Section on Classification and Indexing

Annual Report 1997-1998

Scope

Membership

Officers:

Secretary
Edward Swanson

Information Coordinator
I.C. McIlwaine (as above)
From August 1998, to be
Marcia Lei Zeng

Meetings

The Committee considered progress with the various projects listed elsewhere in this report. It examined ways in which its membership might be increased, and attention was drawn at the open meeting to the fact that next year was an election year, and also to attendees to press their institutions to list the section as one which they should join. It also examined ways in which its work might be evaluated and came to the conclusion that evaluations of its short and medium term programmes on a regular basis should be sufficient, but if it was felt desirable evaluation forms might also be circulated at open meetings.

A major feature of the second meeting was reports from the different countries in attendance on their local classification activities. Members had been asked to present a written report as well as to speak, and it was agreed that the reports were so substantial that they should be given wider distribution. It was therefore resolved to publish a second issue of the Newsletter containing them. This should be ready for distribution in December 1998.

Projects

(a) The State of the Art Survey of Subject Heading Systems

A working group has been established to follow up on the State of the Art Survey of Subject Heading Systems. The survey sought to learn what countries provide subject access, how long they have done so, what systems they use, and whether they have manuals to provide guidance in application; 45 out of 123 national libraries responded. A follow-up survey brought results from an additional 38 countries. The Working Group, under the chairmanship of Magda Heiner-Freiling met twice during the Amsterdam conference to discuss the next steps and resolved that when the findings were complete, analysed and written up, they should be published as a journal article. The intention was to offer the article to International Cataloguing and Bibliographic Control.

(b) Principles Underlying Subject Heading Languages (SHLs)

The Working Group on Principles Underlying Subject Heading Languages (SHLs) chaired by Maria Inês Lopes (Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, Lisbon, Portugal) drafted its final report and submitted it for worldwide review towards the end of 1997. The responses were asked for by February and the Working Group members reached agreement on the changes that need to be made in the light of that review. The final version should be complete, validated and ready for publication by the end of 1998.

(c) International Conference on National Bibliographic Services

The Committee was invited to prepare a 3-4 page position paper from the Section to be given to attendees before the International Conference on National Bibliographic Services in 1998. This was prepared by Ia C. McIlwaine and Lois Mai Chan, in consultation with committee members and forwarded in December 1997. Ia C. McIlwaine will attend the conference representing the Section.

(d) Joint Working Group on a Classification Format of the IFLA Sections on Classification and Indexing and Information Technology

The Section has monitored and supported implementation of the recommendations of the Joint Working Group on a Classification Format of the IFLA Sections on Classification and Indexing and Information Technology. The chair is a member of the Working Group and has also attended meetings of the Permanent UNIMARC Committee by invitation. Implementation involves modification of the USMARC Format for Classification Data and development of a UNIMARC format for classification data. It is hoped that work will be completed by August 1999.

(e) Division project on OPAC displays

Representatives of the Committee attended meetings of the Working Group at the Amsterdam IFLA and the Section intends to maintain this involvement.

Publications

A. Steven Pollitt, "The key role of classification and indexing in view-based searching", pp. 37-40
Hanne Albrechtsen, "The order of catalogues - towards democratic classification and indexing in public libraries", pp. 41-43.

The Section has drafted copy relating to its activities for a new brochure for the Division which should be ready for distribution by the end of November, 1998.
Arrangements have been made with the UDC Consortium and with Forest Press to publish the papers from both workshops given at the 1998 IFLA, after ensuring that IFLA did not wish to act as publisher.

Conference programmes

"Working with LCSH: the cost of cooperation and the achievement of access. A perspective from the British Library". (Andrew MacEwan, Manager of Authority Control, NBS).

ABSTRACT: In the past few years, following the reinstatement of the Library of Congress Subject Headings to the British National Bibliography in 1995, the British Library has confirmed its long-term commitment to applying LCSH in its catalogues. This has caused the BL to focus more attention on the long-term development of the headings. Although the Library of Congress has editorial responsibility for the system, the cooperative environment creates a new forum in which all users of LCSH can contribute to its development. Improvements are required in vocabulary control and in the clarification of principles and policies for the application of the headings, especially where these can improve standardization for cooperative cataloguing. The British Library has already been involved in some development work on these issues for the indexing of fiction. The LCSH system as a whole has to be improved, but development of the headings must be linked to the development of search systems which fully exploit the thesaural structures already in place. Fully automated authority control is also an essential first step towards large scale improvements to the headings themselves. If resources are given to its development there is huge potential for improving subject access to catalogues through LCSH.

"GOO: Dutch national system for subject indexing". (G.J.A. Riesthuis, University of Amsterdam, Dept. for Book and Information Science and R. Storm, Royal Library, The Hague).

ABSTRACT: The NCC (Dutch Central Catalogue) is an integrated catalogue of about 400 Dutch libraries, including the National Library, the University Libraries and the main Public Libraries. The NCC has several search possibilities: authors, titles, title words, etc. For subject searching the Dutch "Basis-Classification" (BC) and a national word system, the "Gemeenschappelijke Trefwoordenthesaurus" (GTT) are available. In this paper the BC and the GTT are discussed. The BC is a newly developed broad classification (circa 2200 classes). Detailed subject search is possible by using the 45.000 Dutch-language terms of the GTT. The BC and the GTT can also be used in combination.

"Russian-language database of UDC: creation and implementation in library automation (Yakov L. Shraiberg, Ekaterina M. Zaitseva, Russian National Public Library for Science and Technology)

ABSTRACT: The paper analyses the problems of UDC application in scientific and technical libraries and information centres while replacing traditional catalogues by the electronic catalogue. It describes the UDC database created in the Russian National Public Library for Science and Technology in accordance with the forthcoming 4th Russian edition of UDC. The paper discusses the current state of preparation of this database and the problems and decisions relating to its maintenance and usage in classification practice and retrieval.

In addition, the section held two half day workshops:

UDC in the next millennium

This covered information on the present and future revision plans, a question and answer panel and demonstrations on the use of the Master Reference File and the UDC on CD-ROM Speakers and panel included IC McIlwaine (Editor in chief of UDC), Geoffrey Robinson, (British Standards Institution), Vanda Broughton (Research Assistant, University College London), Gerhard Riesthuis, (University of Amsterdam), and Bodhana Stoklasova and Marie Balikova, (National Library in Prague). The workshop was attended by about forty delegates.

Un outil pour le 21e siècle!
(on the French Translation of the Dewey Decimal Classification)

The speakers included Louis Cabral, Directeur general, Association pour l'advancement des sciences et des techniques de la documentation, Montreal; Raymond Couture-Lafleur; Bruno Béguet, Suzanne Jougelet and Max Naudi, Bibliotheque de France; Annie Béthery; and Julianne Beall, Assistant Editor, DDC. The workshop was attended by about thirty-five delegates.

There was no simultaneous translation at either the Open Session or the workshops, unfortunately.

Relationships with other bodies