The situation of the UDC in Hungary
Ungváry Rudolf
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Országos Széchényi Könyvtár
The international development
It seems that internationally the classification systems have permanent popularity. In the case of UDC and DC central development is equally continous, and the two systems are provided on the most up-to-date Internet platforme as well.
In the case of DC the service provider OCLC secures the web based version (WebDewey). By the help of this an immediate connection can be created between the full edition and the DC-codes existing in the records of the catalog. Indexing terms belonging to the DC numbers and the tags of the LC appeare as well. At present the conversion to RDF format useable for the SKOS runs.
In the case of UDC UDC consortium is the main developer and service provider. They publish regular summaries of the latest versions in 51 languages, and the system is taught on the same languages. UDC Online is the complete standard UP-ton-date version of the universal decimal Classification scheme. UDC master Reference file (UDC MRF) which is updated and released annually.
The website has 15.000 visitors per day. Besides of the libraries and joint orgranizations, it is used by several museums, archives, firms having ducumentation collections, like BBC.
Hungarian edition has no Web based version. It seems that there is the lack of interest to pay for it, while it would not be expensive. This creates a stagnation in the product, which disconcerts professionals using the Hungarian UDC. The latest Hungarian edition lags behind the actual variation, hadling by the consortium, about one decade. In Hungary, there has not been an appointed professional, in charge of the problem, for about ten years.