025.431: The Dewey blog

LCSH in WebDewey

I always enjoy going through the answers of our user surveys. One that has come up a few times, including the most recent one, is a desire for more mapped LCSH in WebDewey. I hear you! Mappings are a prime example of the value you can get out of WebDewey that just aren't practical in print.

Our current mapping of LCSH tends to be ad hoc. When we're working a certain area, we'll look for relevant LCSH to add on. Once upon a time, the editorial team tried to map all new LCSH every week. That quickly became more than we could chew! And if you've ever seen a mapped LCSH for a really obscure or specific topic, it may well have come from this. As you may know, the bar for authorizing an LCSH is much lower than that for a new Dewey number.

One comment on LCSH mapping in particular intrigued me:

More LC subject headings within the schedules as those tend to be more useful than Relative Index terms. Or at least make them match more

In years past, the editorial team often specifically chose not to map LCSH that were an exact or close match for a Relative Index term. While I can see the logic there, it's not a practice I've maintained. If you browse LCSH in WebDewey, for example, a heading that's not there just isn't there--an equivalent Relative Index term doesn't help.

Of course, it's a different story with keyword searching, which doesn't care about the source of a term. For that reason, I've often created Relative Index terms that differ from their equivalent LCSH--not to be contrarian, but to enhance keyword accessibility. We also have more flexibility with Relative Index terms. For example, we could give two Relative Index terms for close concepts that are clumped into a single LCSH, or use a more internationally recognized version of a US-centric term.

So my questions for you...

1. What are some specific areas (or even specific numbers) that you'd like to see more LCSH added to?
2. Do you prefer Relative Index terms that closely match LCSH, or do you want them to diverge?
3. Any other suggestions related to LCSH in WebDewey?

Flash exhibit: traveling and Travellers

The COVID-19 pandemic has given the world a different perspective on traveling, and here in the U.S., many are still staying close to home to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. I've been thinking a lot about the joys of travel lately, which spurred the development of this flash exhibit discussing travel and Travellers.

Even those who are traveling freely within their countries or outside of them have a new perspective on health while traveling these days. In Dewey the relevant number is 613.68 Travel health. To add more access to direct classifiers to this number, I've added a new RI term for Tourism—health and mapped the LCSH Travel—health aspects.

Even if we can't travel in real life, we can enjoy artwork dedicated to travel. Books focusing on the artistic aspects of travel posters are favorites of mine, so I've mapped the LCSH Travel posters to 741.674 Commercial posters. I've also added a new built number 741.6740993 Posters—arts—New Zealand, to demonstrate the pattern in that area.

One of my favorite New Zealand travel posters from the television show "Flight of the Conchords" (shared with my sincere admiration for such a successful campaign against COVID-19!)

Speaking of travels, I found an opportunity to update the provisions we have in Dewey for the ethnic groups of Travelling People in Great Britain. LCSH has four different headings, which correspond to the recognition of these groups by UK and Ireland law:

• Irish Travellers (Nomadic people)
• Scottish Travellers (Nomadic people)
• English Travellers (Nomadic people)
• Welsh Travellers (Nomadic people)

To clarify how the LC subject headings relate to Dewey's Table 5 numbers for groups of people, I've added additional mappings.

• At T5—916 Celts, I've mapped the LC heading Irish Travellers (Nomadic people)
• At T5—91497 Romany people, I've mapped the LC headings English Travellers (Nomadic people) and Welsh Travellers (Nomadic people)
• The Scotland community has two groups of Travellers, one of Gaelic origin and the other of Romani origin. So I've mapped the LC heading Scottish Travellers (Nomadic people) to both numbers, T5—916 and T5—91497.

Of course these identities cannot be cleaved as cleanly as this mapping makes it seem, and different identities have merged and split throughout the centuries (read more about the complex history and culture of Gypsy, Roma, and Irish Traveller Communities in Britain). But indexing these headings in WebDewey can give catalogers a good place to start in finding the best place to classify a work.

If you're unfamiliar with these ethnic groups and want to learn more, this five-minute video is charming and informative: "Roads from the Past: A Short History of Britain's Gypsies, Roma, and Travellers".

 Wishing safe travels to all, whether down the block or further afield.

Summer Draws to a Close

A mid-August post here introduced Violet Fox, our summer intern.   Today marks the end of summer in the northern hemisphere, so perhaps it is fitting that today is also the last day of Violet’s internship.

Those of us who have been around Washington, D.C. for years are amazed at all that Violet crammed into one summer:  the White House, the Capitol, the Supreme Court, the Folger Theatre/Library, the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the Smithsonian.  Impressive, yes.  But what’s mind-blowing are the things she did that those of us who live here have never done and may never do:  a tour of the Executive Office of the President Library, a ride on the United States Capitol subway system, a tour of the dome of the United States Capitol.  You can share in some of her experiences by viewing the photos she took.

