025.431: The Dewey blog

Meet OCLC at ALA

Going to ALA Annual in San Diego in June? We invite you to attend our robust selection of sessions. There’s a lot you won’t want to miss, including a panel discussion on artificial intelligence, an introduction to OCLC Meridian and WorldCat Entities, two sessions that focus on public libraries, and a breakfast for the resource sharing community.

You are especially invited to the Cataloging Community Meeting on Friday, June 28 from 10:30 to noon (Pacific time) in the San Diego Convention Center Room 28 A B C. We will provide updates on OCLC products and services that support cataloging activities including our WorldCat Ontology data model, updates to DDC, the OCLC Community Center, results of Phases 1 and 2 of our machine learning WorldCat de-duplication project, and free upcoming webinars about cataloging topics. Half the session will be devoted to a question and answer period with special vintage OCLC swag (!) for those who participate.

Our team will be available in booth #1349 when the exhibits are open, so stop by for a quick conversation and a refreshing beverage.

See full details, including session descriptions and easy registration at oc.lc/ala24. And if you have questions, please contact us at [email protected]. We look forward to seeing you in San Diego.

EPC 145 exhibits ready for review

Starting three weeks from today, the DDC Editorial Policy Committee (EPC) will hold their annual meeting, from 9-11 July. At this meeting, Meeting 145, they will consider a slate of exhibits with proposed changes to the classification. The following exhibits are available for review at our Google Drive page:

• EPC 145-S29.1 Qur'an and branches of Islam
• EPC 145-S32.1 Radicalism
• EPC 145-S32.2 Christian nationalism
• EPC 145-S34.1 Institutions of the European Union
• EPC 145-S36.1 Social problems (discussion paper)
• EPC 145-S36.2 Vaping and vaping devices
• EPC 145-S94.1 Ukrainian history
• EPC 145-T1.1 T1--0285 Computer applications
  • EPC 145-T1.1a T1--0285 Computer applications, other standard subdivisions, geographic information systems
  • EPC 145-T1.1b Libraries and archives; Journalism and publishing
  • EPC 145-T1.1c Sociology and anthropology
  • EPC 145-T1.1d Other social sciences

A special note on that last group: EPC 145-T1.1 is one very large exhibit about the use of standard subdivision T1--0285 and its builds throughout the schedules and tables. The base EPC 145-T1.1 document lays out the general issues involved, and exhibits T1.1a-T1.1d give specific recommendations broadly related to T1--0285 in those areas. So for example, EPC 145-T1.1b is not about general issues related to libraries and archives or journalism and publishing, but about how T1--0285 is used for those disciplines.

At their meeting, EPC will discuss and vote on these proposals. If you have feedback, we welcome comments here, via email, or directly to EPC members. While we'll always do our best to accommodate later comments, it's best to make your voice heard before the first day of the meeting, 9 July.

If you'd like to propose a change for EPC's future consideration, just check the DDC contributors page at oc.lc/DeweyContributors to get started. I hope to hear from you!

Attend the OCLC cataloging community virtual meeting

Did you miss the panel presentation on the optional arrangement in the 200s at this year's PLA conference? It was well attended, but statistically speaking, you probably did miss it! Fortunately (and by popular demand--really!), we'll be re-running it at the OCLC cataloging community meeting, a free and open event June 21, 2:00-4:30 EDT. The first part of the meeting is the presentation.

Increase religious equity by reclassifying Dewey 200s 

In 2019, OCLC provided an alternate arrangement for the Dewey Decimal Classification system’s religion section (200s), which organizes religious subjects more equitably by chronology and geography, rather than centering on Christianity. You’ll hear from OCLC about the new arrangement, and from two public libraries that implemented it. You’ll also get tools to make it easy to increase access and equity in your collection by doing the same. 

Panelists:

• • Emily McDonald, Lawrence (Kansas) Public Library
  • Elizabeth McKinstry, Springfield (Massachusetts) City Public Library
  • Matthew Vasquez Jaquith, Springfield (Massachusetts) City Public Library 
  • Alex Kyrios, OCLC

Then stick around for Q&A and OCLC updates:

• • Learn about OCLC’s linked data strategy and how we’re integrating linked data into current and future cataloging workflows. We’ll also discuss OCLC Meridian and how we’re incorporating WorldCat Entities linked data into various library datasets for use in cataloging and discovery. 
  • Hear about how WorldCat records are continually enriched and how you can automatically receive the updated records to use in your catalog. 
  • Discover how recent WorldShare Collection Manager enhancements can support and simplify your e-resource workflows.  

Even if you can't attend live, registrants will get access to a recording after the event. Interested? Register here. Hope to see you there!