025.431: The Dewey blog

EPC 143 exhibits ready for review

The Editorial Policy Committee (EPC) will meet virtually in early June for their Meeting 143. Dates and times will vary based on members' availability. You can view the following revision proposals at oc.lc/deweyexhibits:

• EPC 143-S29.1a - Introduction, Islam and secular disciplines
• EPC 143-S29.1b - 297.38 Rites, ceremonies, prayer, meditation
• EPC 143-S29.1c - 297.48 Sufi orders
• EPC 143-S29.1d - 297.54 Zakat
• EPC 143-S29.1e - 297.576 Individual observances
• EPC 143-S30.1 - 304.8 Movement of people
• EPC 143-S30.2 - Disasters as causes of social change
• EPC 143-S74.1 - Graphic design and communication design
• EPC 143-T1.2 - Terminology in T1--08 Groups of people
• EPC 143-T2.1 - Kosovo
• EPC 143-T2.2 - T2--599 Philippines
• EPC 143-T6.1 - T6--9549 Eastern Himalayan languages; T5--9549 Eastern Himalayan peoples

(To paraphrase guidance we give on the Summaries, Consult exhibits for complete and exact titles.)

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.

Collected biographies in 930-990

Recently, I wrote about individual biographies in 930-990. To quickly recap, individual biographies typically should go elsewhere unless they’re for historians, historic figures, or ordinary people used as examples of life in a certain period.

With collected biographies in this area too, be careful in applying standard subdivisions. The large add table at 930-990 plays a similar role to typical standard subdivisions here. Notably absent from this table is an equivalent notation to T1—092 Biography. That doesn’t mean you can’t use T1—092 at all in the 900s, just that you usually need to go to a specific period. Ordinary people go in the period in which they live; public figures typically go with the highest office they attained, or when they were most prominent. What about a historian who specializes in the entirety of a country’s history? Then you can use 930-990:007202 Historians and historiographers. So a biography of a historian of all of Chinese history could class at 951.007202, though one who specialized in Ming dynasty history would class at 951.026092.

Collected biographies, then, are the main reason you’d add biographical notation to the broadest number for an individual country’s history. Notation 930-990:0099 Collected biography is for “Description, critical appraisal, biography of people associated with the history of the continent, country, locality but limited to no specific period”. For example, use 954.0099 for collected biographies of people from India across time. In practice, these are often works that describe national leaders and other famous figures, but the same treatment would apply for ordinary people, whose lives illustrate the place over time.

Either way, if you’re simply adding T1—092 to the broadest number for a country’s history, that’s a mistake! If you’re tempted to do so, the right answer depends on the work you’re classifying.

Individual biographies in 930-990

If you’re used to standard subdivisions, it can be easy to slip into “autopilot” when classifying. Working on a biography? Add T1—092 Biography to the end. Like many heuristics, or mental shortcuts, this can save you time, but make sure you’re keeping an eye out for exceptions. Don’t do this if you’ve already added another standard subdivision, for example (although, because T1—092 is quite high on the Table 1 table of preference, you might well want to replace the other standard subdivision with –092!).

One big area where you should be careful with biographies is the 900s. This post will focus on 930-990, for the history of specific places. As you probably know, standard DDC practice is to class biographies in the respective subject area, usually with –092 at the end, e.g., 020.92 for a biography of S.R. Ranganathan. What sort of biographies belong in 930-990? Our guide here is the extensive 930-990 Manual note, and specifically the Biography section.

This note covers “biographies of persons who lived during the historical period and also for biographies of historians and historiographers of that period”. But this does not override the general practice described in the previous paragraph here. Ranganathan lived in 20^th-century India, but a biography of him would not class at 954.04 1947-1971 in Indian history.

So what do we mean by “persons who lived during the historical period”? It could mean a biography of an “ordinary” person, used as an illustration of what life was like in that place and time. Consider this example, a diary of a teenager in 1920s Portland, Oregon. Its DDC number, 979.549042092, has –092 added to a built number for Multnomah County, Oregon in 1918-1945. The Manual note we’re referring to specifically allows the use of –092 here even when the subject doesn’t approximate the whole.

