This summer's Dewey Intern, Emily Zinger, worked on finding the best approach to classifying works about podcasts. While podcasting is a format, like radio or television, there are many works being created about the act of podcasting and podcasts themselves. These works were being classed primarily in 006.7876, a number designated for software for distributed processing. This is still the appropriate number for works about podcasting software, but we needed a better number for the entertainment aspects of podcasting. You can see the results of Emily's research in the proposal text: EPC Exhibit 142-S79.2.
During the September meeting of the Editorial Policy Committee, the EPC members discussed a topic that I posted about on the Dewey blog a few weeks earlier (Podcasting and the future of Internet entertainment): the need for a thoughtful approach to the entertainment hierarchy when considering Internet media. The committee members had a far-ranging discussion that touched on streaming media versus downloadable media and the distinction between radio and podcasting. There was concern about creating a new hierarchy for podcasting which mirrors motion pictures, radio, and television, when it might need to be revised in the future when we figure out an overarching strategy. But EPC members agreed that classifiers were struggling with the topic and that only having a 006 number for podcasting was not serving current users well. The committee voted to approve the exhibit, while also asking the editors to create a discussion paper that provides an overview of the challenges in creating a hierarchy for Internet media and lays out potential paths forward. There's lots more work to be done in this area! But in the meantime, we have a new set of numbers for works about podcasting.
Interdisciplinary works about podcasting should now be classed at 791.46 Podcasting. Works about podcasts themselves should be classed at 791.467 Podcasts. This echoes the other hierarchies at 791.4: for example, works about television are classed at 791.45, while works about television programs are classed at 791.457.
Subject-oriented podcasts (or works about those podcasts) will always be classed with the subject: that hasn't changed. For example, the book The world of Lore : monstrous creatures, based on the Lore podcast, will be classed in 001.944 Monsters and related phenomena. Texts of literary podcasts should be classed in the 800 hierarchy: for example, Mostly Void, Partially Stars, a collection of Welcome to Night Vale episode texts, should be classed in 813.6 American fiction--2000- . The new hierarchy also provides for the use of Table 3C for works about podcasts dealing with specific themes and subjects; for example, a work about podcasts dealing with love themes would be classed in 791.466543.
You can find all the updates associated with this revision in WebDewey by clicking the Updates button, choosing "Selected projects," selecting EPC 142-S79.2, pressing the OK button, then clicking Search.
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