025.431: The Dewey blog

Sylva Natalie Manoogian received the John Ames Humphry/OCLC/Forest Press Award during the International Relations Round Table (IRRT) Chair’s Program on June 26, 2006, at the ALA Annual Conference in New Orleans. The award, given for significant contributions to international librarianship, was established in 1987 in honor of Mr. Humphry, the executive director of Forest Press* from 1977 to 1985.

Ms. Manoogian was recognized for her tireless efforts to rebuild the Gulbenkian Library of the Armenian Patriarchate in Jerusalem, her contributions as a consultant to libraries and librarians in Armenia, and the cooperative spirit she has fostered among librarians from the nations of the Caucasus. Ms. Manoogian retired as Principal Librarian from the Los Angeles Public Library in 1999, and is currently a Ph.D. candidate in Information Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles. In the attached picture, Ms. Manoogian (far right) is seen receiving her award standing next to Jeannette Pierce (middle), IRRT Chair and Librarian for History, Political Science, and Africana Studies at Johns Hopkins University, and me (far left).

*Forest Press, the former publisher of the Dewey Decimal Classification, became a division of OCLC in 1988. OCLC retired the Forest Press imprint in 2002.

Juli and I spent last week at the 9th International ISKO Conference in Vienna (watch for more on that meeting next week). Just prior to the conference on July 4, Juli participated in a one-day DDC Workshop held in conjunction with the 10th Conference of the German Chapter of ISKO. At the request of workshop organizer Dr. Margit Sandner (Universitätsbibliothek Wien), Juli presented two talks focused on number building, shelf arrangement, and comparisons between DDC and LCC: Comparing DDC and LCC Shelf Arrangement and DDC Number Building for Shelf Arrangement. These presentations may be of interest to new users of the DDC, people unfamiliar with the use of classification systems for physical shelf arrangement, and people curious about some of the differences between DDC and LCC.

The DDC Workshop took place in the same room as DDC-DACHS: Die Dewey-Dezimalklassification under der deutschsprachige Raum, a traveling exhibition of DDC-related material that has been organized by Dr. Sandner (we blogged about the exhibit last December. Dr. Sandner gave us a personal tour of the exhibition during the conference—it was fascinating.

Here’s a photo of Dr. Sandner standing by the case containing a copy of Edition 8 from 1913 that was used by the former librarian of Vienna's British Council Library. Just to Dr. Sandner's right (but sadly not documented in the photo) are the fabulous torte, strudel, and coffee that accompanied our tour.

The second photo is a post-dessert shot of Juli and me standing near copies of the German translation of DDC 22, Dewey-Dezimalklassifikation und Register (for more information on the German translation, see the DDC Deutsch web site and our discussion here a few months ago).

It was my great pleasure to present long-time colleague (and recent LC retiree) John D. Byrum with the 2006 Melvil Dewey Medal at the ALA Annual Conference in New Orleans on June 27, 2006. John’s citation reads: "For his extraordinary leadership in the fields of cataloging and bibliographic standards, both nationally and internationally, during a distinguished career spanning four decades; for the high order of creative leadership, vision and perseverance he has shown in creating, expanding and sustaining the Program for Cooperative Cataloging, which is widely considered to be one of the most successful and dynamic programs in the history of bibliographic control; and for the exceptional expertise, tireless determination, and unfailing diplomacy he has exemplified in his engagement with IFLA and the international cataloging community, from his pioneering work on the International Standard Bibliographic Description (ISBD) in the 1970s to his most recent, successful efforts to promote MARC harmonization."

John Byrum is pictured here celebrating with former colleagues who also happen to be previous Melvil Dewey Medal recipients. From left to right are John Byrum, Sally McCallum (chief of the Network Development and MARC Standards Office at the Library of Congress, and 2004 Melvil Dewey Medal recipient), me (2005 Melvil Dewey Medal recipient), and Winston Tabb (chair of the Melvil Dewey Medal Award Committee, dean of university libraries and director of the Sheridan Libraries at the Johns Hopkins University, and 1998 Melvil Dewey Medal recipient).

Incidentally, Lois Mai Chan (professor at the University of Kentucky and former member and chair of EPC), was awarded the 2006 Beta Phi Mu Award at the same ALA 2006 Awards ceremony for distinguished service in education for librarianship. Here’s a photo of Lois standing between Dr. Anna Perrault (president of Beta Phi Mu, and professor at the University of South Florida), and Michael Gorman (2005-2006 president of ALA and dean of library services, Fresno State University).

Congratulations, John and Lois!