Since publication of DDC 22, Table 3C—3 Arts and literature dealing with specific themes and subjects, a key part of Table 3C Notation to Be Added Where Instructed in Table 3B, 700.4, 791.4, 808–809, has been considered by the Decimal Classification Editorial Policy Committee (EPC) at three meetings, beginning with a discussion paper at Meeting 123C in spring 2005. Changes approved at Meeting 124 (October 2005) appeared as the December 2005 New and Changed Entries (blogged here) and were incorporated in the next update to WebDewey. Changes approved at Meeting 127 (May 2007), plus one additional change approved in an email vote by EPC on August 3, 2007, appeared as the August 2007 New and Changed Entries. These changes will be included in the next update to WebDewey.
The intent was to treat artistic and literary themes in a parallel fashion to the schedules where appropriate, to mark clearly all divergences, to expand where needed, and to make sure that every major topic in the schedules would have a home in Table 3C—3 Arts and literature dealing with specific themes and subjects. For example, we changed the scope of the old T3C—32 Places to the new T3C—32 Geography and travel, parallel to 910 Geography and travel. Civilization of a specific place is now classed with the history of the place, as in the schedules. For example, a work of history and criticism focusing on the civilization of India as portrayed in multiple literatures is classed in 809.9335854 History and criticism of literature dealing with history and civilization of India (built with 809.933 Literature dealing with specific themes and subjects plus 58 from T3C—358 Historical, political, military themes, plus 54 from 954 History of India, following instructions at T3C—3583–3589 Historical themes of ancient world; of specific continents, countries, localities).
While doing the revision, we used as a guide a table with rough mappings of DDC 000–990 to notation T3C—3, revising the mappings as we progressed. As EPC recommended, we have made the final form of that table available as a help for classifiers. For example, if you have a theme that falls in 320 Political science or 355-359 Military science, the table will lead you to T3C—3581 Political and military themes; if you have a theme that falls in 640 Home & family management, the table will lead you to T3C—3564 Home and family management; if you have a theme that falls in 910 Geography & travel, the table will lead you to T3C—32 Geography and travel; if you have a theme that falls in 950 History of Asia, the table will lead you to T3C—3585. Of course, you still need to check the captions and notes in Table 3C!
(Posted on behalf of Juli Beall, away at IFLA.)
Comments