You could also be in 930-990 for an individual biography of a public figure. National leaders, such as presidents, prime ministers, and monarchs, should typically have their biographies at the highest office they reached. Even when there’s a specific number for a leader’s administration, such as 973.932 Administration of Barack Obama, 2009-2017, add –092 if appropriate. A comprehensive biography on Barack Obama himself would class at 973.932092. Consult the Manual note for T1—092 for more information on biographies of public figures.

Finally, individual biographies of historians and historiographers class at the historical place and period they studied, plus –092. This means they could share a number with some of their subjects. Works classed at 942.055092 (base number 942.055 Reign of Elizabeth I, 1558-1603) could include biographies of Elizabeth I herself as well as historians of Elizabethan England, regardless of where and when those historians lived.

I hope you’ve found this helpful! Stay tuned for a future blog post on collected biographies in 930-990.

EPC 142D exhibits available for review

This week marks the start of Electronic Meeting 142D of the Editorial Policy Committee (EPC). You can view the following revision proposals at oc.lc/deweyexhibits: 

• EPC 142D-S39.1 - Wedding planning and other events associated with customs
  • EPC 142D-S39.1a - Wedding planning
  • EPC 142D-S39.1b - Customs and associated events
• EPC 142D-S54.1 - Geographic treatment of minerals and mineralogy
• EPC 142D-S61.1 - 615.53 General therapeutic systems
• EPC 142D-S79.1 - Geocaching
• EPC 142D-S98.1 - Presidents of Colombia
• EPC 142D-T2.1 - Provinces of Bulgaria

EPC will be voting on these the last week in April. 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.

New T2 notation: Provinces of Nepal

Back in 2015, Nepal adopted a new constitution. Among other things, it divided the country into seven provinces. The provinces were initially unnamed, and the provincial legislatures were tasked with selecting permanent names for themselves.

A few years later, librarians from Nepal contacted the Dewey editorial team at an IFLA conference to request provision for the provinces in Table 2. At the time, there was just a single notation for the country at T2—5496.

Initially, we thought to wait until all seven provinces had names, but after further correspondence with librarians in Nepal, we drew up a development providing official names where available and numbers for the rest. Five of the seven provinces now have names. The Editorial Policy Committee approved the update, so you’ll now see the following for Nepal in WebDewey:

As you’ll see, we’ve also provided numbers for the named provinces, for consistency’s sake. Once the remaining two provinces receive names, we’ll provide them and remove the numbers from the captions, though we plan to keep index terms like “Province No. 1 (Nepal)” in the WebDewey Relative Index.

Note that while T2—5496 is still the notation for comprehensive works on the Himalayas, Mount Everest has been continued to T2—54961.

I’d like to thank the volunteers who helped with this development, including the librarians and education ministry officials from Nepal who thoroughly reviewed the proposal and suggested improvements.

Joe Biden in the DDC

Yesterday, we added a new number to the classification:

973.934 Administration of Joseph R. Biden, Jr., 2021-

I wrote last year about how we maintain the numbers for leaders of countries in the history schedules. Yesterday’s publication also closed out the time span in the caption of 973.933, for Biden’s predecessor. Browse in the Relative Index and you’ll see the following:

What’s the difference between these two terms? Future works about Joe Biden himself, such as biographies, belong at 973.934092 (T1—092 Biography added to the new number). Works about Biden’s whole administration just belong at 973.934. The Relative Index term reflects that this number is for Biden as a subject in American history.

Now, I said future works about Joe Biden. See the Manual note T1—092 (WebDewey link), especially the section “Public figures”. It explains that you should classify comprehensive works based on the highest office a person reaches, unless there’s a compelling reason to do otherwise. Generally, someone elected US president will have had biographies about them before. There is no need to reclassify biographies of Biden as a legislator (328.73092, such as Promises to keep) or a vice president (973.932092, such as Promise Me, Dad), but for future works that also cover his presidency, prefer 973.934092.

