National Library of Australia

Editorial Policy Committee Meeting May 2007

The Ediitorial Policy Committee held Meeting 127 at OCLC on 9-11 May 2007.

The 127th meeting of the Dewey Decimal Classification Editorial Policy Committee was held at OCLC in Dublin, Ohio, on May 9-11. Meeting 127 included exhibits related to short- and long- term editorial development projects  as well as proposals arising from translation activities.  The exhibits arising from short-term projects and requests from translation teams encompassed DDC updates for which implementation over the course of the next 12 to 18 months was recommended by the editors.  Exhibits related to long-term projects require several rounds of discussion and review with the Editorial Policy Committee and the wider Dewey  user community before any changes will be ready for implementation

Among the first items of business was the introduction of two new members of the Dewey family, Rebecca Green (Assistant Editor) and Michael Panzer (global product manager of taxonomy services), both of whom bring a wealth of experience and knowledge to the editorial team.

Day 1

Discussions focused initially on proposed enhancements to the MARC 21 formats to facilitate their use with the DDC. The Committee’s insights helped the editorial team to clarify the proposal, which is being developed jointly with the Library of Congress and the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek (DNB).  The paper outlining the proposal will be available for consideration at the next MARBI meeting. It is scheduled for discussion on 23rd June, so the paper will be available before that date.

This discussion set the stage for a rigorous two and a half days. In addition to such technical topics as the MARBI proposal and functional specifications for a new DDC editorial system the meeting spent considerable time discussing ways and means to improve the Classification , ranging over such disparate areas as 004-006 Computer science, 010-090 Information and general works, and 150 Psychology to 930-990 History by way of 641.22 and 663.2 Wine, miscellaneous topics in 620, Table 1—08 (Groups of people), and Table 3C (Themes in art and literature).

Day 2

A highlight of Day 2 was the proposed expansion of the “Wars” entry in the Manual, written by assistant editor Winton Matthews. The quality of the research and of the writing of this exhibit prompted the Committee to recommend that a possible avenue for separate publication be explored.

Joan Mitchell, editor-in-chief of the Classification, was unfortunately taken ill during the evening of Day 1 and unable to take her usual place at the EPC helm, and it was in less than ideal circumstances (the British representative, Caroline Kent was struck down by food poisoning too and unable to attend the Meeting at all) that the agenda was worked through by the editorial team and the Committee.  Despite these somewhat dramatic events, the Meeting was a successful one. Approved changes and developments to the classification designated as ‘short-term’ will be published over a 12 to 18 month period, with longer term proposals subject to further development, discussion and trial returning to the Committee for approval in due course.

Short-term projects:

Among the list of short-term Exhibits the Committee considered and approved were:

127-8.1  Table 1 –072 Ripple Effects

EPC reviewed proposed changes to T1—072 and 001.4 at Meeting 126 and approved them in principle. This exhibit detailing resulting changes and effects was examined, and after taking account of the comments and questions from various interest groups, and taking heed of those areas where further editorial research and refinement is needed was approved, with changes to be introduced during 2007.

The opinion of CILIP that the decision to abandon the general use of persons, and use people instead where appropriate was wrong, was noted by the Committee.  The EPC does not agree with CILIP in this matter, and the decision will stand.

127-9.1  Table 2—37 and T2—45 Ancient and Modern Italy

Earlier versions of these developments were reviewed and approved at meetings 126 and 126A.  The Italian translation team subsequently suggested minor amendments which are seen in this exhibit.  EPC approved this expansion  which will be included in the the Italian translation of DDC 22, and changes to the English edition will be released in July 2007.

127-10  Table 3C—3 Arts and literature dealing with specific themes and subjects

Table 3—C has been the subject of two exhibits since the publication of DDC 22.  This exhibit tackles additional Table 3C—3 issues.

Table 3C—3 tends to elicit a wide range of responses,  ranging from indifference through the highly critical to the approving of any perceived improvements.  While taking note opf all commentary and suggestions, the EPC approved this development for introduction during 2007.

127-12  010-090 Information & general works

This extremely comprehensive analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of this part of the classification which , as indicated by its caption, covers a broad range of topics, only some of which can be addressed in the short term, with other changes related to the long-term projects “Groups of people” and “Material types”.  These proposed changes will need to be kept for further consideration.  The project involving material types has not yet been discussed by the Committee.

