025.431: The Dewey blog

Eastern European Classification webinar

Next week, the Catholic Library Association will host a webinar on Eastern European Classification. The event will be live 3:00-4:00 Eastern on Wednesday, January 15. I’ll be speaking on last year’s updates for Ukrainian history, their context in relation to neighboring countries, and possible avenues for future updates. You’ll also hear from Heidi Berthoud (Library of Congress), who will describe similar changes in Library of Congress Classification.

You don’t need to be a Catholic Library Association member to attend. Please see the event page for registration and full details. Hope to see you there!

EPC 145A exhibits ready for review

The DDC Editorial Policy Committee (EPC) will hold their next asynchronous meeting from January 6-31. At this meeting, Meeting 145A, 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 145A-S8.1 830-890 Literatures of specific language families and classical literatures
• EPC 145A-S13.1 Natal astrology
• EPC 145A-S39.1 394 General customs
• EPC 145A-S51.1 Calculators
• EPC 145A-S93.1 Geographic treatment of archaeology
• EPC 145A-T1.1 T1--068 Management
• EPC 145A-T2.1 Provinces of Saudi Arabia

As always, I invite any interested users to review and comment on these proposals. You may do so here on the blog, via email, or at the DDC contributors forum at oc.lc/DeweyContributors. You can also share your comments directly with members of EPC.

New historical periods for Ukraine

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.

EPC 145 changes live in WebDewey

EPC Meeting 145 concluded with all exhibits ultimately approved. Some were subject to amendment, so as usual, what you see in the Google Drive is what was proposed, not necessarily the final version that was approved. Always consult WebDewey for the most authoritative information.* Fortunately, all of the changes from EPC 145 are already live there! Keep an eye on the Dewey blog in September for posts highlighting some of those changes.

Regular readers may know what I'm going to say now: you, too, can be a part of the editorial process! We're always accepting suggestions for changes big and small. You can use the "Help Revise the DDC" form in the WebDewey footer, email us, comment here... as long as your message gets to us, there's no wrong way to do it. You could see your work in the DDC in the next round of revisions--or even earlier.

*Oh yeah, and speaking of things that are live, there's a little thing called Dewey linked data you can browse now! Explore the summaries freely, or log on with your existing English WebDewey account to see the whole thing in all six languages. Stay tuned for more information.

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!

EPC 144A exhibits ready for review

The DDC Editorial Policy Committee (EPC) will hold their next asynchronous meeting from 8 January-2 February. At this meeting, Meeting 144A, 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 144A-S33.1 Cryptocurrency and blockchains
• EPC 144A-S34.1 340 Computers in law
• EPC 144A-T2.1 Provinces of Afghanistan
• EPC 144A-T2.2 Subdivisions of Morocco
• EPC 144A-T2.3 Provinces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo
• EPC 144A-T6.1 Luxembourgish

As always, I invite any interested users to review and comment on these proposals. You may do so here on the blog, via email, or at the DDC contributors forum at oc.lc/DeweyContributors. You can also share your comments directly with members of EPC.

New Table 2 notation for Bangkok

With the exception of a cold snap around Christmas, it’s been a very mild winter here in Washington, DC. Still, it’s nice to think of somewhere warmer. Bangkok, perhaps. We had a request from Jamie King, a public librarian in Illinois, to provide for Bangkok in Table 2 due to high literary warrant.

According to Wikipedia, “Bangkok is among the world's top tourist destinations, and has been named the world's most visited city consistently in several international rankings.” It’s also a major example of a primate city. That’s a fun concept to share with any geography nerds in your life (I say, as one of them), where a city is disproportionately large in population and influence within a country. In fact, Bangkok is ten times larger than Chiang Mai, the country’s second largest city.

You see where I’m going with this. This week, we authorized T2—5933 Bangkok, continued from T2—593 Thailand. Now you can express Bangkok wherever standard subdivisions are used. While the basic structure of 930-990 is built from Table 2 anyway, we also explicitly gave 959.33 Bangkok, for the history of the city, and special provisions to express specific concepts (e.g., ethnic groups) or time periods in it.

When we develop a country in Table 2, we usually give all of its first-level subdivisions, which the editorial rules allow. Why didn’t we do that with Thailand? The simple answer is that with more than 70 provinces, it would have taken a while, and there’s strong literary warrant for Bangkok now. In consultation with volunteer Winton Matthews, we identified the 3-subdivision specifically as where we’d put Bangkok anyway if we had developed for the whole country. And again, because of its importance, it would have had four-digit T2 notation directly under the main Thailand number regardless.

