National Library of Australia

Editorial Policy Committee Meeting May 2008

The Ediitorial Policy Committee held Meeting 129 in Columbus, Ohio at OCLC 7-9 May, 2008

The Editorial Policy Committee (EPC) met in Columbus, Ohio at OCLC 7-9 May
2008. The new Chair, Caroline Kent (CILIP Representative) welcomed the four new
members, Lyn McKinney (Billings [MT] Senior High School}, Sandra Singh
(Vancouver [BC] Public Library), David Farris (Library and Archives Canada) and
Deborah Rose-Lefmann (Northwestern University)

Table updates etc.

In the course of working through a full Agenda of some 52 items, the
Committee approved several adjustments to the proposed overhaul of the treatment
Of groups of people, a continuing project which has been under way for some time.
Included in these adjustments was a separate number for intersex people based on
feedback from users, as well as an implementation plan for publishing changes to
the classification arising from the project. It is intended that draft versions
of Table 1 and 305-306 will be posted on the Dewey web site in August 2008 with
links from the Dewey Blog. Comments on the content and implementation plan will
be requested for transmission by 30 October in order for any user feedback
received to be discussed at Editorial Policy Committee Meeting 130 in November
2008. Changes to the treatment of groups of people throughout the Dewey
Decimal Classification will be introduced by the second quarter of calendar year
2009 in WebDewey and Abridged WebDewey. Final PDF updates to Table 1 and
305-306 will be made available on the Dewey web site at the same time that the
changes are implemented in the Dewey web versions. Changes introduced in the
web versions will also appear in the printed version of DDC 23, which is scheduled
for publication in late 2010.

Apart from the changes in the treatment of groups of people in Table 1, the
Committee also approved two changes in T1—079 Competition, awards,
financial support, clarification of add instructions from Table 2, and the relocation
of festivals from T1—079 to T1—074 Museums, collections, exhibits.
Several changes to Table 2 (Geographic Areas, Historical Periods, Persons)
For South Africa, Belgium, Sweden, and Clifton Forge, Va were also approved by
the Committee. The EPC also approved new provisions for autobiographical and
biographical fiction and alternative histories in Table 3 (Subdivisions for the Arts,
for Individual Literatures, for Specific Literary Forms), and in Table 6
(Languages), approved updates to Indonesian languages and Galician, as well as
several other miscellaneous updates together with necessary changes to parallel
notation in Table 5 (Ethnic and National Groups).

The meeting had a most stimulating discussion about whether literary writers
should be given one classification number or two if their writings under two or more
names were separated purely by the occurrence of significant dates (i.e the end of
a century, or a mid-century date) when the classification number alters to reflect the
time period. As this is an extremely arbitrary matter, the general consensus is that
the one number should be applied, and if the classifier is not aware of the use of a
pseudonym before or after the relevant dates the issue is unlikely to arise in any
case.

Editorial Rules

The EPC examined and approved changes to the Editorial Rules which clarify the
treatment of Brand and Trademark names in the classification, and approved
amendments to the formatting of personal names to better reflect established
national usage, rather than routinely following Library of Congress patterns where
conflict occurs.

Schedules

The Committee approved updates to the schedules within the following areas:004-
006 Computer science, 025.4 Subject analysis and control, 160 Logic, 320
Political Science, 364.16 Offenses against Property, 398.2 Folk literature, 400
Language, 510 Mathematics, 560-590 Life sciences, 610 Medicine and health,
700 The arts, 800 Literature, and 900 History, geography and auxiliary
disciplines. Expanded provisions for history periods which reflect various prime
ministerial terms, as well as the indexing of all prime ministers are a welcome
development within 994 Australia.

Continuing Projects Reports

The Committee reviewed and discussed continuing work in 200 Religion, 340 Law
and 370 Education. Work in these complex areas has been the focus of attention
for some time and the Committee endorsed continuation of these efforts..
It is expected that changes to 364.16, together with other updates in the treatment of
criminal offenses will be the focus 0f the June New and Changed Entries
document.. Proposed updates and open issues relating to several of the schedules
previously mentioned will also be featured in the Dewey Blog which functions as a
useful method to publicise issues of importance in the development of the DDC and
a vehicle for gaining feedback from the wider Dewey community and other
interested parties.

Research Projects

A number of research indicatives coming from the OCLC Office of Research and the
Dewey Editorial Team were presented to the EPC for review. Diane Vizine-Goetz
outlined the current work on a prototype classification web service and pilot
terminology services, both of which were quite exciting in the possibilities of future
potential. The Dewey editorial team members presented progress
reports about several current research projects, including machine assistant
derivation of the abridged edition (with a view to the possibility f deriving it in a far
more .automated way from the main edition), mixed translation models, identification
the relationship between Relative index of terms to Dewey classes and
improvements to Dewey captions. The Committee was also briefed about the new
editorial support system (ESS), recent changes to representation of Dewey in the
MARC 21 formats, and a proposed new approach to the representation of the
DDC in MARC 21 formats, plus a proposed new approach to the display of
relocations and discontinuations in DDC classification records.

The editorial staff also gave the Committee a progress report on the development of
DDC training modules being posted online. These modules give an excellent
overview and introduction to the proper use of various aspects of the classification
and may be freely used as they become available by either librarians wishing to
refresh their knowledge of the classification, or as a basis for training staff new to
Dewey in the application of the classification. They can be found at
http://www.oclc.org/dewey/resources/teachingsite/200801/default.htm and as
modules are reviewed links provided will give access to the various modules.
A lively discuss ensued on how the development and sharing of “Dewey
neighbourhoods by Dewey users could best be facilitated. The editorial staff and
the EPC are cognisant of the need to make the classification relevant to library
users, and this discussion was stimulated in part by the presentation of the Topeka
and Shawnee Country Public Library at the March 2008 Public Library Association
Conference
.

A follow up Electronic meeting (Meeting 129A) will be held over the period May 28 –
June 25 covering some pending issues from Meeting 129 which are still to be
finalized.

Dates for the next face to face meeting are November 28-29 in Washington D C

Anne M Robertson
Deputy Chair
Australian Representative