Last October, we had a WebDewey install that brought an incredible feature to the English WebDewey… and then we barely talked about it! I hope you’ve had the chance to utilize the update notification feature already, and that some of this may be a review. Either way, let’s take a look at the update notification feature and what it can do!
If you didn’t read the release notes for that install (and everyone reads the release notes, right?), the only change you may have noticed could’ve been the new button at the top of most WebDewey screens:
Click that, and you’ve found the new feature! By default, this lists all* changes in the classification from the past 30 days. The number in parentheses in the Updates button is how many of those changes there are. I’ll plan to do a deeper dive into some of the ways you can search the updates. For now, I’ll just go over three: date, notations, and projects.
Searching by date is straightforward. Besides the default window of 30 days, you can check all changes within the last 7 days, the last year, or your last login (if you log in frequently, that might not leave you with many!).
You can also specify a date range, or just select “All” in the drop-down menu to look at all changes… going back to October 2010!
Search by notation lets you narrow results to certain ranges in the classification. Suppose you’re a literature cataloger, work in a literature library, or otherwise are just worried about changes in the 800s:
You can combine date and notation searches too. Either way, WebDewey will remember your search until you log out, and change the number in the Updates button accordingly. If you want it to remember longer, you can set a default search to take the place of the general default, all changes in the last 30 days.
Finally for today, there’s project searching. In this case, a project means all changes associated with a given EPC exhibit, or change proposal. Searching by date and notation are straightforward enough, but you may want to think of project searching as in beta for now. The editors have long used hidden MARC fields to collocate records updated as part of the same EPC exhibit. Now, WebDewey is making use of these fields so you can look at all changes associated with a given project.
To select specific projects, click the small orange button next to “Selected Projects:”
Keeping in mind what I said about this part being like a beta feature, here’s what you’ll see:
From here, you can check the box for any project(s) you want to search, then click the OK button. By default, WebDewey will use the same time parameters that you’ve already chosen (or the default of the past 30 days if you haven’t). If you’re looking for a particular project, you may need to select a larger time span if the updates aren’t hot out of the oven.
What’s on the left column is directly pulled from the MARC data, while the editors supply the labels that are on the right. This particular screenshot gives you a look under the hood of Dewey data: in the first line, you can see an older format used for EPC exhibit names. In the fourth, you can see a place where multiple exhibits were given in the same field. We plan to work on some data cleanup that will make for a cleaner view here. Oh, and if you see anything under Selected Projects that doesn’t start with EPC… probably best to ignore it. Remember, beta!
I’ll be back with another post on the update notification feature in the coming weeks. I hope this gives you a good starting point to play around with it and see what it can do. As always, your questions and comments are welcome!
*Technically, this only includes changes whose results are visible in WebDewey. Changes we make behind the scenes may not be reflected, but they won’t have a direct impact on how you use WebDewey and make classification decisions.
Hello, there!
I Just want to say that I didn't even know that was even a blog that existed and was dedicated to creating magnificent call numbers using WebDewey, which is an amazing number building program! Ever since I've discovered the blog, I have been the posts going only so far back, up to the most recent post, which was on Nov. 22nd!
I wanted to contact this blog, not with a question, but with a very special request. Here's my story:
I plan to get a tattoo done, which will be of a call number (appropriate enough since I am a Librarian and think it'd be clever if my patrons could read me like a book, in a sense!), but I thought it would be even cooler if this particular call number would be created as my very own (it'll be a made up one, of course), which I plan to have it done on my back, specifically where my spine is (exactly like that on that spine of a book, which is typically where a call number is placed).
Essentially, I thought it would be very cool if I had a call number created and assigned to a book I wrote, just for fun. Ideally, I thought about the kind of DDC call number I would like assigned to a book I'd written would be an autobiography, specifically as a Librarian existing in present day America, written by me as the book's author (again, this is all fictitious, but for fun). My only issue with this is that I'm not a subscribed user to access and use WebDewey, which would have been perfect to use this awesome number building program to experiment in trying to create the perfect DDC call numbers for this purpose.
With all of this in mind, my special request to ask of the fantastical group members of this amazing blog, is this: with your help, would it be possible if the group would be able to create a call number on my behalf, for my tattoo idea? If this is possible, I would be heavily appreciative and indebted to this amazing, knowledgeable group (I am a member of a group on Facebook called Tattooed Librarians and asked the group members there, and with so much support from this group, they suggested I look elsewhere that could help me in fulfilling this special request using WebDewey, specifically).
If this is possible, I'm more than happy to provide the information needed to create a DDC call number for my tattoo, which is all right here:
Author: Chillious, Brieanna
*Fictitious* Title: You Think You Can Read Me So Well? My Life as a Bookish Librarian in 21st Century America
Publication Date: 1990 (The year I was born)
**If a cutter number could be created, using the first letter of my last name and a number behind it, not only would it make it even special, but I'd be filled with such elation!
If not possible, however, I thank you anyway for reading my *somewhat awkward* request, but also well meaning comment, as well.
Otherwise, I'm looking forward to seeing what the next post will be about!
Thank you so much, yet again!
Warmly,
Brieanna
Posted by: Brieanna Chillious | 04 December 2019 at 02:09 AM
Hi Brieanna, sorry I didn't notice your comment earlier! I saw your post on the TCMMF Facebook group, you've got some great suggestions there, but we're happy to provide any further help if you'd like to email [email protected].
This summer we had a post where we featured a few people's Dewey-related tattoos: https://ddc.typepad.com/025431/2019/05/39165-your-dewey-tattoos-revealed.html . I hope your tattoo brings you a lot of joy!
Posted by: Violet Fox | 17 December 2019 at 01:53 PM