From UDC to DDC
Reclassification at the University of Bath
Elly Cope
Information Librarian (Chartered) – Cataloguing
Twitter: @ellycope
E-mail: [email protected]
A brief glossary …
TS: Technical Services
Workroom: Technical Services office
AS: Academic Services
Upstairs: Academic Services
Levels: Academic Services
Infos: Information Librarians (usually referring to Academic Services)
Deweyfication: The act of reclassifying an item
Deweyed: An item/record that has been reclassified
Library hierarchy
Head Librarian
Deputy Librarian & Head of Technical Services
Bibliographic Services Librarian (Acq., Cat., Copy
& Print)
Information Librarian (Chartered) – Acquisitions
Senior Library Assistant
x 0.5
Library Assistant x 1.5
Information Librarian (Chartered) – Cataloguing
Cataloguing Library Assistant
1 FTE
Bibliographic Services Librarian (Document
Delivery & Periodicals)
Head of Academic Services
Faculty Librarians x 3 (Levels 3, 4 & 5)
Subject Librarians
Level 3 x 1
Level 4 x 2
Level 5 x 3
Information Librarians
Level 3 x 1
Level 4 x 1
Level 5 x 1.8
A brief history
*Academic Services Information Librarians do the classification at the University of Bath*
• Universal Decimal Classification adopted as alternative to Dewey
• Updated schedules not purchased• New subjects not covered
• Additions, notes and amendments made on schedules and, more recently, on the Library wiki• UDC numbers ‘disguised’ as Dewey
• In-house schedules for some subject areas• Negative student feedback• Possibility of shelf-ready
Task Group: formation & methodology
• Communications Task Group recommended that:
“the classification system and organisation of stock be reviewed with a view to implementing a system which is more consistent, user focused and intuitive.”.
• Classification Policy Task Group formed
Methodology:• Graduate Trainee report• Literature search• Ongoing projects• Costings (out-sourcing and in-house classification)• Available schemes and associated costs
Task Group: identifying options
A. Maintain the status quo• Incur no additional costs• But not practical
B. Which classification scheme? In-house or commercial• Ease of use essential
(students and staff!)• DDC or LCC
C. Application of schedules• Across the whole library• Test area
D. Outsourcing• Any benefits?
E. Retro-conversion• Time consuming• Test area?
F. Management of retroconversion• Outsourcing?• Large scale one-off project
Task Group: conclusions
Preferred options• Adopt Dewey across the library
• Update to latest editions when available
• Use Coutts shelf-ready service• Retro-convert existing stock• Short term intensive retro-conversion project
Alternative options• Adopt Dewey on one floor
• Update to latest editions when available
• Use DDC classmark from downloaded BDZ records• Partial retro-conversion of identified problem areas
2009 pilot project
1. “To retroconvert architecture books within the 720 range in our UDC sequence to DDC.”
2. “To acquire new architecture books likely to fall within the DDC 720 range in shelf-ready format.”
• Dewey editions 19+ deemed acceptable• 7,108 items in 720 range• Using ISBNs Coutts found DDC numbers for 3,500• BDZ records for 3,118 had acceptable Deweys• Unmatched books to be classified in-house• Coutts chosen as shelf-ready supplier• Retro-conversion to be done in-house
Pilot project procedures
Academic Services:• Check spreadsheet of titles:
• DDC19+ numbers accepted without checking• DDC18 numbers checked and accepted or reclassified
• Remaining 1,122 items transferred to storage area for classification from scratch• (issued to ‘RECLASS’)
• Holds placed on items out on loan• Joblink staff (aka students) produced spine labels and
updated records
Technical Services:• Quality control items coming in as shelf-ready
Pilot project: results
• Retro-conversion took 22 weeks• 6,768 items were reclassified• 340 books identified as missing (records deleted)• 1,068 moved outside 720 range• 67 architecture books ordered as shelf-ready
(undercharged!)• Catalogue records enhanced• User feedback very positive
Expansion of the project
• No use of shelf-ready• New books to Dewey using numbers in downloaded
records• Extend to all of Level 3 (Mechanical, Chemical and
Electrical Engineering)• Retro-convert all stock• Previous editions and extra copies
• Huge amount of extra work for cataloguing
• Early 2010 Request made for Management to be added (Level 5)
• Late 2010 TS pushed for all fund codes to be Deweyed• Frustrating for the team to know items would be back• Still not literature…
Current Cataloguing procedures
*Everything passing through Workroom now gets a Dewey number (except literature)*
• Check record for a Dewey number• Check that it’s a valid Dewey version for that fund code• If a number can’t be found through BDZ, LoC or OCLC
Classify it goes ‘upstairs’ for a number• Returned to TS for final cataloguing and spine labeling • Extra copies & other editions
• Extra copies dealt with by Technical Services• Other editions dealt with by Academic Services
(partly because of Library layout!)• User IDs for Workroom and the AS floors for holds
Retro-conversion
• Retro-conversion of Level 3 ongoing• Academic Services conduct targeted retro-conversion
projects over summer vacation• Subjects/number ranges nominated by members of
Task Group• Calculations of number of books and time needed to aid
decision• Recent summer projects:
• 2010 Mechanical Engineering (620s)• 2011 Computer Science (003-006)• 2012 nominations include:
• Management (658 & 659)• Biology & Biochemistry (570s, particularly 571)
The future
• Unlikely to adopt shelf-ready in the near future• Ongoing summer retro-conversion projects• Change to library layout?• Changes to Dewey…
Keep going!
As of January 17th 2012:
32,151 titles in the library have Dewey numbers (13%)
214,533 titles are still UDC (87%)
Calculations predict another 17 years at the current rate..!
Any questions?
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