025.431: The Dewey blog

EPC 144 exhibits ready for review

The DDC Editorial Policy Committee (EPC) will hold their annual meeting from 12-14 July. At this meeting, Meeting 144, 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 144-S27.1 272.1-.9 Persecutions in general church history--historical periods
• EPC 144-S30.1 Transvestism and cross dressing
• EPC 144-S30.2 304.8 Movement of people and 325 International migration and colonization
• EPC 144-S36.1 365.47 Institutions for immigrants and refugees
• EPC 144-S36.2 Climate change
• EPC 144-S61.1 Gender dysphoria
• EPC 144-S61.2 Autism spectrum disorder; Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder
• EPC 144-S64.1 649.8 Home care of people with illnesses and disabilities by family and friends
• EPC 144-S74.1 Design in 745-749 (discussion paper)
• EPC 144-S79.1 Drag
• EPC 144-S89.1 Period table for Cornish literature at 891.67
• EPC 144-T2.1 Subdivisions of Pakistan
• EPC 144-T2.2 Subdivisions of Central Asian countries
• EPC 144-T5.1 Black people and White people
• EPC 144-T5.2 Irish Travellers (Mincéirs)

Some of these proposals come straight from DDC users, and many others were prompted by questions or suggestions. I've already had a proposal sent to me for the next meeting! If you'd like to be a part of that, I encourage you to get in touch. And for EPC 144, I encourage 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.

On the other hand...

Consistency, standards, and respectful language are all goals of the DDC editorial team.  How do you achieve that when the subject at hand has different opinions with valid arguments?  You have the discussions, you do the research, discuss again, and ask for others’ thoughts on the matter.

The discussion topic we are currently having is the capitalization of the words “Black” and “White” when referring to racial groups.  We agree that “Black” should be capitalized.  There was no debate on that aspect among the editorial team.  However, the “w” in “white” remains debatable.  Reading many opinion pieces and articles by predominantly Black voices, there are a few questions we must answer to decide.  Some feel that a capital “W” forces the thinking of racial constructs, while others feel the capital “W” gives validity to white supremacy groups that also use the capital letter. 

Many publications and writing style guides are in disagreement as well.  The Chicago Style Manual (2020), 7th Edition of the American Psychological Association’s Publication Manual (2020), The Washington Post, the Chicago Tribune and the Center for the Study of Social Policy advocacy group all capitalize the “W”, while the Associated Press, The New York Times, and the Columbia Journalism Review do not, preferring the lower case “w”.  The MLA 9^th edition (2021) guides users to lowercase both terms.  Canada’s The Globe and Mail is using “Black” and “white” in its publications, while the United Kingdom’s The Guardian Style Guide uses “black”, but also recognizes authors may prefer “Black”.  Again, there is no consensus. 

From a library standpoint, the Library of Congress Subject Headings capitalizes “Black” but not “white”, and while Dewey is not a part of the Library of Congress, we do work closely with their classifiers.  If the DDC was to follow LCSH’s entries, it could make things easier in the future for any bulk changing within a library system. 

What are your thoughts?  What option would work best for your users?  We would love to hear your opinion on the subject.

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.

Standard subdivisions and the WebDewey number building tool

Since so much number building in the DDC involves standard subdivisions, understanding how they work with WebDewey’s number building tool is important for any classifier.

First, remember a couple of basics about using standard subdivisions:

• You can use them anywhere unless instructed otherwise
• You should not add one standard subdivision to another
• Where a zero is already used for subdivisions of a number in a schedule, use double zeros for standard subdivisions

As always, the number builder can be very powerful, but it’s not at all hard to create invalid numbers with it. Whenever you’re building a number that doesn’t have other instructions, WebDewey will take you to Table 1. When you’re just starting out, that’s good. But just because WebDewey takes you there doesn’t mean you can necessarily add standard subdivisions.

Try this: go to any potential base number in the schedules without its own add instructions. There are many possible numbers you could use—if you need a suggestion, 636.01 works. Click START in the number builder, and sure enough, you’re taken to Table 1. Now add a single standard subdivision (again without instructions of its own), say T1—05. Click ADD and you’re taken back to Table 1.

