National Library of Australia

Editorial Policy Committee Meeting November 2009

The Ediitorial Policy Committee held Meeting 132 in Washington, D.C. at the Library of Congress, 16-17 November 2009

All members were present for the meeting.

Elections

The first order of business for the Committee was the election of the Chair. British Representative Caroline Kent was re-elected as Chair for a second two year term of office.

Subdivision Changes

Table 1 (Standard Subdivisions): the Committee approved proposals to change T1---0286 Waste Technology   to T1---Green Technology (Environmental technology), recasting the table to better reflect current terminology and to accommodate the growing body of publications dealing with the topic.  EPC also gave provisional approval to the revision of Asia Minor and Turkey presented in the Exhibits, but requested additional information concerning literary warrant before approving the proposed expansion for Switzerland.

Schedules

As part of the continuous revision of the Schedules necessary to keep them relevant and useful as a classification tool, EPC examines a variety of changes to the Schedules from time to time, which may include  major topics such as policy matters,  editorial rules, completely revised full Schedules , or selected updates to the Schedules.

At this meeting, the EPC approved selected updates to the following Schedules: 004-006 Computer science –an area of the classification constantly being refined and reviewed due in great measure to the extraordinarily rapid changes within the computer science world--; 320 Political science; 361-365 Social problems and services; 390 Customs, etiquette, folklore; 400 Language; 590 Fossil mammals and 599 Mammals; 636 Animal husbandry; 646 Sewing, clothing; 590 Buildings; 720 Architecture; 800 Literature and rhetoric; and a number of historical periods in the 900s.

The revised full schedules for 670 Manufacturing and 680 Manufacture of products for special uses were both reviewed by the Committee and approved for publication and use.

Discussion Papers

During the course of the meeting the Committee considered several discussion papers. One paper looked at current and proposed practices relating to the representation and use of standard subdivisions with narrow or extended meanings, and displaced standard subdivisions. Two separate inquiry sources set the investigation of such subdivisions under way: a collection of questions asked by a group of Dewey Section classifiers preparing training materials, and the editors’ continuing review of practices related to the representation of standard subdivisions in ‘add’ tables.

The EPC approved the distribution of the discussion paper on 281 Eastern Churches for external review. Advice is being sought from the Arabic, Greek and Russian translation teams immediately, and will also be sought from other experts on Orthodox Christianity.

The extensive discussions on the various 340 Law discussion papers were enriched by the contributions of guest attendee Yvonne Jahns of the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek. Ms Jahns is Chair of the European DDC Users’ Group (EDUG) 340 Law Working Group. Then full 340 Law schedule is to be considered at EPC Meeting 133. Ms Jahn also presented “20 years SWD: German subject authority data prepared for the future” to the meeting. The EPC also examined another set of discussion papers, including one from the EDUG 370 Education Working Group, which focused on the 370 Education schedule. Efforts to make the education schedules universally applicable to education systems are complicated by the differing concepts and standards of various education systems, but progress has been made in this direction. The Meeting reviewed revised proposals for updates to 372.3-372.8 Elementary education in specific subjects and also updates to levels of education in 372, 373 and 378. The full 370 Education schedule is slated for consideration at Meeting 133,

Other business

The Committee was also presented with progress reports on mixed translation models Dewey linked data, and continuing efforts to use machine assistance in the development of the abridged edition—the desired outcome of minimal human input seems simple, but abridging the standard edition is rather more complex than it looks at first glance. Progress is being made, but an ideal outcome has not been achieved to date.

The Committee noted that thanks to the efforts of South African representative Welna van Eeden, a representation of the DDC Summaries in Afrikaans was added in the week prior to the meeting to dewey.info. (Afrikaans is the tenth language to be added to the service).

 A follow-up electronic Meeting 132A (to be held 1-26th February, 2010) was scheduled, during which the Committee will review the Editorial Rules for standard subdivisions; further work on the machine-assisted abridged edition; updates to T1-0288 Maintenance and repair which will address issues raised at Meeting 131 and not yet resolved; updates to Table 2 provisions for Asia Minor, Switzerland and Turkey; a possible expansion at 746.92 Costume to mirror similar provisions for clothing and accessories elsewhere in the Schedules; updated history periods for Africa based on comments from external reviewers; and minor updates proposed by the Swedish translation team.

The next face-to-face meeting will be held at OCLC headquarters in Dublin, Ohio, on 16th-18th June 2010.

Anne M Robertson
Deputy Chair and Australian Representative