Folksonomies, or user-created taxonomies, are currently used as collaborative tools to describe images, films, hyperlinks, and other objects and documents. LibraryThing is a website that lets users catalog their own book collections through the use of Library of Congress Subject Headings and social tagging. This paper records the results of exploratory research focusing on the connection between folksonomies and controlled vocabulary and utilizing LibraryThing as a possible benchmark to measure taggingâ s efficacy and accuracy as an instrument for subject analysis.

This paper gives an account of the project to reconstruct and update the UDC schedule 61 - Medicine Class, that has been conducted since 1993. An overview of the work already done in Phase 1 of the project is provided as well as its findings. The authors identify problems still to be addressed and set out the methodology for Phase 2.

It was from 1895 onwards, the year in which the First International Bibliography Conference was held that the Decimal Classification system began to be implemented on a European scale and started to be disseminated in Spain. The introduction of the UDC scheme was initially subject to numerous difficulties faced by the various initiatives undertaken by individual librarians, but it subsequently received the support of the Spanish Administration. In 1939, the adoption of the UDC was established for all Spanish libraries, by official decree. Although what was stipulated in the decree was the 1934 German version, in practice libraries implemented the latest version of the UDC tables. Finally, from 1989 onwards, the compulsoriness of using UDC to classify collections and catalogues was abandoned, although its implementation in libraries, catalogues and bibliographies remained in most cases. The UDC is taught within the framework of regulated Library and Information Science schools, from both a theoretical and a practical point of view. In Spain, research on the UDC is already quite important: translations, adaptations and versions of the tables have been undertaken and there are also analytical works on different aspects of the UDC system.

In Slovenia, the majority of libraries use the Universal Decimal Classification (UDC). The authors give an overview of the extent of the use of classification in both open access and bibliographic control in their country. Since 1991 there have been no editions of the UDC published in the Slovenian language and this paper announces the change that occurred when two very important tools were made available to UDC users in 2006 and 2007 respectively. The new Slovenian translation of the UDC was produced by the National and University Library (NUL) in Ljubljana in 2007. This Web edition uses the original structure of the ISO 2709 file format which allows searching of UDC numbers (string searching and full text searching), searching UDC captions, notes, examples, etc. The tool has a user friendly web interface for browsing and navigating UDC schedules via hyperlinks, facilitating checking and selection of an appropriate class mark. At the same time a group of authors in the Slovenian National Library published a Slovenian UDC manual addressing the specific needs of Slovenian libraries and established practice in subject indexing. The manual is abundant with practical examples for both inexperienced and advanced users of UDC

The paper describes the use of Universal Decimal Classification (UDC) in the library of the Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich (ETH-Zürich). The author explains characteristics of a subject authority index, the NEBIS Subject Index (NSI), through which the UDC is implemented for indexing and searching. The ETH library has been using the UDC for the past twenty-five years and most users hardly ever noticed the classification. A query in today's NEBIS-OPAC (formerly called ETHICS) is based on a verbal search with descriptors in German, English and French, and corresponding related search-terms. A single UDC number, linked to these descriptors, connects them to the related document-titles, regardless of the language. Thus the user actually works with the UDC, without realizing it. This paper describes the experience with this OPAC and the work behind it.

Classifications can help to overcome difficulties in information retrieval of heterogeneous and multilingual collections for which linguistic and free text searching is not sufficient or applicable. However, there are problems in the machine readability of classification systems which do not facilitate their wider use and full exploitation. The authors focus on issues of automation of analytico-synthetic classification systems such as Universal Decimal Classification (UDC), Bliss Bibliographic Classification (BC2) and Broad System of Ordering (BSO). 'Analytico-syntheticâ means here classification systems that offer the possibility of building compound index/search terms and that lend themselves to post-coordinate searching.

VINITI is the publisher of UDC schedules in Russian language and the only publisher that still maintains, develops and publishes a full UDC edition. Much of VINITIâ s effort is put into research and development of the classification, user support and training. Being part of the Russian Academy of Science, VINITIâ s main strength as classification publisher comes from its team of scientists, researchers and subject specialists that work on the development and maintenance of the knowledge organization terminology. VINITI maintains a Russian UDC database and is also responsible for the alignment of the UDC with the Russian Rubricator for Science and Technology, the official scientific taxonomy that serves as a unified indexing language for information exchange in the fields of scientific research and technology.

In the present work we point out opportunities, problems, tools and techniques about interconnecting discipline-specific subject classifications, primarily organized as search devices in bibliographic databases, with general classifications originally devised for book shelving in public libraries. In the proceedings paper we trace the basis of a methodology for interconnecting subject classifications, which is based on object identification and description;

Paper submission to this archive is arranged with the author by the editor of the proceedings. For further information contact the editor Maria Ines Cordeiro <mariaines.cordeiro@gmail.com> or Aida Slavic (aida@acorweb.net) / UDC is widely used in all types of libraries in the Czech Republic (Czechia). The classification plays an important role in the National Library as well as the entire library information network. It is central to the subject authority file of the National Library of the Czech Republic (NL CR) and its bibliographic services. The author explains the importance and potential of UDC use online especially in a multilingual context and illustrates this with examples from the national union catalogue, the Czech Uniform Information Gateway (UIG), the Multilingual Subject Access to Library Catalogues (MSAC) system and the Multilingual Content Aggregation System (M-CAST) projects. The advantages of using UDC in improving precision and recall are explained using the M-CASt system.

This is a preprint to be published in Journal of Documentation. The paper provides an overview of principles and procedures involved in creating a faceted classification scheme for use in resource discovery in an online environment. Facet analysis provides an established scientific methodology for the conceptual organization of a subject field, and the structuring of an associated classification or controlled vocabulary. This paper explains how that methodology was applied to the humanities in the FATKS project, where the objective was to explore the potential of facet analytical theory for creating a controlled vocabulary for the humanities, and to establish the requirements of a faceted classification appropriate to an online environment. A detailed faceted vocabulary was developed for two areas of the humanities within a broader facet framework for the whole of knowledge. Research issues included how to create a data model which made the faceted structure explicit and machine-readable and provided for its further development and use. In order to support easy facet combination in indexing, and facet searching and browsing on the interface, faceted classification requires a formalized data structure and an appropriate tool for its management. The conceptual framework of a faceted system proper can be applied satisfactorily to humanities, and fully integrated within a vocabulary management system. The procedures described in this paper are concerned only with the structuring of the classification, and do not extend to indexing, retrieval and application issues. Many stakeholders in the domain of resource discovery consider developing their own classification system and supporting tools. The methods described in this paper may clarify the process of building a faceted classification and may provide some useful ideas with respect to the vocabulary maintenance tool.