Electronic Meeting 141B of the Editorial Policy Committee included a small exhibit that is breaking some new ground for Dewey. In the chess schedules, 794.12 Strategy and tactics has three subdivisions, for openings, middle games, and end games. Simple enough. But there's much more literature on openings than later parts of a game. After all, you can go into a game of chess with your first move planned out; what happens in the middle and end game really depends on what unfolds.
Especially for a library with specialized chess collections, like the Mechanics' Institute in San Francisco, the class for chess openings, 794.122, can get pretty crowded. Steven Dunlap of the Mechanics' Institute Library contacted us about this and suggested a resource for subdividing openings. In the world of chess, different openings have their own codes, taken from the Encyclopaedia of Chess Openings. The so-called ECO codes are in wide use, and available online, such as through Wikipedia. But the broad categories of ECO codes, like "Flank openings" and "Indian Defenses," wouldn't mean much to many libraries, and would look out of place in a general classification system like Dewey.
Our solution? We authorized 794.1225 for specific openings, and have provided an arrange note:
(Option: Arrange by codes from the Encyclopaedia of Chess Openings [ECO codes], e.g., Sicilian Defence 794.1225 B20)
This allows for some separation between general works on chess openings and those focusing on specific strategies. We've officially sanctioned the use of ECO codes to further arrange 794.1225, keeping it as an option in case it's not right for your library.
This isn't the first time Dewey has referred to an external authority for classification in a topic. The Manual note at 579-590, for example, explains how we've structured the schedules for plant and animal taxonomy, and recommends sources such as the Tree of Life project for more information. But we haven't done this in the schedules before. When the editors discussed it before presenting the exhibit to EPC, we thought it was worth trying something new.
You may also notice the arrange note is explicitly marked as an option. While arrange notes have always been optional, that hasn't always been clear; EPC also approved an exhibit that will change that going forward.
What do you think of this addition to Dewey? Are there other areas that could benefit from similar treatment? As always, we'd love to hear from you!
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