The Dewey Decimal Classification debuts in Vietnamese

DUBLIN, Ohio, USA,  22 August 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.

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