From the above, you might think Violet was at least a half-time tourist.  But she was productive in reviewing and correcting LCSH mappings.  In August, we noted, “Halfway through her internship, over 1500 upgraded mappings have been distributed to WebDewey; it would be more, but as reviewers we can’t keep up with Violet!”  As her internship concludes, she has processed somewhere between 5000 and 6000 mappings.  In the months to come, these will be distributed to WebDewey, including more personal names, as well as corporate names and uniform titles.

We will miss your energy and enthusiasm, Violet!  Our best wishes go with you.

Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego? or, more to the point, Who in the World is Violet Fox?

You may have wondered when reading last week's post on synchronized swimming and rhythmic gymnastics exactly who the author—Violet Fox—is.  If you have followed our nascent tweeting, you know that Violet is our summer intern.  If you are at IFLA and have read the DDC newsletter, you also know that Violet is working on a project to get additional Library of Congress Subject Heading mappings into WebDewey. 

Hmm, summer intern? you may ask; tell me more.  Over recent years, OCLC has supported both a Diversity Fellowship Program and a Diversity and Inclusion Internship Program.  We have been fortunate enough, both this summer and last, to snag one of the intern positions.  Last summer it was Alex Kyrios, who had just received his MSLS degree from the School of Information and Library Science at the University of North Carolina.  This summer it is Violet Fox, who is in the midst of her MLIS program in the Information School at the University of Washington. 

What does a summer intern for Dewey do?  Last year, Alex helped us in our preparations for the publication of Abridged 15.  This year, Violet is leveraging her past work experience with MARC records, especially name authority records, to analyze and verify potential mappings of Library of Congress Subject Headings to Dewey.  As many of you know, the predecessor of WebDewey 2.0 included a set of LCSH/DDC mappings from People, Places & Things, designated as PPT mappings.  Many of these derived from statistical associations between LCSH and Dewey in WorldCat.  However, since the 2001 publication of People, Places & Things, a variety of changes have taken place in the DDC.  A small percentage of PPT mappings were upgraded during the life of DDC 22, and those that matched regular LCSH mappings in place were eliminated from separate treatment as PPT mappings in conjunction with the development of DDC 23.  We decided not to display the rest of the PPT mappings in  DDC 23 records in WebDewey until we could evaluate the mappings and the ongoing usefulness of the terms—Violet and the rest of the Dewey editorial team have begun the process of reviewing and upgrading them for re-inclusion there.  At the same time, classifiers within the Dewey Section at the Library of Congress have, across the years, maintained a card file of persons—Juli and I came up last year with an estimate that ca. 200,000 personal names are included there—indicating appropriate DDC numbers for their comprehensive works, as well as appropriate numbers for works by or about the person in relevant disciplines.  Working in the Dewey Editorial Office within the Library of Congress, Violet’s work addresses both the continued absence of most of the PPT mappings from WebDewey and the inaccessibility of the card file to classifiers outside the Library of Congress.  That work initially focused on literary authors, then on fictional characters, then on other personal names.  (We acknowledge the assistance our OCLC Research colleague Diane Vizine-Goetz has provided in identifying highly posted literary authors and fictitious characters; Diane also assembled the data for the original PPT mappings.)  Before her internship concludes, we expect Violet will address cooking and perhaps other areas.  As various tweets have indicated, after Violet’s work is reviewed, the mappings are being distributed to WebDewey.  Halfway through her internship, over 1500 upgraded mappings have been distributed to WebDewey; it would be more, but as reviewers we can’t keep up with Violet!  So we slowed her down a little by giving her the opportunity to contribute to the Dewey blog . . .

WebDewey and Library of Congress Subject Headings

Among the Library of Congress Subject Headings mapped to Dewey numbers in earlier versions of WebDewey were some labeled "PPT" because they came from the 2001 publication People, Places & Things: A List of Popular Library of Congress Subject Headings with Dewey Numbers. Those headings were not included in WebDewey 2.0 because the mappings needed to be updated. 

The process of updating has begun.  Thus far, PPT headings mapped to 500–599 have been updated and restored to WebDewey.  The headings are no longer labeled "PPT" because they are now like other editorially mapped headings; there is no longer a need to warn users that they may be out of date.  A few examples may illustrate.

The LCSH "Polynomials" is now mapped to 512.9422 Polynomial equations.  The history box for that number has this information:

expanded from 512.942
2003, Edition 22

In PPT, the LCSH "Polynomials" was mapped to the old number, 512.942.  An example of a work with the LCSH "Polynomials" classed in 512.9422 Polynomial equations is Polynomials.

