Inside the DDC Dewey goes Europe: On the use and development of the Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC) in European libraries Austrian National Library Vienna 28 April 2009 Joan S. Mitchell Editor in Chief, DDC OCLC

Outline Anatomy of a Dewey record What content is in the underlying data files? What content is associated with the scheme? How is the scheme represented?

Cross-country skiing Number and caption Notes Relative Index terms Mapped LCSH Hierarchy

Content: English-language full edition database (December 2008) Schedule numbers:26,715 Tables 1-6: 9,356 Built schedule numbers:13,310 Built table numbers: 609

Content: English-language abridged edition database (December 2008) Schedule numbers: 4,937 Tables 1-4: 522 Built schedule numbers: 401 Built table numbers: 9

What content is associated with the DDC? Large number of resources Mappings and crosswalks Interoperable translations

DDC already associated with a large number of resources WorldCat ~25% of WorldCat records include explicit Dewey numbers plus more derived using FRBR work sets Number is growing, e.g., Deutsche Nationalbibliothek is now adding Dewey numbers to WorldCat nearly at the same rate as the Library of Congress Other utilities and databases, e.g., BIBSYS, NORART Digital libraries, e.g., World Digital Library

NORART

World Digital Library

Mappings to subject headings (1) Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH) Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) Canadian Subject Headings (CSH) Sears List of Subject Headings (Sears) Book Industry Standards and Communications (BISAC) Subject Headings

Mappings to subject headings (2) RAMEAU [French] Schlagwortnormdatei (SWD)[German] Nuovo Soggettario [Italian] Sears Lista de Encabezamientos de Materia [Spanish]

Crosswalks between DDC and other schemes LCC – DDC (ClassWeb, Classify) UDC – DDC (IZUM, Czech National Library) SAB – DDC(Electronic updated version at National Library of Sweden)

Translations

Skilanglauf Note more SWD mapped to than LCSH

Representation Use of and extensions to MARC 21 formats for representation of the DDC New representations for semantic web applications

Representation: Dewey in MARC 21 Formats Use of MARC 21 formats for classification and authority data in new Editorial Support System Extensions to MARC to support representation and access (developed in cooperation with DNB, LC, and OCLC)

Dewey Class Record in MARC Classification Format

Relative Index Record in MARC Authority Format

Dewey Class Record in XML (excerpt)

Some Extensions to MARC 21 Bibliographic Format Representation of component parts of numbers Accommodation of full and partial “access” numbers

Component Parts of Numbers Inclusion of component parts of numbers in bibliographic records using a new 085 field, based on the 765 field in the classification format

Component Parts Example Artistic themes in literature $8 1 $a $ ## $8 1.1 $b $a $c $z 3C $s 357 Collections of literary texts from more than two literatures displaying specific features Artistic themes

Access Numbers Provision for assignment of access numbers (additional DDC numbers, notation from Tables 1-6, internal table notation) in bibliographic records

Access Numbers: Examples (1) History of Vienna, Linz, and Salzburg $a $2 22 (Austria) 083 0# $a $2 22 (Vienna) 083 0# $a $2 22(Linz) 083 0# $a $2 22 (Salzburg)

Access Numbers: Examples (2) Geographic access in the British Library Newspaper Project: Birmingham Post 083 0# $z 2 $a 424 $2 22 $q Uk (West Midlands) 083 0# $z 2 $a $2 22 $q Uk(Birmingham City)

New Forms of Representation Formal specification of relationships in the DDC (research project under way by Green and Panzer on Dewey as an ontology—a direct response to Dr. Niggemann’s challenge at last year’s EDUG Symposium) Dewey URIs Dewey in RDF/SKOS

Uniform Resource Identifiers (URIs) for Dewey: Examples Generic URI Specific time Specific time & language Specific time, language & format

Dewey in RDF/SKOS SKOS (Simple Knowledge Organization System) provides a standard way to represent knowledge organization systems (KOS) using the Resource Description Framework (RDF) Problem: Dewey is more complex than many KOS (e.g., thesauri) Schedules, auxiliary tables, internal tables, Relative Index Standard numbers, optional numbers; number spans, centered entries Elaborate note structure in tables and schedules + lengthy notes in the Manual

Analyzing DDC for modeling in RDF/SKOS (1) Education for specific objectives Vocational education Parents--vocational education Vocational education--Great Britain Vocational education--United States Career development Career education Education of employees Employee development Human resource development … Career education Career education--United States Career education--United States--Curricula Core competencies … Vocational education Vocational training centers Relative Index Mapped LCSH skos:closeMatch

Analyzing DDC for modeling in RDF/SKOS (2) Vocational education Class here career education, occupational training, vocational schools Class on-the-job training, vocational training provided by industry in For vocational education at secondary level, see ; for adult vocational education, see See also for choice of vocation; also for vocational guidance in schools skos:notation skos:prefLabel skos:related skos:narrowerStructural

RDF model: Class a skos:Concept ; skos:inScheme ; dct:created " T00:00: :00"^^ ; dct:modified " T00:00: :00"^^ ; skos:notation " "^^ ; skos:prefLabel "Vocational ; skos:broader ; skos:narrower,, ; skos:narrowerStructural, ; skos:related.

RDF model: Relative Index terms ddc:topic,.

RDF model: Mapped LCSH skos:closeMatch,.

Some questions to frame the symposium How can we improve/extend the content of the DDC? How can we work together to make sure new forms of representation are interoperable? How can we make Dewey in its various representations plus mapped terminologies and associated content work harder?

Some Useful DDC Links Dewey web site New & Changed Entries Discussion papershttp:// : The Dewey bloghttp://ddc.typepad.comhttp://ddc.typepad.com DDC Research Projects Classifyhttp://deweyresearch.oclc.org/classify2/ DeweyBrowser EDUG IT Dewey URIs, RDF/SKOS representation of the DDC panzer.ppt panzer.ppt