025.431: The Dewey blog

Patchwork and Quilting

The Quilter’s Album of Patchwork Patterns is listed in “Top 10 Craft and Gardening Books: 2010,” an article published in Booklist and reissued in AL Direct (December 22).

The Quilter’s Album has the LCSH “Patchwork—Patterns” and “Quilting—Patterns.”

Browsing the Relative Index for “patchwork” yields:

Patchwork—arts               746.46

Browsing the Relative Index for “quilting” yields:

Quilting—arts                   746.46
Quilting—home sewing       646.21

The entry 746.46 Patchwork and quilting has the class-here note “Class here quilts” and the subdivisions-are-added note “Subdivisions are added for either or both topics in heading,” plus a footnote add instruction “Add as instructed under 746.” The Quilter’s Album of Patchwork Patterns is classed in 746.46041 Patchwork and quilting patterns (built with 746.46 Patchwork and quilting plus 041 Patterns from the add table under 746 Textile arts, following the footnote add instruction at 746.46).

What about the home sewing number for quilting given in the Relative Index?  The entry 646.21 Construction of home furnishings has an including note “Including making bedclothes, curtains, hangings, slipcovers, table linens, towels” and the class-elsewhere note: “Class artistic and decorative aspects of construction of interior furnishings in 746.9.” The Quilter’s Album is not limited to construction of home furnishings.  Moreover, it emphasizes decorative aspects and thus would belong in a subdivision of 746 Textile arts even if it were limited to construction of interior furnishings.

What about use of quilting to make a specific kind of product (not quilts in general)? An example is Thimbleberries Four Seasons of Calendar Table Toppers, with “12 Quick Quilts and Easy Accent Projects to Make for Each Month of the Year” (quoted from cover). The work has the LCSH “Quilting—Patterns,” “Household linens,” and “Table setting and decoration.” Browsing the Relative Index for “table linens” yields:

Table linens                        642.7
Table linens—arts                746.96
Table linens—home sewing    646.21
Table linens—table setting    642.7

This work focuses on making table linens, not using them for table setting; hence 642.7 Table furnishings, a subdivision of 642 Meals and table service, is not a good choice. Because this work emphasizes decorative aspects, it belongs in a subdivision of 746 Textile arts rather than 646.21. 

Which subdivision of 746 should be used for Thimbleberries Four Seasons of Calendar Table Toppers? The entry 746.96 Table linens has the class-here note “Class here doilies, mats, napkins (serviettes), scarves, tablecloths; fair linens.”  Since the work is predominantly about quilting, however, 746.46 Patchwork and quilting must also be considered.  At 746.1–746.9 Products and processes is a table of preference in which Needlework and handwork 746.4 appears above Other textile products 746.9; hence 746.46 is preferred over 746.96. At 041 Patterns in the add table under 746 Textile arts is the class-elsewhere note “Class patterns for specific products in 043” (i.e., in 043 Products in the same add table).  Thimbleberries Four Seasons of Calendar Table Toppers is classed in 746.460436 Patchwork and quilting table linens (built with 746.46 Patchwork and quilting plus 043 from 0434–0438 Interior furnishings in the add table under 746, following the footnote add instruction at 746.46, plus 6 from 746.96 Table linens, following the add instruction at 0434–0438 in the add table under 746).

Happy Retirement, Dennis!

Our colleague Dennis McGovern, former chief of the Decimal Classification Division (DCD), is retiring this Thursday. (Longtime readers of the Dewey blog might remember Dennis as “the vicar of Dewey Manor” in the early days of the blog.)  Dennis was appointed to the position of DCD chief on May 17, 2004, after serving as the acting chief of DCD since February 2002, when previous chief David Smith retired.  Since 2008, Dennis has worked a split detail as a Senior Decimal Classification Classifier in the areas of literature, language, sports, and recreation, and as a senior cataloger of romance language material in the Social Science Cataloging Division and the African, Latin American, and Western European Division.  Dennis first joined LC in as an editorial assistant in the Bill Digest Section of the American Law Division, Congressional Research Service.  In August of the same year, he joined the LOIS Processing Section in the former Order Division, Acquisitions Directorate, and April 1984 became a CIP publisher liaison in the Cataloging in Publication Division, while he also studied part time for his master's degree in library science at the University of Maryland.  After completing library school, he became a cataloger at the Martin Luther King Memorial Library in the District of Columbia Public Library system.  Dennis returned to LC as a descriptive cataloger in 1987.  He joined the Education, Sports, and Recreation Team when it was formed in 1989 as part of the Whole Book Cataloging Project.  Dennis came to DCD in 2002 from the position of team leader, Education, Sports and Recreation Team (ESR), Social Sciences Cataloging Division.  His service at the Library of Congress also included a short detail as acting team leader of the Music and Sound Recordings Team III, and an eight-month detail as acting chief of the Special Material Cataloging Division.  We will be feting Dennis in January, but please join us now in wishing him a fond farewell and best wishes as he begins this new chapter in his life.

