September 20, 2005

New (to me) Listserve

For anyone who occasionally notices that the Dewey numbers that OCLC assigns are wrong, here's a way to notify "wide" outside of OCLC error reports.

You can subscribe to DEWEY ERROR by sending a message to listserv@listserv.kent.edu with the text: subscribe deweyerror [forename surname] (obviously, replace the info in brackets with your first and last name).

Here's the boilerplate information:

The DEWEYERROR list is a working tool for librarians using the Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC) scheme. It enables them to communicate about suspected errors in DDC numbers in bibliographic records distributed by the Library of Congress (LC). The Ohio Library Council's Technical Services Division (http://www.olc.org/) is kindly serving as list sponsor. This list has no official connection with LC, nor with OCLC, the owners and publishers of Dewey Decimal Classification(TM).

If your library accepts bibliographic records from LC without verifying the DDC number, you can learn via the list about possible inaccuracies which other people have reported. Readers should verify the accuracy and appropriateness of the information for their local purposes. If you do verify DDC numbers in LC records, please report suspected errors directly to LC as below. You can then use this list to also notify other librarians.

The list is for notification only. Persons differing with error reports received should contact the writer directly, not via this list. But if you wish to just "lurk" for another purpose, you are welcome. It is recommended that general discussion of DDC number building and other DDC-related topics take place on OCLC-Cat, a discussion list for OCLC cataloging products and services, as well as other cataloging issues. The subscription address for OCLC-Cat is listserv@oclc.org.
I'm also a member of that latter list, and it is informative and quite funny (often unintentionally). Then again, I have a weird sense of humor.

No comments:

Post a Comment