200 Religion Class, the last publication in the Dewey print-edition trilogy that began in 2011 (the other two are DDC 23 and Abridged Edition 15), is now available. 200 Religion Class includes an updated version of the 200 Religion schedule and the Manual notes for 200 Religion, an updated and extended index to 200 Religion, and the 170 Ethics schedule. The updates are also available in WebDewey. Ordering information for the three print editions plus WebDewey is available here.
In DDC 23, we updated the provisions for the Orthodox Church, initiated updates for Islam, and introduced several changes elsewhere in 200 Religion. 200 Religion Class contains those changes, plus additional updates for Islam and a number of minor updates elsewhere in 200 that were not ready for publication in the print DDC 23. (My colleague Juli Beall will describe the changes to Islam in detail in an upcoming blog entry.)
Another exciting feature of 200 Religion Class is an optional arrangement for the Bible and specific religions based on a chronological/regional view. For some time now, we have been exploring the development of an alternative view of 200 Religion to reduce Christian bias in the standard notational sequence for the Bible and specific religions. In cooperation with Ia C. McIlwaine (University College London, and the former editor in chief of the Universal Decimal Classification [UDC]) we have prepared a chronological/regional view of the Bible and specific religions based on a similar development introduced in the UDC in 2000. The new optional arrangement appears in appendix A of the print version of 200 Religion Class, and in a new Manual note at 220-290 Optional arrangement for the Bible and specific religions in WebDewey. A virtual browser based on the new optional arrangement and linked to Dewey-classified resources in WorldCat.org will be available on the Dewey web site in mid-2012.
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