The National Library of Sweden has announced its intention to adopt the DDC. The decision was approved on November 21 by National Librarian Gunnar Sahlin on the advice and recommendation of the national advisory board. The National Library of Sweden has used Klassifikationssystem för svenska bibliotek, the Swedish classification system popularly known as SAB, since 1956. The national bibliography has been arranged by SAB since 1921. A high-level concordance already exists between the two systems, and the DDC Summaries are available in Swedish in the DeweyBrowser.
The switch from SAB to the DDC has been under study for some time at the National Library of Sweden. In April 2005, I had the pleasure of participating in a seminar and training session in Stockholm to introduce Dewey to Swedish librarians and to discuss possible approaches to translation. In 2006, Magdalena Svanberg (currently Executive Officer of the Department of National Co-operation at the National Library of Sweden) headed a study group (Study 3 of the Catalogue Survey) to explore the switch to the DDC. It was also Magdalena who first suggested that we investigate models for mixed translations of the DDC.
Magdalena notes that some other libraries in Sweden are also expected to make a similar decision to switch from SAB to DDC. The timetable for the switch at the National Library and elsewhere is still under study. A critical element will be the existence of a useful Swedish (or a mixed Swedish-English) DDC edition to support Dewey assignment and end-user facing applications. The National Library of Sweden is planning a seminar in early February on the future of bibliographic control—a Swedish version of Dewey will certainly be part of the discussion.
It's funny that I hadn't really considered the use of other systems. I thought everyone used DDC
Posted by: Japanese words | March 17, 2009 at 10:46 AM