 

Food Allergies: Medicine and Cooking

“New Food Allergy Guidelines Out: Comprehensive Guidelines Aim to Help Doctors Diagnose, Treat Food Allergies” reported WebMD earlier this month.  The new guidelines were published in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology: “Guidelines for the Diagnosis and Management of Food Allergy in the United States: Report of the NIAID-Sponsored Expert Panel.”  Information about the guidelines is available from the Food Allergy page of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) web site. 

Browsing the Relative Index for “food allergies” yields:

Food allergies—cooking for      641.56318
Food allergies—diet therapy    616.9750654
. . .       
Food allergies—medicine         616.975

Works on diagnosing and treating food allergies are classed in 616.975 Food and drug allergies, which has 610 Medicine and health in its upward hierarchy.  Examples of works on food allergies classed in 616.975 are Food Allergies and Food Allergy: Adverse Reactions to Foods and Food Additives. The works have the LCSH “Food allergy.”

The entry 616.975 Food and drug allergies has the subdivisions-are-added note “Subdivisions are added for food and drug allergies together, for food allergies alone” (there is a subdivision for works on drug allergies alone); the note means that food allergies are considered to approximate the whole of 616.975.  Works on diet therapy for food allergies are classed in 616.9750654 Diet therapy for food allergies (built with 616.975 Food and drug allergies plus 06 from 062–069 Other therapies in the add table under 616.1–616.9 Specific diseases, following the footnote add instruction at 616.975, plus 54 from 615.854 Diet therapy, following the add instruction at 062–069 in the add table under 616.1–616.9). An example of a work classed in 616.9750654 is What Do We Eat Tonight? How to Live with Food Allergies: A Practical Guide to Selecting Foods and Creating a Rotation Diet. It has the LCSH “Food allergy—Diet therapy—Popular works.”

Works on cooking for people with food allergies are classed in 641.56318 Persons with food allergies, which has 641.5631 Cooking for persons with medical conditions and 641.5 Cooking in its upward hierarchy.  Examples of works classed in 641.56318 are Allergy-Free Cookbook and How to Cook for Food Allergies: A Guide to Understanding Ingredients, Adapting Recipes and Cooking for an Exciting Allergy-Free Diet. Both works have the LCSH “Food allergy—Diet therapy—Recipes.”

Dewey Breakfast/Update at ALA Midwinter 2011

Please join us for the Dewey Breakfast/Update at the ALA Midwinter Meeting on Saturday, January 8, 7:00–8:00 a.m., Hilton San Diego Bayfront Hotel, Sapphire Ballroom A.  The  program will feature a demonstration of WebDewey 2.0 (it’s here!), practical applications of our linked data web service dewey.info, and a sneak preview of DDC 23.  The ALCTS Public Libraries Technical Services Interest Group will meet in the same room directly following the Dewey Breakfast/Update.

If you haven’t done so already, please register for the meeting here.  See you in San Diego!

Siblings, Family, and Personality

Recently National Public Radio (NPR) ran a story entitled “Siblings Share Genes, But Rarely Personalities.”  The story begins with an example of brothers who are very different, then goes on to consider research about siblings. “. . .  in terms of personality, we are similar to our siblings only about 20 percent of the time. Given the fact that we share genes, homes, routines and parents, this makes no sense. What makes children in the same family so different?”  The tentative answers involve several kinds of influence of family environment.  For example, in the case of the two brothers with which the story begins, “When their father died, Tom was 17 and heading off to college — but Eric was only 12. So, in a sense, they grew up in different homes. Tom, the radical, grew up in a secure, two-parent home.  But Eric the financial planner, as Tom points out, spent many years as the only man in a house destabilized both emotionally and financially by death.”

Browsing the Relative Index for “siblings” yields:

Siblings                                     306.875
. . .
Siblings—family relationships         306.875
. . .
Siblings—psychological influence    155.924
Siblings—psychology                    155.443

Browsing the Relative Index for “families” yields:

Families                                     306.85
Families—applied psychology         158.24
. . .
Families—psychological influence    155.924

Browsing the Relative Index for “personality” yields:

Personality                                 155.2
. . .
Personality—children                    155.4182

The interdisciplinary number for siblings is 306.875 Sibling relationships (there is even a subdivision 306.8752 Brother-brother relationship), and the interdisciplinary number for families is 306.85 Family, while the interdisciplinary number for personality is 155.2 Individual psychology. The following is relevant (from the Manual):

302–307 vs. 150 . . .
Social psychology vs. Psychology

Use 302–307 for works that focus on group behavior, including those that discuss the role of the individual in group behavior. Use 150 for works that focus on the individual, including those that discuss the influence of group behavior on the individual. If in doubt, prefer 302–307.

If we have a work that focuses on the personality of the individual, as the NPR story does, then we are looking for a subdivision of 150 Psychology. The entry 155.2 Individual psychology has the class-here note “Class here . . . character, identity, individuality, personality.”  Among the subdivisions is 155.23 Traits and determinants of character and personality.  A subdivision of that, 155.234 Determinants, has the class-here note “Class here environment versus heredity as determinants” and the see reference “For environmental determinants, see 155.9.”  An example of a work classed in 155.234 is The Temperamental Thread: How Genes, Culture, Time and Luck Make Us Who We Are.  Its LCSH include “Temperament,” “Personality—Genetic aspects,” “Personality and culture,” “Individual differences,” “Nature and nurture,” “Personality—Social aspects,” and “Personality development.”

