UDC in Slovenia

Abstract

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