Finally, we can’t forget Kamala Harris, the new vice president, and the first woman, first African American, and first Asian American to hold that office. Although we don’t name vice presidents in the schedules, they class with the presidential administration in which they served. The Manual note referred to above says, “Use 930-990 for monarchs, presidents, other heads of state, prime ministers, vice presidents, and regents, using the number for the period during which they held office.” Still, I went ahead and mapped the Library of Congress name authority record for Harris to 973.934092. No need to reclassify works on her, either. For now, it’s the best place for biographies of her going forward, but as Biden himself shows, “highest office reached” often doesn’t stop there.

Results of electronic meeting EPC 142C

During the month of October, the Dewey Editorial Policy Committee (EPC) reviewed seven exhibits. Six were approved, with one sent back for further work. This post will summarize changes from these exhibits; consult WebDewey, where all changes are live, for full details.

EPC 142C-S02.1 Library programs has introduced a new class, 025.57 Library programs on specific subjects. You can add up to three digits to this base number from 001-999 for specific subjects, such as 025.578 for creative writing programs, or 025.57929 for genealogy programs. Just keep in mind the class-elsewhere note at 025.5. Works on programs on specific subjects for specific groups will go with the group (e.g., 027.625 for children).

EPC 142C-S20.1 Religious conversion authorizes 204.24 Conversion in comparative religion, which was formerly in an including note at 204.2. For a while now, the DDC has had numbers for conversion in specific religions (e.g., 248.24 for Christianity), but not for the idea of religious conversion more broadly.

Look for a full blog post about EPC 142C-S41.1 Sign languages soon!

EPC 142C-S62.1 Arms and armor resolves some issues with 623.441 Small arms of pre-firearm origin ("Weaponry of prefirearm origin" before the changes). This expansion authorizes six new subclasses for specific types of weapons, e.g., 623.4416 Bows and arrows, and also develops for new numbers under 623.42 Specific pieces of artillery. Armor is still stuck in this "weapons" hierarchy, now at 623.4418 Armor, but hopefully the situation is more clear than before!

EPC 142C-T2.1 Counties of Kenya and EPC 142-T2.2 Regions of Denmark give more specific Table 2 notation for those two countries.

This leaves EPC 142C-S36.1 Vaping and vaping devices. This is an area that Dewey users have rated as a high priority for future development, but EPC had questions about this proposal, and we want to make sure we get it right. Expect to hear more about this in the future.

Special thanks go out to our community volunteers who worked on these proposals: Julianne Beall, Michael Cantlon, Bradley Carrington, Josh Hall, and Winton Matthews.

One for the history books

A few DDC users have recently asked about a perennial issue: classifying topics as history in the 900s vs. elsewhere in the schedules. Does putting a topic in the 900s diminish it, segregating it into history, or honor it, by recognizing it as historical importance? We can’t answer that for you; that depends on your collection, and your perspective. But we can run through some of the relevant guidance in the classification.

Our first stop is the Manual note for 900. It starts as follows:

Use 900 for the story of events that have transpired, or an account of the conditions that have prevailed, in a particular place or region. Use 001-899 for the history of a specific subject [plus standard subdivision T1—09]

That may be the easy part. Since the DDC is organized first by discipline, works of history go in the 900s, while history of a topic in another discipline usually goes with the topic, with a standard subdivision to indicate history.

How about if a work is about a specific event? The same Manual note says:

Depending upon their impact, class specific events either in 900 or in specific disciplines in 001-899. Use 930-990 for events that are important enough to affect the general social life and history of the place, regardless of any discipline involved, e.g., the sinking of the Lusitania 940.4514; the assassination of Abraham Lincoln 973.7092; the 1906 San Francisco earthquake 979.461051.

It’s not necessarily wrong to find works about such events outside of the 900s if that’s the disciplinary focus—the note gives as an example a number in the 360s about the assassination of John F. Kennedy in the discipline of criminology.

This, too, is easy enough, if we’re talking about events that occurred over 100 years ago. What about recent events? Then, guidance like “events that are important enough to affect the general social life and history of the place” can sound pretty subjective. Consider the author’s perspective: do they describe the event as an important historical one? The Manual note instructs you to prefer 900 if in doubt.

