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Dewey BreakfastALA Annual Conference New Orleans, LA24 June 2006

Julianne Beall

Library of Congress

Diane Vizine-Goetz

OCLC Research

Using Dewey to Improve Access to Fiction

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Fiction: broad and narrow definitions

Broad definition:

Stories of imagined events, e.g., novels, short stories, fairy tales, fables, films, comics, interactive fiction

Narrow definition:

Fictional prose--only novels or short stories

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OCLC FictionFinder uses narrow definition

Good representation of textual novels and short stories

Inconsistent, limited coverage of fiction in poetry and drama, comics and graphic novels

No coverage of television and films

Based on MARC coding for fiction in existing catalog records

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FictionFinder

Slide 1

A search for ‘Jane Austen’ in FictionFinder illustrates the prototype’s good coverage of textual novels

Slide 2

A search for ‘Fantastic four’ illustrates the uneven coverage of comics and graphic novels

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Comic books & graphic novels

Many works and editions are missing from FictionFinder because Literary form not coded ‘fiction’ or ‘comic strips’

For example, Fantastic four: into the breach is missing, but would be included if FictionFinder used a broader definition of fiction

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Expanding coverage of FictionFinder

This study aims to expand the coverage of FictionFinder

To include fiction in comics, graphic novels, television, and films

For people interested in finding a good story, regardless of form or format

Using the Dewey Decimal Classification

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Dewey categories

This study also seeks to display results in categories based on Dewey numbers in records, e.g.:

English fiction

Comics and graphic novels

Movies and films

Television

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Live Search

Slide 1

The Live Search prototype, developed by Thom Hickey, presents the results of a search for ‘Jane Austen’ categorized by Dewey

Slide 2

The results list is limited to Public Performances (DDC 791) which includes a BBC television production and a film version of Pride and Prejudice

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Dewey 700s vs. 800s

700 The arts Fine and decorative arts

Formats that combine literary text with other arts

Comic books, opera, theater, films, television

800 Literature (Belles-lettres) and rhetoric

Limited to purely textual works

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Dewey numbers to be added to an expanded FictionFinder

741.5 Comic books, graphic novels, fotonovelas, cartoons, caricatures, comic strips

791.43 Motion pictures

791.45 Television

Selected subdivisions of these numbers

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References & Links

Beall, Julianne, and Diane Vizine-Goetz. Forthcoming. “Finding Fiction: Facilitating Access to Works of the Imagination Scattered by Form and Format.” In Knowledge Organization for a Global Learning Society. Ninth International ISKO Conference, Vienna, Austria, 4-7 July 2006, International Society for Knowledge Organization.

Dewey Decimal Classification

http://www.oclc.org/dewey/

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References & Links

Hickey, Thom. 2005. “Work in progress.” Outgoing : Library metadata techniques and trends. http://outgoing.typepad.com/outgoing/2005/12/work_in_progres.html

OCLC Research

http://www.oclc.org/research/