Works that focus on environmental determinants, as the see-reference at 155.234 indicates, are classed in 155.9 Environmental psychology.  Also, in the table of preference under 155 Differential and developmental psychology, 155.9 Environmental psychology is higher than 155.2 Individual psychology.  Works on psychological influence of families, of siblings, are classed in 155.924 Influence of family members (built with 155.92 Influence of social environment plus 4 from 158.24 Interpersonal relations with family members).  An example of a work classed in 155.924 is Born to Rebel: Birth Order, Family Dynamics, and Creative Lives.  Its LCSH include “Birth order,” “Brothers and sisters,” “Individual differences,” “Personality development—Social aspects.”  Another example is The Birth Order Book: Why You Are the Way You Are.

What about the Relative Index entries pointing to subdivisions of 155.4 Child psychology?  They are used for works that focus on children.  In the table of preference under 155 Differential and developmental psychology, 155.4–155.6 Psychology of specific ages is higher than either 155.9 Environmental psychology or 155.2 Individual psychology. Subdivisions of 155.4, however, are not used for works that cover a whole life.

Canine anatomy

A question was asked on Autocat recently about where to classify Anatomy of the dog by Kerstin Mielke. The answer to that question depends on two different important distinctions on Dewey:

(1)   That between domesticated plants and animals in 630 Agriculture and related technologies and plants and animals in general in 570 Life sciences  Biology (and the subordinate topics 580 Plants and 590 Animals).

(2)   That between external processes of plants and animals in 578 Natural history of organisms and related subjects (and the subordinate topics 576, 577, 579, 580 and 590) and internal processes of plants and animals in 571-575 Internal biological processes and structures.

Both of these distinctions need to be understood by classifiers working in the life sciences.

The first distinction is explained in two Manual notes: 571-575 vs. 630 Physiology, anatomy, and pathology of agricultural plants and animals; and 630 vs. 579-590, 641.3 Agriculture and related technologies vs. Natural history of specific kinds of organisms vs. Food. Since the book in question is about anatomy, the first of these Manual notes is more relevant here. It says (with the parts just about plants removed):

When domestic plants and animals are studied for agricultural purposes, observe the following guidelines:

… use 636.0891-636.0892 and similar numbers in 636.1-636.8 for physiology and anatomy of agricultural animals.

... Use 636.0896 for comprehensive works on pathology and diseases of agricultural animals . Use 636.1-636.8 for pathology and diseases of specific kinds of agricultural animals plus notation 39 in add table under 636.1-636.8 or notation 0896 as instructed in certain entries in the schedule, e.g., diseases of race horses 636.1239 , diseases of horses 636.10896

When the note says “agricultural animals” it means animals included in 636 Animal husbandry, as the example of race horses makes clear, so it includes dogs as pets.  When the note says “for agricultural purposes” it includes all the purposes of 636 as well, including books for pet owners (including the book in question).

This means that works on the anatomy of dogs would be classed in 636.70891.  This is built, first by following the instructions at 636.7001-636.708, and adding to 636.70 the digits 89 at the end of 636.089 Veterinary sciences  Veterinary medicine; and second by following the instructions at 636.089 and adding the digit 1 at the end of 611 Human anatomy, cytology, histology.

The second distinction would only come into play if you had a scientific work on the anatomy of dogs.  It is explained in the Manual note on 579-590 vs. 571-575 Biology of whole organisms vs. Biology of internal processes.  This note describes it in this way: “The distinction between the biology of whole organisms in 579-590 (the first biology) and the biology of internal processes in 571-575  (the second biology) is based upon the recognition of fundamental differences between the literature of the two biologies.”  The note goes on to list ways of distinguishing the “two biologies”, including

3. In the first biology, topics are usually seen as typical only of the specific kind of organism being studied, e.g., snail shells, reproductive behavior of sticklebacks, weaverbird nests. In the second biology, the process studied in one organism is usually seen as typical of all living organisms (or as typical of a large class of organisms such as animals, vertebrates, or mammals), e.g., cell division, blood circulation, immune reactions.

Anatomy at 571.3 Anatomy and morphology falls into the second biology, because in this context anatomy of a specific animal is generally studied, not for the sake of that particular animal, but as an example of the anatomy of all animals or of a class of animals.  So, for example, Anatomy & dissection of the rat by Warren F. Walker and Dominique G Homberger is classed at 571.319352.  This is built by adding to 571.3 Anatomy and morphology the final digit 1 from 571.1 Animals as instructed at 571-572, and then adding notation 9352 from 599.352 Rattus (Common rats) as instructed at 571.1.  In theory you could have a similar number 571.319772 for the anatomy of dogs, built using the notation 9772 from 599.772 Canis, but such a work is unlikely to be published, since rats are common laboratory animals and dogs are not.