Long time readers of this blog will be aware of an awesomely popular, semi-regular feature, written when I used to be involved in classification of library resources, where I highlighted some of the latest additions to the Dewey Decimal System.

So I was delighted to be alerted by a former library colleague to this month’s changes which are all about the classification of political parties.

For example, should you find yourself needing to classify a book on the French Communist Party in Paris, 324.2440750944361 – leaning towards being mistaken for pi by the inattentive – is the number for you.

And now, added to 324.24106 (Liberal Party and its successors) is the entry:

Class here Liberal Democrats

Result.

I couldn’t resist flicking through other recent months’ updates for old times’ sake, so here are some highlights:

• Management of household finances moves from 640.42 to 332.024
• 364.16: “Class here looting, pillage, plundering”
• 364.4: “Prevention of crime and delinquency – including curfew, eugenic measures”
• 133.539 changes from “Trans-uranian planets, and asteroids” (remember, transuranic planets may not be used where there is life) to “Neptune, Pluto, asteroids, related bodies”
• To reflect its recent demotion out of the planetary premiership, Pluto itself is moved from 523.482 to 523.4922

Believe it or not, I was asked at the recent Scottish blogmeet by a fan of the irregular Dewey Decimal updates on this blog if we weren’t overdue for a new post. Well, fans of three digit numbers optionally followed by a decimal point and more digits, you’re in luck today!

There’s plenty of source material from here, here, here, here, here and indeed here, so let’s get started with a bumper selection.

• The Democrats retaking Congress: American Dream – 306.0973
• Most delicious number: Bakeries – 664.752
• What top-up fees don’t help: First-generation college students – 378.1982
• “And then it hurt a bit more, but then it hurt a bit less”: Headache patients’ writings – 808.89207
• New word for your vocabulary: Txalaparta – 786.843
• “My name? J. R. Hartley”: Streamer fly fishing – 799.124
• Most like a Doctor Who book: Father Time (Symbolic character) – 398.33
• Inking about inking: Tattooing in literature – 808.803559
• John Reid’s wet dream: Youth curfews – 364.4
• **Most “I’m Spartacus” number: Chariot racing in literature – 808.803579
• Soap operas, basically: Interpersonal relations on television – 791.456552
• Sportiest number: Strikes and lockouts—Hockey – 331.89281796962
• A big one for Julia Goldsworthy: Moor (Falmouth, England) – 711.55220942378
• “I buy it for the crossword, dear”: Women athletes in literature – 808.803579
• New word for your vocabulary: Klebsormidiales – 579.83
• Number you have to get permission to protest in: Parliament Square (London, England) – 711.550942132
• “Is that an original Diebold?”: Voting-machines in art – 704.94932465
• Kids getting high: Adolescent psychopharmacology – 615.780835
• “Yes, Muffin, I’m sorry too“: Muffin the Mule (Fictitious character) – 791.4572
• Readers of this blog: John Q. Public (Symbolic character) – 306
• Funniest number: Satire, Colombian – 867.00809861
• Most comical number: League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (Fictitious characters) – 741.5942
• Where the rangers come from: Sloane Square (London, England) – 711.550942134
• Where the rangers come from: Spermatozoa–Physiology – 571.8451
• People who don’t pay enough attention to the Dewey Decimal System (“That means you, McFly*!”): Slackers – 174
• Long number: Caregivers’ writings – 808.899213620425

** Update: It has been pointed out to me by a local Smartacus that I perhaps meant Ben Hur. And perhaps I did. Alas, I seem to have mislaid my collection of Charlton Heston’s back catalogue. 🙂

*Not the band

It’s the Dewey Decimal Classification number for Pluto, sitting happily in the “Planets of the Solar System” schedule. So there are more implications of Pluto being demoted to dwarf planet. The folks are Dewey Towers have noticed:

We’re still looking at what this means for 523.4 Planets of solar system and for 523.48 Trans-Uranian planets in Dewey. In particular, we will need to decide exactly where Charon and other KBOs (“Plutonian objects”) go in the classification, and whether “Trans-Uranian planets” is still the best caption.

Of course, Trans-Uranic Heavy Planets may not be used where there is life.

Yes, my chickadees, I know you’ve been champing at the bit for the latest Library of Congress/Dewey Decimal System subject mappings, so here, my gift to you, is a veritable smorgasbord. Tuck in. These numbers come from here, here, here, here and here.

• Rhyming number: Barbadian Canadians – 305.896972981071
• Most Victorian number: Baker Street Irregulars (Fictitious characters) – 823.914
• Hang on, it’s on the tip of my tongue…: Amnesiacs – 616.852320092
• New word for your vocabulary: Krumping – 793.3
• “A voice in my head told me to do it”: Mental illness in the Bible – 220.83622
• Monsters in the next series of Doctor Who: Active food packaging – 664.09
• Most boring number: Cavity wall insulation – 693.832
• Most boring number: Micro-drilling – 621.952
• Been there, done that: Low-income college students – 378.19826942
• Erm, the German Embassy: 21-23 Belgrave Square (London, England) – 725.17
• Most fun number: Alton Towers (England) – 791.06842514
• Most hairy number: Beards in literature – 808.803559
• Another new word for your vocabulary: Washint – 788.35
• Most pointless number: Electric engineers’ spouses – 621.3092
• Careful now: Christmas trees–Fires and fire prevention – 363.379
• Most Scottish number: Balamory (Scotland : Imaginary place) – 791.4572
• Most obscure illness number: Pseudoxanthoma elasticum – 616.5
• Really young professionals: Child psychoanalysts – 618.928917092
• Josiah Bartlet and David Palmer don’t qualify, sadly: Presidents in motion pictures – 791.43658
• Although they do do this (only one digit different): International relations on television – 791.45658
• Long tunnel: Mont Blanc Tunnel (France and Italy) – 624.1920944584
• Long number: Hurricane Katrina, 2005 – 551.5520916364090511

The mind boggles why “Electric engineers’ spouses” would be a useful subject term. Still, it only takes one book about them to require the classification…