Those parts of the Exhibit approved for release in the short term were changes to 025 to be introduced with updates to 004-006 as the changes proposed for 025.04 correspond to updates in Computer Science.

011-017  Bibliographies and catalogs . Usage of these terms is not distinct and the Committee has endorsed the proposal to apply  the numbers equally to both, and not attempt to differentiate by application of the classification.

Changes recommended will place abstracting and inexing in the one number at 025.48 Abstracting and indexing , which is also the place recommended for relocating 025.47 Subject cataloging.  There is no clear and meaningful distinction between 025.47 Subject cataloging and 025.48 Subject indexing (proposed change to Abstracting and indexing)    therefore the relocation seems appropriate

There was insufficient time to discuss all the changes and recommendations within this exhibit, or to formulate policy guidance sought by the editorial staff in response to some difficult issues within this segment of the classification, so these matters remain to be addressed at a later meeting.   

127-13  004-006 Computer science

The updates recommended in this exhibit will be released, after editorial scrutiny and any amendments resulting from comments from the wider user community, at the same time as changes in 025.4 and proposed changes in Exhibit 127.23.2 Computer engineering. 

However, the treatment of distributed processing versus distributed systems has been flagged as a topic requiring further study so no changes are being made at this time.

127-19  350 Public administration and military science

This Exhibit updated Exhibit 126-19, which proposed to relocate 234 (Planning and policy making) in the add table at 352-354 to disciplines outside 352-354..

The changes originally proposed in Exhibit 126-19, are include here as well as additional changes for policy matters, making it much clearer where topics should be located, confining pure public administration matters to 352-354, and other specific policies elsewhere, e.g. 001.3—humanities policy, 306—cultural policy, 333.73—land policy.

Captions in 353—354 starting with “Administration of…” will change to “Public administration of…”  in line with the existing caption of 354 “Public administration of economy and environment’.

355-359 Military science has been improved by moving the interdisciplinary number for bombs from 623.451 to 355.825, to conform with interdisciplinary numbers for other kinds of military equipment, and the interdisciplinary numbers for missiles and chemical, biological, radiological warfare are made explicit in the schedules, index and references.

127-20  360 Social services; associations

While the proposals related to groups of people in Exhibits 127-20 and 127-20.1 are part of the long term project in this area, there are a few special topics, e.g. self-help groups, charity and thrift shops, Red Cross and Red Crescent, inland waterway security services, personal safety and survival, mine clearing and sewage and sludge biosolids which can be implemented in 2007.  The changes to treatment of associations in 366, 367 and 369, which were approved as presented in Exhibit 124—17 will be released at the same time.

127—20.2  Crime

This exhibit was a follow-up to the updates to crimes originally presented at Meet 126 in Exhibits 126-20.1Crime and 126-20.1a Environmental crime and Murder.

Changes to the classification to allow finer classification of such topics as mass murder/murderers/serial murder/murderers, possible shorter numbers for car accidents etc were instigated by Paulene de Graaf, NSW Polic Department Library, together with requests from the Italian translation team to accommodate issues such as environmental crimes, which are part of the Italian Criminal Code.

The EPC at Meeting 126 asked that some clarification of matters relating to murder be undertaken, there being no specific charges of mass or serial murder under any criminal codes the Committee  was familiar with.

This having been done, the EPC accepted the changes proposed to more adequately accommodate the topics.

Paulene has also identified a further topic for work, involving weapons, for which non-military classification provision  is not really adequate, and the military classification is inappropriate.  This matter has been noted for future editorial attention.

127-24  641.22 and 663.2 Wine

This exhibit , originally distributed as 124-20 and re-issued as 126-24, was not reviewed at either meeting.  The Committee made a deliberate effort to ensure that this exhibit was reviewed at the May Meeting, approving the proposed expansion and development as the last exhibit of the meeting.  The existing schedule for wine are fairly basic, but even heeding the advice of the German translation team not to go too far classifying specific varieties,  there is sufficient literary warrant to allow some more specific classification in the area.  The changes were to be released in the next 12 months.