The rules of the DDC prevent you from adding further standard subdivisions, but the number builder allows it. Why is that? My #1 reason is that the number builder will never be perfect, and we’d rather let you build some invalid numbers than not build some valid ones. As a local adaptation, you might also choose to ignore the prohibition against adding multiple standard subdivisions, though the EDIT LOCAL button is a better way to handle such practices.

The way the number builder improves is constant iteration. If it prevents you from building a valid number, I want to hear about it so we can look into fixing it! But I hope the above example shows you that building invalid numbers isn’t too hard to do. Beyond standard subdivisions, you can still report cases like that, but we’ll keep erring on the side of letting you build.

If you’re interested in more on this topic, check the blog’s tag for the WebDewey number building tool.

Table of Mappings: DDC 001-999 to Table 3C—3 Arts and literature dealing with specific themes and subjects

Guest post by Julianne Beall

We recently added a Manual note at T3C—3 Arts and literature dealing with specific themes and subjects with a link (http://oc.lc/t3cmappings) to an updated table of mappings from the Dewey schedules (001-999) to the corresponding notation in T3C—3. The table of mappings is intended to be a last-resort help for topics not indexed to T3C—3+ in the Relative Index.

If the topic is Animals, for example, there is no need to consult the table of mappings because of the Relative Index entry:

Animals—arts T3C—362

But what if the topic is emigration and immigration, or more broadly, migration? None of those terms is indexed to T3C—3+ in the Relative Index. For each of those terms, however, the interdisciplinary number is 304+:

Emigration 304.82

Immigration 304.82

Migration 304.8

In the table of mappings is a line with 304 in the DDC # column and 3552 in the Table 3C—3 column:

DDC #	Heading	Table 3C—3
304	Factors affecting social behavior	3552

Hence notation T3C—3552 Sociology and anthropology should be considered for a work about migration in arts and literature. In the record for T3C—3552, many sociology and anthropology topics are drawn off to other Table 3C numbers, but migration is not one of those topics. Examples of works for which T3C—3552 may be used are:

Mobility and migration in film and moving-image art: Cinema beyond Europe

791.436552 (built with 791.436 Special aspects of films and T3C—3552 Sociology and anthropology)

Migration and literature in contemporary Europe

 809.933552 (built with 809.933 Literature dealing with specific themes and subjects and T3C—3552 Sociology and anthropology)

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.

Standard subdivisions in add tables in WebDewey

Do you or your students have trouble identifying standard subdivisions in add tables in WebDewey? We’ll show three approaches to identifying them—and look at the MARC field that makes the approaches possible.

Some add tables have no standard subdivisions; all the add table notation begins with non-zero digits, and none of that add table notation has a standard subdivision added to it, e.g., the add table at 633-635 Specific plant crops. Some add tables have a main set of standard subdivisions that begins with a single zero, and all the other add table numbers begin with non-zero digits, e.g., the add table at 362-363 Specific social problems and services. In other add tables, the main set of standard subdivisions must begin with two zeros because other add table numbers begin with a single zero, e.g., the add table at 616.1-616.9 Specific diseases. See this post for a discussion of how many zeros are needed for standard subdivisions. Just as in the schedules, standard subdivisions in add tables may be listed to introduce an expansion featuring special notation, e.g., in the add table at 721-729 Specific aspects of architecture. The subdivisions in the expansion are not standard subdivisions. See this post for a discussion of modified standard subdivisions.

First approach: Create a list of all the standard subdivisions in an add table

The first approach takes advantage of the ability to search on number components in WebDewey described in this post. First, click Advanced Search. In these searches, the asterisk (*) is a truncation symbol. A search for 616.1-616.9* in Dewey Numbers AND T1--0* in Number Components retrieves 18 records:

As explained in this post, an individual record for a specific number in an add table can be expressed with numbers for the location of the add table (in this case, 616.1-616.9) followed by a colon followed by the notation in the add table. The first 16 records are for the main set of standard subdivisions in the add table, all beginning with two zeros. The seventeenth record is for 616.1-616.9:/06 Therapy (not a standard subdivision) plus standard subdivision T1—0724 Experimental research. The forward slash in 616.1-616.9:/060724 is a segmentation mark. The eighteenth record is for 616.1-616.9:/061 Drug therapy (not a standard subdivision) plus standard subdivision T1—0724 Experimental research.

