One of the recent changes from EPC Meeting 145 is an entirely new development for the historical periods of Ukraine. Previously, Ukraine’s historical periods were primarily built using the table at 947.5-947.9 European countries of former Soviet Union other than Russia; Caucasus area of Russia. That’s a long caption, but it accurately conveys what’s within, namely, that European countries (besides Russia) formerly part of the Soviet Union shared historical periods, which closely followed those of Russia itself.
The exception? Ancient history, where Ukraine to the year 640 classed at 939.52 Sarmatia. This left no way to represent Ukrainian history from 640 to 1796, although some classifiers did so by adding the respective period notation from Russia, following the spirit, if not the letter, of the 947.5-947.9 table.
In the aftermath of the Soviet Union’s dissolution, shared historical periods for these countries made more sense, as each faced common issues with reestablishing independence. But 30 years later, some differentiation was called for, especially in the case of Ukraine with Russia’s invasion of the country. Our colleagues at the Library of Congress came to a similar conclusion, recently redoing the history of Ukraine in Library of Congress Classification (LCC).
The change in the DDC was driven in large part by former Editor in Residence Kathryn Becker. Together, she and I investigated the LCC changes. We’re also indebted to Dr. Slava Zavalin, assistant professor of library and information science at Texas Woman’s University and a former teacher of Kathryn’s, for his input.
Trying to fit new historical periods into the existing framework of 947.707-947.947.708 would have been difficult. We proposed a complete revision, like LCC had done, which EPC ultimately agreed to. The new development can be found at 947.701-947.706 Historical periods of Ukraine. This also means you should be able to tell at a glance when a work on Ukrainian history was classed, as 947.707-947.708 are no longer valid.
One special number I’ll highlight is 947.7062 2014-, which covers the larger Russo-Ukrainian war that started in that year as well as the 2022 invasion and ongoing conflict. An instruction there authorizes addition from the “war table” at 940-990, allowing classifiers to build numbers such as 947.70622 for diplomatic history of the war, 947.70627 prisoners of war, etc.
When classifying works on the Russo-Ukrainian war, don’t forget to refer to the guidance at the 930-990 Manual note. Most works on the war will class at 947.7062 unless they fit one of the exceptions noted there, e.g., everyday life in Kyiv province during the period 947.77062, effect of the war on life in Russia 947.0864.
How about the other countries that add from 947.5-947.9? We decided to take things one step at a time, and will be happy to work with anyone who’s interested in creating developments for those countries’ historical periods. I think Ukraine will be a good precedent for totally redoing those countries’ periods, but if we can maintain backward compatibility with the numbers built from 947.5-947.9, that’s good too. Stay tuned!
You can explore these changes in WebDewey, and they’ll appear in print-on-demand versions from 2025 onward.
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