(To learn more about the history box now available in WebDewey, see the previous blogs "WebDewey 2.0 Enhancements" and "Expansions from DDC 22 to DDC 23.")

The LCSH "Algorithms" is now mapped to 518.1 Algorithms.  The history box for that number has this information:

formerly located in 511.8
2003, Edition 22

In PPT, the LCSH "Algorithms" was mapped to the old number, 511.8.  An example of a work classed in 518.1 Algorithms is Algorithms.  The work has both the LCSH "Algorithms—Textbooks" and "Computer algorithms—Textbooks," but it emphasizes the mathematical ideas behind algorithms.

The LCSH "Pacific Ocean" is now mapped to the built number 551.4614 Pacific Ocean (built with 551.461 Specific oceans and seas, coastal saltwater bodies plus 4 from T2—164 Pacific Ocean, following instructions at 551.4613–551.4617 Specific oceans and seas). The history box for 551.4614 Pacific Ocean has this information:

formerly located in 551.465
2003, Edition 22

In PPT, the LCSH "Pacific Ocean" was mapped to the old number, 551.465.  An example of a work with the LCSH "Pacific Ocean" classed in 551.4614 Pacific Ocean is Pacific Ocean. The work is interdisciplinary, and 551.4614 is the interdisciplinary number for the Pacific Ocean.  In the upward hierarchy, at 551.46 Oceanography and submarine geology, is the class-here note: "Class here . . . interdisciplinary works on marine science, on oceans and seas."  That note has hierarchical force.

LCSH-DDC Mapping Hiatus

We have temporarily suspended our biweekly LCSH-DDC mappings to make room for a project to add DDC numbers to the authority records for BISAC (Book Industry Standards and Communications) subject headings (we’ll have more to say about this project in a month or so).  We plan to resume LCSH-DDC mappings in early 2009.

Updates to the DDC

We often get asked how frequently we update the DDC. The short answer is, we update the DDC continuously. We have a short-term and long-term editorial work plan; we roll out updates from the short-term plan regularly, and the long-term plan as they become available. Of course, lots of new topics come up that don’t appear on any plan and need to be addressed as they emerge. We distribute updated web versions quarterly, and produce snapshots of the underlying databases in print editions about every seven years. Our web versions (WebDewey and Abridged WebDewey, respectively) are available by subscription; we also make XML versions of the underlying databases available to translators, research projects, and other licensees.

You can get a sense of changes to categories by visiting the New and Changed Entries on the Dewey web site. We announce selected updates on the web site; users have to consult the web versions of the DDC to see all changes to the underlying databases. Recent changes have ranged from updates to the treatment of GIS/GPS to an extended version of the area table for ancient and modern Italy that we just completed with the advice of our Italian translators. You can get a flavor of the mapped terminology we announce on a biweekly basis by looking at the LCSH-DDC mappings on the same web site.

Here are some ballpark statistics on additions to the full edition since we published a new print snapshot of the database (DDC 22) in late 2003:

• New categories: ~120/year (new table and schedule numbers, e.g., the new expansion for terrorism at 363.325 introduced in November 2005)
• Additional synthesized numbers: ~450/year (numbers built using the number building instructions to represent concepts explicitly as the need arises, e.g., the synthesized numbers we added for Hurricane Katrina; we added them last year, but you can see an explanation of how the numbers are constructed in the recent blog on hurricanes)
• New mapped terminology from Library of Congress Subject Headings: ~1800/year (e.g., Semantic Web 025.04, Crunk (Music) 782.421649, Wheelchair rugby 796.333)

Mappings, MARC 21, People, Training, and Translations

We’ve been absent from the blogosphere the last two weeks, caught up in a swirl of preparations for the ALA Midwinter Meeting in Seattle.  On Saturday, January 20, we held the Dewey Breakfast/Update at ALA Midwinter.  I kicked things off with Dewey Hot Topics, a quick review of several editorial initiatives.  We introduced our plans for the proposed Dewey Training Program (and met with a panel of library educators immediately following the breakfast to review several draft modules in detail).  We briefly discussed our collaboration with Deutsche Nationalbibliothek (DNB) to review the treatment of Dewey classification information across the MARC 21 formats.  We met with colleagues from DNB later that same day to discuss several issues in detail—watch for a MARBI discussion paper on the representation of DDC information in the MARC 21 formats at the ALA Annual Conference in June 2007.  We also presented a status report on the proposed guidelines for Dewey numbers in authority files (for more information, see the September 2006 discussion paper and earlier post on the topic). Finally, the "hot topics" included an update on the proposed changes to the captions at T1—08 (History and description with respect to kinds of persons) and T1—092 (Persons) to “Groups of people” and “Biography,” respectively.