A search for 721-729* in Dewey Numbers AND T1--0* in Number Components retrieves 7 records:

The first record retrieved (721-729:/01 Philosophy and theory) has this note:

Notation T1--01 from Table 1 as modified below.

The subordinate entry (721-729:/0103-/0108 Special topics) was not retrieved in the search for standard subdivisions because it is not a standard subdivision.

The fourth record retrieved (721-729:/028 Auxiliary techniques and procedures; apparatus, equipment, materials) has this note:

Notation T1--028 from Table 1 as modified below

The subordinate entry (721-729:/0286 Remodeling) was not retrieved in the search for standard subdivisions because it is not a standard subdivision.

Similarly, the entry 721-729:/04 Special topics was not retrieved because T1--04 Special topics is a non-standard feature in Table 1; it is used only when specifically set forth in the schedules and has meaning only as specified where it appears. It is not treated like regular standard subdivisions; for example, other standard subdivisions may be added as required. WebDewey does not treat it as a number component.

Second approach: Check the status of a specific entry

The second approach involves going to the individual record for a specific number in an add table and checking its Synthesized number components box. For example, in the add table at 616.1-616.9 Specific diseases, if you click the first entry, you go to the record for 616.1-616.9:001 Philosophy and theory. That record has a Synthesized number components box showing that the entry is based on notation from Table 1:

This approach does not work with number spans, because WebDewey never gives a Synthesized number components box for number spans. But that is no problem if the caption for the span is simply “Standard subdivisions” as for 616.1-616.9:003-006 Standard subdivisions.

Third approach: Check the MARC 765 Synthesized Number Components field

If you really, really, really want to check whether the entry 616.1-616.9:003-006 Standard subdivisions is based on notation from Table 1, click the MARC button to get the MARC record display for that entry. Here is the MARC record display for 616.1-616.9:003-006 Standard subdivisions:

The first 765 Synthesized Number Components field shows that the first number in the span was built with a facet designator ($f) 0 plus Table 1 ($z 1) digits ($s) 03. The second 765 field shows that the second number in the span was built with a facet designator ($f) 0 plus Table 1 ($z 1) digits ($s) 06. These 765 fields make it possible to retrieve 616.1-616.9:003-006 Standard subdivisions with a search for 616.1-616.9* in Dewey Numbers AND T1--0* in Number Components. The non-span record for 616.1-616.9:001 Philosophy and theory has one 765 field:

765 0# $f 0 $z 1 $s 01 $w 616.1 $c 616.9 $y 1 $u 001

That 765 field makes it possible to retrieve 616.1-616.9:001 Philosophy and theory with a search for 616.1-616.9* in Dewey Numbers AND T1--0* in Number Components. It also makes possible the Synthesized number components box shown above. For more information about the MARC 765 field, see this site.

 

Space travel near Earth

We have recently made changes to provide for works about space travel that do not emphasize science or engineering but rather treat space travel in a general way in the spirit of 910 Geography and travel.

The number most likely to be used now is 910.919 Space travel near Earth. Comprehensive works on space travel have been relocated from that number to 919.904 Travel to or on extraterrestrial worlds.  The number 910.919 is built with base number 91 Geography & travel plus standard subdivision T1—091 Areas, regions, places in general plus 9 from T2—19 Space. The heading and do-not-use notes in the entry for 910.919 show that the broad Table 2 meaning of T2—19 Space has been narrowed here to space near Earth:

910.919 Space travel near Earth

Do not use for travel to or on extraterrestrial worlds, for comprehensive works on space travel; class in 919.904. Do not use for travel to or on Earth’s moon; class in 919.9104

Class here space travel in Earth's orbit, suborbital space tourism; near-Earth space travelers

See Manual at 629.43, 629.45  vs. 559.9 , 919.904,  910.919

Examples of works classed in 910.919 are The space tourist's handbook: Where to go, what to see, and how to prepare for the ride of your life and Private space travel: A space discovery guide.

