Conference outputs - Classification at a Crossroads

The International UDC Seminar 2009 entitled "Classification at a Crossroads: multiple directions to usability" took place in The Hague on 29-30 October 2009.

The conference was very successful in bringing together speakers and audience from different communities interested in, and working with, classification schemes. There were 135 delegates in attendance from 32 countries and from various kinds of information services and institutions, libraries, museums, academia and research institutes. The focus of the conference was on technical and technological issues on how to make classification work in a networked environment.

Talks provoked interesting discussions and left us all with the feeling that we need more events of this kind which would give opportunities to technical, software and standards specialists to interact with classificationists, classification owners and practitioners. The panel discussion at the end of the conference stressed again how the application environment for classification has changed significantly for both those who publish and distribute classification and for those who apply it. The commitment to open sharing and linking of data is a shared responsibility.

It transpires that many issues that deal with classification use are not entirely to do with funding or programming expertise as much as a matter of 'know how' and there is a great responsibility on gatekeepers of this knowledge and expertise to share it and make it accessible.

We have now published talk slides and mp3 recordings. The proceedigns of the conference will be published in the Extensions & Corrections ot the UDC, issue 31 (2009) and the selections of papers will be published in the Knowledge Organization journal.

Last call for registration: Classification at a Crossroads

Internatinal UDC Seminar
Classification at a Crossroad: Multiple Directions to Usability
The Hague, 29-30 October 2009.

The final Programme with abstracts and speakers' biographies containing a selection of 22 talks is now available.

This conference will cover a variety of topics: classification of web resources, automatic classification, relationships between thesaurus and classification, terminology services, web ontology standards, new approaches in using or presenting classification and classification use in library networks.

The programme highlights are talks by our keynote speakers Dagobert Soergel "Illuminating the Chaos: Using Classification to Harness the Web" and Dan Brickley "Open Web Standards and Classification: Foundations for a Hybrid Approach".

A recent addition to the programme is a presentation by Stella Dextre Clarke "Providing for interoperability between thesauri and classification schemes in ISO 25964" on the new ISO standard for structured vocabularies and its approach to classification.

Ergon Verlag will exhibit and sell books from its series Advances in Knowledge Organization at a special 50% discount. All delegates are given 20% discount to Facet Publishing Titles. Both publishers contributed a number of books for a lottery draw and delegates will have a chance to win a book.

The registration for the conference will close on 20th October. To register, with an option to pay online go to http://www.udcc.org/seminar2009/php/registration.php.

CFP: Colloquium in Mundaneum - May 2010 Mons (Belgium)

Colleagues doing research on the history of knowledge organization at the beginning of 20th century, including seminal work in the field of documentation by Paul Otlet and Henry Lafontaine, may be interested in the call for papers for the following event:

Colloguium: Transcending Boundaries in Europe in the Period of the Belle Epoque: Organizing Knowledge, Mobilizing Networks, and Effecting Social Change - 20-21 May 2010, Mons (Belgium)

VENUE: Mundaneum
[to learn more about Mudaneum, the origin of UDC and documentation as general see "Paul Otlet - Man who wanted to organize the world" a documentary narrated by W. Boyd Rayward]

The colloquium will explore aspects of network development,information creation, organization and exchange, and related "boundary spanning" activities of individuals and institutions and the scholarly tools and techniques that this enabled them to develop during the period of the "Belle Epoque" in which the Western European world underwent extensive social, political and "epistemic" change from approximately 1880 to 1914 [read more].

Abstracts (in English or French) of not more than 500 words should be sent by January 31, 2010 to Porf. W Boyd Rayward (wrayward@illinois.edu).

Notification of acceptance 28 February 2010.

Accepted papers must be delivered at the Colloquium in English.

Proposal to extend class 004 Computer science by K. P. Singh

We have just received an interesting proposal for the extension of the UDC class 004 Computer science by Kunwar P Singh and Manisha Singh (Department of Library and Information Sceince, University of Delhi) - which we are looking forward to working on.

We have been annually updating class 004 ever since its major revision and publication in 1994, adding a couple of the most urgently needed concepts almost every year. Class 004, has over 850 records in the database. Some areas of 004, however, certainly need attention. Kunwar's proposal may be very helpful in updating the 004.4 Software part of the schedule, especially programming languages. What is also an excellent contribution is the subject-alphabetical index that we can also add to the UDC Master Reference File to improve searching.

