workshop organizer Dr. Margit Sandner (Universitätsbibliothek Wien), Juli presented two talks focused on number building, shelf arrangement, and comparisons between DDC and LCC: Comparing DDC and LCC Shelf Arrangement and DDC Number Building for Shelf Arrangement. These presentations may be of interest to new users of the DDC, people unfamiliar with the use of classification systems for physical shelf arrangement, and people curious about some of the differences between DDC and LCC.

The DDC Workshop took place in the same room as DDC-DACHS: Die Dewey-Dezimalklassification under der deutschsprachige Raum, a traveling exhibition of DDC-related material that has been organized by Dr. Sandner (we blogged about the exhibit last December. Dr. Sandner gave us a personal tour of the exhibition during the conference—it was fascinating.

Here’s a photo of Dr. Sandner standing by the case containing a copy of Edition 8 from 1913 that was used by the former librarian of Vienna's British Council Library. Just to Dr. Sandner's right (but sadly not documented in the photo) are the fabulous torte, strudel, and coffee that accompanied our tour.

The second photo is a post-dessert shot of Juli and me standing near copies of the German translation of DDC 22, Dewey-Dezimalklassifikation und Register (for more information on the German translation, see the DDC Deutsch web site and our discussion here a few months ago).

ALA Awards, Part 1

It was my great pleasure to present long-time colleague (and recent LC retiree) John D. Byrum with the 2006 Melvil Dewey Medal at the ALA Annual Conference in New Orleans on June 27, 2006. John’s citation reads: "For his extraordinary leadership in the fields of cataloging and bibliographic standards, both nationally and internationally, during a distinguished career spanning four decades; for the high order of creative leadership, vision and perseverance he has shown in creating, expanding and sustaining the Program for Cooperative Cataloging, which is widely considered to be one of the most successful and dynamic programs in the history of bibliographic control; and for the exceptional expertise, tireless determination, and unfailing diplomacy he has exemplified in his engagement with IFLA and the international cataloging community, from his pioneering work on the International Standard Bibliographic Description (ISBD) in the 1970s to his most recent, successful efforts to promote MARC harmonization."

John Byrum is pictured here celebrating with former colleagues who also happen to be previous Melvil Dewey Medal recipients. From left to right are John Byrum, Sally McCallum (chief of the Network Development and MARC Standards Office at the Library of Congress, and 2004 Melvil Dewey Medal recipient), me (2005 Melvil Dewey Medal recipient), and Winston Tabb (chair of the Melvil Dewey Medal Award Committee, dean of university libraries and director of the Sheridan Libraries at the Johns Hopkins University, and 1998 Melvil Dewey Medal recipient).

Incidentally, Lois Mai Chan (professor at the University of Kentucky and former member and chair of EPC), was awarded the 2006 Beta Phi Mu Award at the same ALA 2006 Awards ceremony for distinguished service in education for librarianship. Here’s a photo of Lois standing between Dr. Anna Perrault (president of Beta Phi Mu, and professor at the University of South Florida), and Michael Gorman (2005-2006 president of ALA and dean of library services, Fresno State University).

Congratulations, John and Lois!

Portugal

The eighteen Table 2 entries under Table 2 –469 Portugal have been expanded and revised to reflect the current administrative units of Portugal. We added the changes to the database (they will appear in the next release of WebDewey), and posted the set of new and changed entries as our monthly update for July 2006, available in pdf and Word formats from links on our New and Changed Entries

Welcome to Nix and Hydra

S/2005 P 2 and S/2005 P 1 recently had their names changed to Nix and Hydra. By either name, they are two of the satellites of Pluto. Both are classed at 523.9882 Satellites of Pluto (523.98 Satelites and rings + notation 82 from 523.482 Pluto).

Racing Lizards!

On July 4 in Lovington, New Mexico, the 27th running of the World's Greatest Lizard Race was held. Sixteen lizards of varying shape, color, and size were entered.  Miss Hissy Fit won the regular lizard race.  Fred Zard, a green iguana from Lakeside, California, won the iguana race -- he was the only entrant.  Animal racing is classed at 798 Equestrian sports and animal racing.  The only animals with their own racing numbers are horses and dogs at 798.4 Horse racing    Flat racing and 798.8 Dog racing.