Works on near-Earth space travelers have been relocated from 910.92 Geographers, travelers, explorers regardless of country of origin (built with T1—092 Biography) to 910.919 Space travel near Earth. Why? We believe that the number 910.92 Geographers, travelers, explorers regardless of country of origin is too broad to be useful for near-Earth space travelers, that they would be lost among the many other travelers classed there. Since T1—092 Biography is higher in the table of preference at the start of Table 1 than T1—091 Areas, regions, places in general, works on near-Earth space travelers could not be classed in 919.919 without a do-not-use note at 910.92 to override the table of preference. Now the entry 910.92 Geographers, travelers, explorers regardless of country of origin has the note: Do not use for near-Earth space travelers; class in 910.919.

Why not 919.919092 for near-Earth space travelers? As noted above, 910.919 Space travel near Earth is built with standard subdivision T1—091 Areas, regions, places in general. Adding one standard subdivision to another standard subdivision is forbidden. (For more about the rule against adding one standard subdivision to another standard subdivision, see this blog post.) The add note at T1—091 Areas, regions, places in general does have instructions to add further:

Add to base number T1—091 the numbers following T2—1 in notation T2—11-T2—19 from Table 2, e.g., Torrid Zone T1—0913; then add further as instructed under T1—093-T1—099, e.g., conservation and preservation in tropical areas T1—0913028

However, those instructions lead to an add table under T1—093-T1—099 Specific continents, countries, localities; extraterrestrial worlds that has no notation 092.

 

 

Latin literature and classical Greek literature

Why all the changes to records in these spans? Surely there is no reason to reclassify and rearrange these books?

871-878 Subdivisions for specific forms of Latin literature

881-888 Subdivisions for specific forms of classical Greek literature

Indeed, no reason that we know. The changes are almost all to the instructions for building numbers (with a few changes to the Relative Index entries). The resulting numbers are unchanged. Virgil’s Aeneid, for example, is still classed in 873.01 Epic poetry—Latin literature—Roman period.

Why change the instructions? Previously, there were add notes like this, formerly at 871-878 Subdivisions for specific forms of Latin literature:

Add to base number 87 as instructed at beginning of Table 3, e.g., Latin letters 876; however, observe the special interpretations of and exceptions to notation from Table 3 that appear below, e.g., Latin epic poetry and fiction 873

At 873 Latin epic poetry and fiction, there was a footnote add note: “Add as instructed under 871-878 and at beginning of Table 3.”

The problem was that the schedules were full of exceptions to the general pattern in Table 3. For classifiers, those exceptions were a nuisance and an opportunity for error. The exceptions left the WebDewey number building tool completely baffled; it was constantly trying to build incorrect numbers—adding a new hazard for classifiers.

Our solution was to remove all the general instructions to “add as instructed in Table 3” and to provide specific instructions instead. We now mention Table 3 only where notation from Table 3 can be added without any need to warn about exceptions. (Would you have preferred that we revise 871-878 and 881-888 to match Table 3 and ask you to reclassify and rearrange the books? We didn’t think so.)

For an example of the new approach, at 873 Latin epic poetry and fiction, there is no add note. At 873.01-873.04 Specific periods are these instructions:

Add to base number 873.0 notation 871-878:1-4 from the period table under 871-878, e.g., Latin epic poetry of the Roman period 873.01; then, for works by or about more than one author, add the numbers following T3B—10 in notation T3B—1001-T3B—1009 from Table 3B, e.g., collections of Latin epic poetry from the Roman period 873.0108

Subdivisions are added for Latin epic poetry, for Latin fiction, or both

Following these instructions, we can use the number building tool to build a number for The Romances of Alexander: 873.03080351 Latin epic poetry and fiction—Medieval period—Specific persons—collections. The Synthesized number components box shows the elements used to build the number: