Anonymous Patron writes “The Ohio Library Council’s Technical Services Division would like to announce their sponsorship of the DEWEYERROR list, a new electronic distribution list that will alert members to suspected errors in Dewey numbers in LC records.
Do you, or does your library, routinely accept Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC) numbers from Library of Congress (LC) catalog records without checking them first? Or, do you not only check them, but also take the trouble to advise LC when you suspect a number is in error? If you answered yes to either of these questions, the DEWEYERROR list is available for your use.
The Ohio Library Council’s Technical Services Division is sponsoring this list based upon the support of several of our members. It supersedes a privately maintained list dedicated to the same purpose. Fianna Holt, Technical Services Librarian at Albright College (Reading, PA) has commented: “This list is worthwhile for the mistakes that I can catch or can alert the staff when it is an ordered item. … just today, your message on the book Now, discover your strengths by Marcus Buckingham was valuable as we had accepted the number as is. It’s clearly misclassified and I am going to change to your suggestion!”
To subscribe to the list, send an e-mail to [email protected] with the text SUBSCRIBE DEWEYERROR plus your name. This is not a discussion list – only notification takes place – so postings should not be excessive. All postings are verified for appropriateness (but not for accuracy) so you will be spared irrelevant material. The list has no official connection with the Library of Congress, nor with OCLC, owners and publishers of the Dewey Decimal Classification(TM) system.”
Some thoughts
1. I thought this happened greatly on AUTOCAT. Indeed, digests in recent days have had notations that oddities have been forwarded to the Cataloging Policy and Support Office (CPSO) at LC. LC folks do reply there and enrich the cataloging community be providing learning opportunities through the feedback they reply.
2. What bases must be met to post an “error”? What if there is a difference of opinion in subject analysis? Subject analysis is necessarily subjective and not everyone approaches the same exact item resulting with the same conclusion in analysis.
Grinning!
At the risk of being modded way down, was I the only one struck by “Do We” have errors in “Dewey”?