Juli followed with a description of current translation projects and the underlying principles that guide Dewey translations.  Michael Panzer (pictured left), University of Applied Sciences, Cologne, wrapped up the session with a review of post-translation Dewey activities in Germany.  Michael discussed approaches to mapping in the MACS and CrissCross projects, and the implications of the expanded use of Dewey in the German national bibliography.

Dewey Numbers in Authority Files + EPC Meeting

As promised in late August, the discussion paper on Dewey Numbers in Authority Files is now available.  This is one of the topics on the agenda for next week’s meeting of the Decimal Classification Editorial Policy Committee (EPC) at the Library of Congress, October 11-13.  Among the other topics on the agenda are updates to research methods, Italian provinces, historical periods for Italian regions, and crimes. The committee will also review topics related to groups of people in Table 1, psychology, and the social sciences.  Ia McIlwaine, chair of the Universal Decimal Classification Consortium and former editor-in-chief of UDC, will join EPC to discuss UDC-DDC cooperation in improving the presentation of religion (see here for an earlier discussion of the topic), and Diane Vizine-Goetz (OCLC Office of Research) will brief the committee on current DDC research initiatives.  We’ll post daily reports from the meeting next week.

Dewey Numbers in Authority Files

Juli and I have been in Seoul this week attending the World Library and Information Congress (72nd IFLA General Conference and Council). Each year in conjunction with the IFLA Conference, OCLC hosts a meeting for Dewey translators and representatives of national libraries and bibliographies using the DDC. Twenty-seven librarians, representing DDC projects in fifteen countries, attended this year’s meeting on August 23. At last year's meeting, participants chose “Dewey numbers in authority files” as the theme for the 2006 meeting. I opened the meeting with a general discussion of the differences in mapping terminology to Dewey numbers versus loading a Dewey number in a subject authority file record. I presented our (very much) draft guidelines for loading Dewey numbers in LCSH (no immediate plans on the horizon, but we are thinking about what it means to do so). Our general principles can be summarized as follows: 1) the subject entity represented by the subject heading should approximate the whole of the meaning of the Dewey number or be explicitly in standing room at the number; and 2) the definition of the relationship between the heading and the Dewey number is contained in the Dewey record. Open questions include whether these guidelines are generalizable across subject heading systems, and if greater specificity is needed in the relationships currently expressed in Dewey records. We’re in the midst of preparing a paper on the topic of Dewey in authority files (including a discussion of the relevance of specifications for relationships such as those found in the current SKOS proposal). We'll post a link here as soon as the paper is ready.

Federica Paradisi (Biblioteca nazionale centrale di Firenze) discussed the experiments to load Dewey numbers in Nuovo Soggettario Italiano. Yvonne Jahns (Deutsche Nationalbibliothek) discussed CrissCross, a project to associate DDC with SWD. The Italian guidelines are a bit more restrictive than those proposed by our team and the German team--in the proposed Italian guidelines, only one number is currently permitted in a subject authority record. The German guidelines include three levels of “precision” to represent the relationship between the heading and the Dewey number. In the final presentation on Dewey numbers in authority files, Ed O’Neill (OCLC Office of Research) described his recent efforts in collaboration with colleague Diane Vizine-Goetz to prototype the inclusion of Dewey numbers in FAST geographic records.

Representatives from several translation projects presented updates, starting with an overview of the Vietnamese translation by Michael Robinson (Hong Kong Institute of Education and Project Manager, DDC Translation Project, RMIT International University Vietnam). Louis Cabral (ASTED) reported on plans to produce a French translation of DDC 22 in second quarter 2007. Magdalena Svanberg (Kungl. biblioteket) discussed the study underway in Sweden to consider adoption of the DDC and development of a mixed Swedish/English version of DDC 22. Federica Paradisi reported on the completion of the Italian translation of Abridged Edition 14 earlier this year, and the planned publication of the Italian translation of DDC 22 in early 2007. She highlighted the need for cooperation among translation teams and the Dewey editorial team to introduce new viewpoints in law and education, and to develop extensions for general topics related to the European Union. Yvonne Jahns mentioned that Projekt DDC Deutsch plans to relaunch Melvil (the German web version of Dewey) shortly. Patrice Landry (Schweizerische Landesbibliothek) commented that the MACS and CrissCross projects are working together to explore multilingual access to bibliographic records.

In the discussion period at the end of the meeting, Gordon Dunsire (University of Strathclyde and member of the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals [CILIP] DDC Committee) commented that perhaps we need a variety of approaches, including some relaxed ones, to meet the goal of distributed interoperability. His comment led nicely into the group's selection of the theme for 2007 meeting in Durban, South Africa: "How can we all work together?"