To sum up, here are a few points to consider when classifying such works:

1. What’s the discipline of the work? If it’s framed as history, you probably want the 900s.
2. Did the event described by the work have broad, enduring importance? If so, you probably want the 900s.
3. If in doubt whether the event had historic importance, prefer the 900s.

I’ll explore this same question about the 900s vs. the rest of the schedules in relation to groups of people in a forthcoming blog post. Stay tuned, and feel free to reach out with comments or questions!

Of kings and presidents, or, the situation in Malaysia

You might not think that the resignation of Malaysia’s prime minister would have much to do with Dewey. But the (ex-)prime minister is found in the schedules, at 959.5063 Second prime ministership of Mahathir bin Mohamad, 2018- (as the caption implies, he’s also at another number, 959.5054).

Malaysia is one of many countries whose history is subdivided by national leaders in the 900s. Table 1 provides standard subdivisions for time periods (e.g., T1—0905 21^st century, 2000-2099), but decades and centuries aren’t necessarily meaningful subdivisions in the history of individual countries’ histories. Administrations provide natural time periods specific to their respective countries.

As in all areas, the editorial team aims to keep the schedules up to date in these areas. But you shouldn’t necessarily take them for an absolutely up-to-date almanac. There’s also something to be said for stability in the classification, and we don’t want to make a change one day just to have to change it again soon after. It’s likely that at 959.5063, we’ll end up closing the date range (2018-2020) and establishing a new number for Mahathir’s successor. But he could be reinstated, or this could mark the beginning of a shift in how Malaysia is governed; we’ll wait until there’s clarity in what comes next before we make changes.

Bolivia is a similar situation, with 984.0542 Administration of Evo Morales Ayma, 2006- still open despite Morales no longer being in office. Bolivia has an acting president, and it’s very unlikely that we would provide for an acting leader in the classification.

One important note about how the DDC makes these divisions: though the Dewey editors work out of the Library of Congress, the classification is an OCLC product, not a US government work. While we often follow LCSH practice, we don’t have to reflect US foreign policy like LCSH does. True neutrality may not be possible in classification, but we intend for these divisions to be as neutral and descriptive as possible.

There are 66 countries whose history is subdivided by their head of state or head of government. Why some but not others? Administrations work best when they are changed regularly and stably. This tends to exclude many parliamentary governments under the Westminster system, whose prime ministers may change frequently based on confidence votes. It works well for countries that elect presidents at regular intervals.

Most of the 66 countries are led by a president or chancellor. Only five are subdivided by prime ministerships, Malaysia among them. And only six countries have their current histories subdivided by monarchs. For you Dewey trivia enthusiasts, those are Belgium, Jordan, Morocco, the Netherlands, Spain, and Thailand. Surprised not to see the United Kingdom there? Elizabeth II’s reign is in a class-here note at 941.085 1945-1999. The last British monarch given in a caption is George V, who reigned 1910 to 1936.

Nothing is set in stone in the classification, including these developments. Just because a country isn’t subdivided by administrations now doesn’t mean it never will be. (It’s possible we could stop subdividing a country by administrations, but that’s less likely.) Think we should give another country this treatment? We’d love to work with you to explore the possibility!

EPC 142A exhibits available

For the next four weeks, the Editorial Policy Committee will hold its electronic Meeting 142A via listserv. We welcome all comments on the following proposals, available on the Dewey Google Drive:

• EPC 142A-S28.1 286.63 Restoration movement--Specific denominations
• EPC 142A-S36.1 362.88 Victims of crime; 364.1 Criminal offenses
• EPC 142A-S52.1 Cartography, map making vs. Maps
• EPC 142A-S62.1 Sanitary engineering for rural and sparsely populated areas
• EPC 142A-S96.1 ANC presidents discussion paper

The committee will vote on the exhibits in the first full week of March. You can give feedback here, in the Google Group, or by email to [email protected] or an EPC member.

Interested in being a part of this process? Browse info for contributors, or join our webinar tomorrow. We'd love to work with you!