I have recently looked into the BCS Taxonomy developed by Judi Vernau and I find the main separation of the field into academic and professional topics rather interesting albeit impossible to align with document indexing requirements. Anyway, UDC allows any other field of knowledge/application area to be related to 004 which obviously influences the basic structure and difference between a general knowledge classification and special classifications.

It is useful to note that we have selected the following subdivision of 004 to be published in the UDC summary:

004 COMPUTER SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY. COMPUTING. DATA PROCESSING

004.2 Computer architecture
004.22 Data representation
004.23 Instruction set architecture
004.25 Memory system
004.27 Advanced architectures. Non-Von Neumann architectures
004.3 Computer hardware
004.31 Processing units. Processing circuits
004.32 Computer pathways
004.33 Memory units. Storage units
004.35 Peripherals. Input-output units
004.38 Computers. Kinds of computer
004.4 Software
004.41 Software engineering
004.42 Computer programming. Computer programs
004.43 Computer languages. INCL: Programming languages
004.45 System software: INCL: Operating systems
004.49 Computer infections
004.5 Human-computer interaction. Man-machine interface. User interface. User environment
004.51 Display interface
004.52 Sound interface
004.55 Hypermedia. Hypertext
004.58 User help
004.6 Data
004.62 Data handling
004.63 Files
004.65 Databases and their structures
004.67 Systems for numeric data
004.7 Computer communication. Computer networks
004.71 Computer communication hardware
004.72 Network architecture
004.73 Networks according to area covered
004.738 Network interconnection. Internetworking. INCL: Internet (WWW)
004.75 Distributed processing systems
004.77 General networking applications and services. INCL: Internet applications
004.78 Online computing systems for specific use
004.8 Artificial intelligence
004.9 Application-oriented computer-based techniques
004.91 Document processing and production. INCL: Word, text processing. Desktop publishing
004.92 Computer graphics. INCL: Geometric modelling. Animation
004.93 Pattern information processing
004.94 Simulation by computer. Virtual reality

Articles from E & C 30 (2008) online

Articles published in the "Extensions & Corrections to the UDC" journal, issue 30(2008) are now available in DLIST:

• McIlwaine, Ia C and Williamson, Nancy (2008) Medicine and the UDC: the process of restructuring Class 61. Extensions and Corrections to the UDC 30:pp. 9-16.
• Gnoli, Claudio and Mazzocchi, Fulvio and Slavic, Aida (2008) The UDC Philosophy revision project. Extensions and Corrections to the UDC 30:pp. 17-19.
• Chovanova, Katarina (2008) Archaeology and the structure of class 9. Extensions and Corrections to the UDC 30:pp. 21-22.
• Gilbert, Mark and Lane, Heather (2008)Forty-five numbers for snow: a brief introduction to the UDC for Polar libraries.Extensions and Corrections to the UDC 30, pp. 23-25
• Balikova, Marie (2008) Conspectus categorization scheme based on UDC classification used in subject gateways in Czechia. Extensions and Corrections to the UDC 30:pp. 27-33.
• San Segundo Manuel, Rosa (2008) Some arguments against the suitability of Library of Congress Classification for Spanish libraries. Extensions and Corrections to the UDC 30:pp. 35-43.
• Fandino, Marta (2008) UDC or DDC: a note about the suitable choice for the National Library of Liechtenstein. Extensions and Corrections to the UDC 30:pp. 45-47.
• Arskiy, Yurij M (2008) UDC activities in Russia: a VINITI report. Extensions and Corrections to the UDC 30:pp. 49-50.
• Akhverdova, Marina (2008) Present state of the UDC in Ukraine. Extensions and Corrections to the UDC 30:pp. 51-52.
• Norekiene, Dalia (2008) UDC in Lithuania. Extensions and Corrections to the UDC 30:pp. 53-54.
• Rozman, Darija (2008) UDC in 2008 – Brief news from Slovenia. Extensions and Corrections to the UDC 30:pp. 55-56.
• Satija, Mohinder P (2008) UDC in India: use and problems. Extensions and Corrections to the UDC 30:pp. 57-58.
• Singh, K. P.(2008)UDC and its use: a case study of libraries and information centres in Delhi. Extensions and Corrections to the UDC 30, pp. 59-65.

UDC Philosophy Revision: report 1

Earlier this year (see our blog item philosophy) we have announced the start of the work on the revision of class 1 Philosophy by Italian working group on UDC (see discussion list Italia - Gruppo di lavoro italiano sulla Universal Decimal Classification).

Claudio Gnoli has now published the report on the work done so far at http://italia.udcc.org/report1.html

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