June 10 is apparently National Herbs and Spices Day in the United States. While not among the country’s major holidays—I’m writing this, after all, at work—it’s nevertheless a perfect day to highlight some recent changes we made in the schedules for works about spices!
A quick word about terminology: herbs and spices both originate from plants. Typically, herbs come from leaves, petals, and other parts that tend to be green. Spices come from other parts of plants, such as bark, roots, seeds, and stigmas. Much like the distinction between fruits and vegetables, though, there are some gray areas. The recent changes to the Dewey schedules, from Electronic Meeting 141B of the Editorial Policy Committee (EPC), only concern spices. (Given our new focus on community involvement in the editorial process, feel free to take a look at the full proposal.)
Previously, the DDC had two main classes for spices: 633.83 Spices and 633.84 Hot spices. A see reference drew off hot spices from the former to the latter. Once you had a work on a spice, all you needed to do was determine whether the spice was hot or not. Simple, right? At EPC Meeting 141, we proposed continuing some of the more popular spices under these two classes. EPC members rightfully noted that judging whether a spice is hot or not can be subjective. Ginger, which was given in an including note at 633.83, can be spicy; paprika, in an including note at 633.84, can be sweet. Perceptions of spiciness can also vary by culture.
Following EPC’s suggestion, the new changes eliminate the shaky distinction between spices and hot spices. In reviewing the literature in WorldCat, we found that most of what was classed in 633.84 was a pepper product of some sort, such as black pepper, chili peppers, and paprika. We renamed the class to 633.84 Peppers and relocated horseradish and mustard from there. We also continued some popular spices from 633.83:
Ginger, cardamom, and turmeric are relatives, all from the taxonomic family Zingiberaceae, so we put them in a class together. Cinnamon and cassia both come from the bark of plants in the genus Cinnamonum, and the terms may even be used interchangeably based on context. You’ll see we left room under 633.83 for further development. Keep an eye on the five in the including note in case their literary warrant increases! We also added a see reference for “non-spice uses of spice crops,” recognizing that some of these plants have other uses.
One final note for Dewey wonks: 633.83 and 633.84 are in the agriculture schedules, but they’re not the interdisciplinary numbers for spices or peppers. The interdisciplinary numbers are 641.3383 and 641.3384, in food and drink. Why not highlight those? They’re actually built numbers, following the instructions at 641.33-641.35 Specific food from plant crops. It’s unusual to have interdisciplinary numbers that are built numbers building from regular schedule numbers like this, but it’s not wrong.
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