The Introduction to the Dewey Decimal Classification contains the most essential information about using Dewey—it's the user's guide to understanding how the system works, describing the underlying principles that form the DDC's structure and giving lots of examples to show how those principles should be applied. Tweaks are made to the Introduction on occasion, but one of my projects this year was to revise the document on a larger scale, reflecting the changes that have occurred in the DDC since Edition 23 was published in 2011:
- the DDC is no longer published in discrete new print editions on a seven-year cycle,
- the editors make regular changes to the schedules and tables on a near-daily basis,
- most people now access the DDC via WebDewey, and
- abridged editions are no longer published (segmentation marks are still given to show logical places to abridge a number).
In addition, in late 2018 OCLC began offering a print-on-demand version of the DDC, for those who prefer print or libraries in areas of the world without reliable Internet access. My rewrite of the Introduction takes into account that the DDC can be accessed via the Internet or through print, which each have slightly different formatting and capabilities. Most changes were able to be implemented through a few removed or inserted words, but things got a little trickier when we considered practices tied to the old print edition cycle, such as how to give history information.
The revised version of the Introduction was approved by the Editorial Policy Committee and went live March 19. You can find a tracking chart of the changes in exhibit EPC 141A-P1 - Rewrite of Introduction for WebDewey context.
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