National Library of Australia

Teleconference 22 February 2002

Dewey Decimal Classification

Anne Robertson provided a report on the December meeting of the Editorial Policy Committee. The DDC appeared to be going well in terms of sales, as well as preparations for the publication of the DDC 22 and Abridged Dewey 14, with the publication date of the new edition expected to be mid-2003. Dewey for Windows was withdrawn in December 2001 with current subscriptions ceasing in February of this year. The replacement web suite of products, WebDewey and Abridged WebDewey were now dis-intermediated from OCLC and offered via site licensing arrangements.

Anne hopes that Australian libraries will respond to the call by Giles Martin for help with the testing of mathematics and computer science schedules. The State Library of Queensland had recently been a "featured library" on the website, and it was expected that other Australian libraries might be interested in providing their details, such as pictures and a brief history, for the website.

The EPC had discussed the fact that fewer cataloguers were being trained in classification. The new edition of the WebDewey would give more help to classifiers by including many expanded "built" numbers, and many more index terms than was possible in print.

A new publication People, places and things, a list of over 50,000 popular LC subject headings accompanied by Dewey numbers is now available. While designed as an end-user tool and guide to Dewey application and Library of Congress subject heading strings, it is also useful for libraries classifying in DDC.

Future Cataloguing Conferences

ACOC discussed the future of Cataloguing Conferences. Peter Haddad reported that he had been in contact with Jennefer Nicholson from ALIA who had provided additional information on ALIA's thinking. The change from the present pattern of general ALIA conferences one year, followed by special interest groups the following year, would not take effect until 2005. ALIA was expecting groups to come together in arranging conferences, or if needing to run a conference or workshop on an issue, would look at supporting this. The function of a group like ACOC would be to arrange the content.

ACOC considered that it was necessary to have some cataloguing event, whether this was done by organising a special issue conference, or by joining with another group and having some sessions on cataloguing. ACOC members considered that there were groups whose interests had much in common with cataloguing, and these would be the logical partners in any joint exercise. The Acquisitions group was in many ways a logical partner.

One possibility would be to celebrate the new edition of DDC in mid-2003 with someone from the DDC coming to Australia for the launch, possibly sponsored by the publishers or distributors. Ideally Sydney would be a good venue, as the two previous major events were in Geelong, near Melbourne, and Brisbane.

It was noted that the ALIA VINO AGM would be discussing this topic on March 7th and ACOC would contact the group to report its discussions and express its interest in any outcomes.

Membership of ACOC

Susanne Moir foreshadowed that she would be retiring from ACOC. She would let ALIA know of her decision, but would remain until her ALIA member replacement was appointed. ACOC members expressed regret at losing Susanne's expertise and experience.

AACR matters

Ann Huthwaite updated ACOC on progress with the publication of the "loose leaf" AACR in 2002. It would consist of a base volume in loose-leaf form, with a summary of all the rule revisions. There would be annual updating packages containing a checklist of changes. A new preface was to be written. A new sans serif font would be used. Discussions were still being held on the exact terminology to be used in the name of the base volume and updating sets. A date of around the middle of the year was still expected for publication.