There’s one other country where we’ve given a single subdivision in Table 2. Can you find it?

EPC 143A exhibits available for review

In January, we'll have Electronic Meeting 143A of the Editorial Policy Committee (EPC). You can view the following revision proposals at oc.lc/deweyexhibits: 

• EPC 143A-S29.1 - 297.48 Sufi orders
• EPC 143A-S30.1 - Movement of people and 325 International migration and colonization
• EPC 143A-S73.1 - 730 Sculpture and related arts
• EPC 143A-S94.1 - Ionian Islands
• EPC 143A-T1.1 - Further updates to terminology for groups of people

EPC will be voting on these the week of January 30-February 3. Please share any feedback, positive or negative! You can do so by commenting on this post, posting to the the Dewey Contributors Google Group, or by email to [email protected] or an EPC member.

Table 2 updates: Kosovo and the Philippines

The changes approved at EPC 143 include two substantive updates to Table 2. We have provided new notation for Kosovo, and updated the previously incomplete coverage of Philippine provinces.

Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008 as the Republic of Kosovo. Roughly half of the world’s countries recognize Kosovo as independent. Serbia considers the area to be the Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija, part of Serbia.

The new notation for Kosovo, T2—49719, has both Kosovo i Metohija and Republic of Kosovo in its class-here note, indicating that the notation can be used regardless of where one falls on this divide. It follows the DDC’s principle of organizing Table 2 by geography rather than political boundaries necessarily.

Discussion at the EPC raised the interesting question of what this change meant for the neutrality or impartiality of the DDC. Does adding such notation not implicitly take a side, and say that Kosovo is independent? The change was not motivated by a desire to take a side, but we recognized that not making a change might also be seen as implicitly taking a side (i.e., that Kosovo’s declaration of independence was illegitimate).

More informed people than me have written on whether libraries are, can be, or should be “neutral”, often with very different ideas of what that means, but the case of Kosovo in the DDC certainly feels like a case where true neutrality – think not naming any country – would greatly hamper utility.

Over in the Philippines, things are much more straightforward, at least in that it was just a matter of giving fuller coverage of the country in Table 2. With the recent changes, we’ve gone from seven Table 2 numbers under T2—599 Philippines to 102!

Unlike many countries, the Philippines has a clear basis for organization in Table 2 before political boundaries: its islands. Indeed, besides T2—59916 National Capital Region (former caption: Manila), all of the notation previously only went as far as four digits, for major islands and island groupings.

The recent changes were primarily about providing for the country’s 81 provinces, though we also accounted for the 17 organizing regions. Most of the provinces were previously in including notes. T2—5991 Luzon island and adjacent islands was particularly crowded! Here’s how it looked in the print DDC 23:

My thanks to the user in the Philippines who got the ball rolling on this some time ago. What’s next for Table 2? Expect some expansions in South Asia and Central Asia, along with some updates for countries that have reorganized, like Morocco and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

 

Results of EPC 143

The Editorial Policy Committee (EPC) met virtually in June to consider the slate of exhibits finalized back in May. Most were approved, and you’ll be seeing them rolling out into WebDewey in the coming weeks. (One is already there! More on that soon.)

Two exhibits were sent back for further work:

• EPC 143-S29.1c - 297.48 Sufi orders
• EPC 143-S30.1 - 304.8 Movement of people

For EPC 143-S29.1c, there was consensus among the committee that more specific Sufi orders should be provided for, beyond those proposed in the exhibit. We welcome feedback from users around the world, or anyone with interest or expertise in the topic, even if they aren’t users, to help represent Sufi orders that are frequently the subject of published literature.

On EPC 143-S30.1, the topic is just complicated! Where do you class a work on immigration to a specific country, emigration from a country, or works that cover both? When does a work on immigration belong with community sociology or political science instead of the interdisciplinary number? We’ll revisit the issue at the next electronic EPC meeting, towards the end of this year.

Keep checking the blog for posts highlighting specific changes from EPC 143 as they’re added to WebDewey, but keep your eye on the WebDewey updates feed too, as not every exhibit will necessarily lead to a blog post.

Last but certainly not least, there are a few new (and returning!) faces joining EPC, and that will lead to a blog post!