EPC 142B-S64.1 Fermented foods and drinks was approved by the Editorial Policy Committee (EPC) at the end of July. Although the focus of the proposal was expanding the provisions for fermented foods and drinks, we also made a few other revisions. We hope these new numbers and new index terms don't leave a sour taste in your mouth.
The previous caption at 641.46, "Pickling, brining, smoking," was somewhat limited, although a class-here note expanded the scope of the class to include all works of food-related chemical preservation. After some discussion with EPC members, we've revised the caption to "Pickling, smoking, other forms of chemical preservation." We're hoping this change, along with new numbers for 641.463 Fermenting and 641.465 Smoking, will help classifiers recognize this as the appropriate place for works about chemical preservation for food.
The idea of "side dishes" is one that's culturally defined, since one person's side dish is another person's main dish—in fact, the editors had an interesting side discussion with one of the EPC members about whether fondue was a main dish or a side dish. While there was already a number for side dishes in general (641.81), we didn't have a good place for works about specific foods that were treated as side dishes, or that are traditionally thought of as side dishes. We've now got ranges of numbers available for those works: 641.8113-641.8117 Side dishes made with a specific food derived from plant crops and domesticated animals, and 641.8119 Side dishes made with game, seafood, miscellaneous foods. As an example of how to use this new range, you can build a number just for works about side dishes made primarily from cabbage, like sauerkraut or kimchi.
We've also added a whole lot of indexing terms to help people find the right class number for specific fermented foods and drinks. For example, kefir and kumiss, both fermented drinks made from various types of animals milk, are now indexed to two numbers: 641.26 Nonalcoholic beverages for works about the beverages themselves, and 641.875 Nonalcoholic beverages for works about preparing those beverages. Works about kombucha, a fermented tea drink, can also be classed at those numbers. More work needs to be done at those classes in the future to provide new numbers for individual beverages—the editorial work is never complete!
Finally, I wanted to point out that the impetus for this exhibit was a comment on this blog. I posted about a few small revisions to the 640s in early April (Flash exhibit: Cooking and baking), and later that month someone mentioned in a comment that it would be a good idea to add numbers for recipe books with fermented foods. We agreed and the result was this exhibit. We really do need your feedback for helping us identify areas where Dewey should be expanded, and we want to work with you to make that happen! On this proposal we were lucky to work with Greta Heng, University of Illinois MLIS student; it is much better than it would have been without her research skills. Take a look at the Dewey Contributors site, where we explain how changes to Dewey happen, and get in touch with us at [email protected] with your ideas.
Comments