127-27.1  Updates to historical periods

The updates proposed were accepted, to be released immediately. As well as dates for historical periods, name changes for various countries are also included in the changes and expansions.

127-27.3  “Wars” Manual note

Exhibit 127-27.3 was prepared as a response to the Committee’s request for clarification of the principles guiding the classification of wars.  As noted earlier, the   EPC was most impressed by the quality of the writing and the clarity of expsition of the guiding principles.  This Manual note is to be released immediately.

127-27.2  Optional provisions for wars

This exhibit recommends ceasing the systematic practice of providing optional locations for most wars and removing those already existing in Dewey.  The editorial staff requested that implementation of this recommendation be deferred until it was discussed directly with the worldwide Dewey user community utilizing both the blog and conferences for such consultation.

127-27.4  Middle Ages and Dark Ages

During Teleconference 126A EPC requested a review of the use of the term “Dark Ages” in Dewey and this paper was a response both to that request and to the proposed development of the Middle Ages in the Italian translation.  The Exhibit gives a comprehensive outline of usage, and recommends mentioning the practice of dividing the Middle Ages by most  historians into 3 parts, Early, High and Late Middle Ages, in the  940.1 development , and equating the Dark Ages with the Early Middle Ages..  Implementation should take place in July 2007.

Long term projects:

While the original agenda and exhibits idicated that a number of long term projects would be discussed at Meeting 127, as a preliminary to more detailed proposals, at later meetings, the unfortunate absence of Editor-in –Chief, Joan Mitchell, because of illness after Day 1 necessitated the deferral of most of these matters .

Groups of People

A review of the treatment of groups of people in Dewey began at meetings 124 and 126, with a tentative agreement at Meeting 126 on terminology for groups of people, with additional suggestions for new approaches to treament in Table 1, 150, and 301-307. Further research and thinking about the implications of proposed changes has refined the editorial approach to these matters, and can be seen in exhibits considered at Meeting 127, but a comprehensive discussion about the proposed approaches did not take place,and  I would expect it to be scheduled for Meeting 128 in November.

Other long term projects

Topics signalled for at least preliminary discussions prior to the development of detailed proposals included: Material types; Converging technologies;Distributed processing vs distributed systems; Structure of the DDC. 

These projects will  most likely be rescheduled for the next Meeting.

Dewey Training

An online set of DDC training materials, which will include a basic course on the structure and use of the classification together with a set of short modules based on spedial topics is being developed, to be made available on the Dewey web at no cost for use in instruction.  A meeting with a panel of Library Science professors at the ALA  Midwinter Meeting in January reviewed the basic course outline and preliminary instruction materials.  Feedback from this meeting underlies the decision to limit the scope of the basic course to librarians needing an introductory or refresher course in Dewey. Any interested parties may use the materials , although they may need to consult an expert for additional assistance or background information.

Dewey Translations

The first European Users Group Meeting was to be held in Berne, Switzerland, 11-12 June, sponsored jointly by the National Library of Switzerland, and the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek.  The annual Dewey Translators Meeting will be held in August at the 73rd IFLA General Conference  in Durban, South Africa,.  The theme this year is “How can we all work together?”

The editors are currently reviewing the French and Italian transklations of DDC22, both of which are scheduled for publication in mid-2007.  There is a Spansih translation of Abridged 14ed. In preparation for publication later this year.

The DNB (Deutsche Nationalbibliothek) is now classifying all titles that are part of the legal deposit of DNB (plus Austrian and Swiss publications snd translations) using Dewey.  The over 100,000 titles per year classified is close to the Library of Congress annual contribution of 110,000 titles classified using Dewey.

Marketing

While sales are 37% ahead of plan overall for Fiscal Year 2007, the majority of sales are print, with a total of 154% ahead of plan for the year.  Webdewey sales are somewhat struggling, being 25% behind plan in total.  Sales of both Abridged 14 and DDC 22 have apparently settled into a relatively steady stream.

Communication

025.431: The Dewey blog (http://ddc.typepad.com/)  has become the key vehicle for keeping users informed about  Dewey activities.

Despite the somewhat dramatic accidents and illnesses affecting attendees, and the subsequent deferral of some topics until later,  Meeting 127 was a highly successful and productive one, the fruits of which will become apparent as additions, expansions and changes to the classification are published during the year.