The Dewey Decimal Classification debuts in Vietnamese

DUBLIN, Ohio, Aug. 22, 2006-OCLC Online Computer Library Center
announces the publication of the Vietnamese translation of the Dewey
Decimal Classification and Relative Index, Abridged Edition 14, by the
National Library of Vietnam. The new edition was officially launched at
a seminar in Hanoi on August 16, at which Assistant Editor Julianne
Beall represented the Dewey team. This is the first complete translation
of an edition of the Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC) into Vietnamese.

In September 2001, at a workshop in Hanoi sponsored by The Atlantic
Philanthropies and RMIT International University Vietnam, and attended
by librarians from across the country, Vietnamese librarians chose the
DDC as one of their bibliographic standards. Joan S. Mitchell,
Editor-in-Chief of the DDC, was present at the 2001 workshop, and noted:
"We knew from the start how important it would be to work closely with
Vietnamese librarians to ensure that the new edition was localized to
meet special needs and interoperable with the standard edition. For
example, we worked with the Vietnamese team to develop an updated and
expanded area table for the Vietnamese edition, and then derived an
interoperable abridgment of that table for the English-language
edition."

Phyllis B. Spies, Vice President, Collection Management Services, said,
"The Vietnamese edition joins an impressive set of Dewey translations
that are available in every official IFLA (International Federation of
Library Associations and Institutions) language as well as many others.
In Dewey, concepts are represented by Arabic numerals; such
language-independent representation facilitates adoption and use of the
DDC around the globe."

Translations of the most recent editions of Dewey are available, under
way, or under discussion in Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Greek,
Hebrew, Icelandic, Italian, Norwegian, Russian, Spanish, and Swedish.

Pham The Khang, Director of the National Library of Vietnam, said at the
launch in Hanoi, "The National Library is delighted the official
translation of Dewey has been established in Vietnam. This is the
culmination of a long-cherished ambition of the National Library to
improve the level of classification in Vietnamese libraries by
encouraging the use of Dewey as a national standard, and has the support
of many Vietnamese libraries and of the Ministry of Culture and
Information. The National Library is committed to promoting the ongoing
use of Dewey and has established an editorial office to manage the
introduction of successive editions. Now that the Vietnamese edition has
been published, the National Library also has plans to use the
classification scheme as the basis for an improved Vietnamese National
Bibliography."

Michael Robinson, Project Manager of the Vietnamese translation, said,
"RMIT International University Vietnam is proud to be actively involved
in the formal introduction of the Dewey Decimal Classification to
Vietnam. With the assistance of The Atlantic Philanthropies and RMIT
Vietnam, the National Library of Vietnam has been able not only to
undertake a translation of Dewey of the highest quality, but also to
distribute copies to over 2000 Vietnamese academic, public, and special
libraries. Alongside other official translations of MARC21 and AACR2,
this will enable Dewey to be established as a bibliographic standard
nationally in Vietnam, promoting greater bibliographic control and
improving resource sharing amongst Vietnamese libraries."

The Vietnamese project also aims to develop the classification skills of
Vietnamese librarians, and the publication and launch of Dewey will be
followed by a national training program in DDC classification, led by
Professor Patricia Oyler of the Graduate School of Library and
Information Science, Simmons College, Boston, MA, USA.

About The Dewey Decimal Classification System

OCLC publishes the Dewey Decimal Classification and a variety of related
materials. The system has been translated into more than 30 languages
and serves library users in over 200,000 libraries in 135 countries,
making it the world's most widely used library classification system.
More than 60 of these countries use the DDC to organize their national
bibliographies.

The DDC is 130 years old.  Use of the system now ranges from a tool for
the physical arrangement of library collections to new applications as a
multilingual switching language, sorting device for search results, and
a searching and browsing tool on the Web.  More information about the
Dewey Decimal Classification System is available on the Web site
http://www.oclc.org/dewey/ or via telephone at 1-800-848-5878, extension
6346, or +1-614-764-6346.

About OCLC

Founded in 1967 and headquartered in Dublin, Ohio, OCLC Online Computer
Library Center is a nonprofit organization that has provided
computer-based cataloging, reference, resource sharing, eContent and
preservation services to 57,000 libraries in 112 countries and
territories. OCLC and its member libraries worldwide have created and
maintain WorldCat, the world's richest online resource for finding
library materials. For more information, visit www.oclc.org.

Dewey, DDC, Dewey Decimal Classification, OCLC and WorldCat are
registered trademarks/service marks of OCLC Online Computer Library
Center, Inc.

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