PCC Resources for
March 16, 2020
PSD policy specialist responsible for this list: L. Dechman
CLASSIFICATION
Announcement: Classification changes to KF, Law of the United States
This list contains a change and development of the KF schedule in which the previously paired topics, Public health and Environmental law have been separated. The AALL FLEM group for the enhancement of metadata proposed these changes, and the meeting is grateful for their assistance. The changes reflect the acknowledgement that the topics should be considered separately, and they provide space for growth in the area of Environmental law. In the Public health area, some topics and numbers remain the same, and some are being removed from Public health and added to the new section for Environmental law.
Other decisions:
DF261.T49
This proposal was made to add Thessaloniké (Regional unit), which is a modern jurisdiction, to the caption Thessaloniké in this list of states, territories, islands, etc., in Ancient Greece. The meeting decided that adding the name for a modern jurisdiction in this hierarchy would be confusing. The proposal was not approved.
LG281.T355
This university is dedicated to science and technology. There is an instruction at the beginning of the LG schedule that says, “For individual institutions limited to education in a special field, see the topic, e.g. class K, law schools, R741+ medical schools, S536.5+ agricultural colleges, T171+ technical schools.” Institutions dedicated to science and technology should be classed in Q. A work about this university is already classed in Q183.4.K6, which is where the current work should be classed. The proposal was not approved.
SUBJECT HEADINGS
Allington Hill (Bridport, England)
The cataloger’s note says that there is more than one hill by this name in England, but the citations do not support this assertion. The proposal may be resubmitted.
Asian American women superheroes
The Announcement in the Summary of Decisions for list 2002 stated, “… only proposals for groups of superheroes qualified by a single ethnic, gender, sex, age group, etc., will be considered. Proposals that combine two or more qualifiers into a single heading will not be approved.” This proposal for superheroes contains two qualifiers, Asian American (ethnic group) and women (sex).
The proposal was not approved.
Birbyné and viola music
The work cat source citation should include a description of the work that shows, through a description of the contents, that the heading is required for cataloging the work. The proposal may be resubmitted.
Cheomseongdae
The work being cataloged is about an ancient astronomical observatory. Observatories should be established in the Name Authority File, per H 405. The proposal was not approved.
Children born of rape; Children born of wartime rape
These two proposals accompanied the proposal Children of rape victims, which was approved on this list.
The proposed heading, Children born of rape, is perhaps more specific to the content of the work, but the heading would be ambiguous because it would be topical rather than a class of persons. The proposal also contains UFs that are euphemistic (e.g., Children born out of sexual violence) or are very awkward (e.g., Rape-conceived children). The meeting considers it unlikely that the UFs would be used as search terms.
The proposed heading, Children born of wartime rape, would be subject to the same ambiguity, but, further, is much too specific.
The heading Children of rape victims can be post-coordinated with headings for the specific situation (e.g., Children of criminals, Rape as a weapon of war, etc.) or with headings for the specific atrocity or event.
The proposals for Children born of rape and Children born of wartime rape were not approved.
Children’s encyclopedias and dictionaries, Yiddish
The proposal does not include any information in English as is required in H 202 sec. 1.a.(6). The proposal may be resubmitted.
Cuchilla Negra Mountain Range (Uruguay)
“Chuchilla” means mountain range or ridge in Spanish. Geonet lists this ridge as being in both Uruguay and Brazil and gives a second approved form, Coxilha Negra, for Brazil. The cataloger should consider proposing the heading as Negra Mountains (Brazil and Uruguay) with any variants included as UFs as appropriate. The proposal may be resubmitted.
Juvenile prisoners
The existing heading Juvenile delinquents has been used for this concept for many years. At this point, it would be practically impossible to examine the entire file so the new heading could be applied accurately. The heading Juvenile delinquents should be assigned instead. The proposal was not approved.
Juvenile prisoners’ writings, American
Following the decision for Juvenile prisoners above, this proposal is not approved. The heading Juvenile delinquents’ writings, American should be assigned instead.
Korea (North)—Social conditions—2011-
H 2055 says that the free-floating centuries should be used with –Social conditions, and that new subdivisions based on specific time periods should be proposed “where there is sufficient material to warrant it.” The proposal provides a single work cat citation and no indication of BFM. There are only 75 bib records in LC’s catalog with the heading Korea (North)—Social conditions—21st century, and almost all of them were published since 2011. It seems likely that at least some of the 75 are about the 2011- period. Neither does the proposal provide any evidence that the social conditions of North Korea are appreciably different under Kim Jong Un than they were under his father or grandfather.
The meeting prefers to not establish a particular time period for the social conditions in North Korea. It would be the first specific chronological subdivision established for Korea (North)—Social conditions. Specific date subdivisions have been established under Korea (North) –Economic conditions; --Economic policy; --Foreign relations; --History; and –Politics and government, but with the exception of –Economic conditions, they are all aspects that a leader in an authoritarian state can change almost by fiat. It is not necessary to use the same chronological pattern for all subdivisions under a particular country.
The proposal was not approved. The heading Korea (North)—Social conditions—21st century should be assigned instead.
Muslim women superheroes
The Announcement in the Summary of Decisions for list 2002 stated, “… only proposals for groups of superheroes qualified by a single ethnic, gender, sex, age group, etc., will be considered. Proposals that combine two or more qualifiers into a single heading will not be approved.” This proposal for superheroes contains two qualifiers, Muslim (religion) and women (sex). The proposal was not approved.
Narodni park (Kanjiža, Serbia)
The proposal did not provide any information in English that supports the qualifier or the choice of broader term. Furthermore, the heading should be established in the vernacular, per H 1925. The proposal may be resubmitted.
Ostracism (Psychology); Rejection (Psychology)
The words ostracism and rejection are synonyms in Merriam-Webster. The meeting agrees that the concepts are different and the headings are needed, but because the words are synonymous, there should be a contrasting scope note added to the proposals that clearly articulates the difference between the headings. Catalogers should be able to assign the appropriate heading, quickly and with consistency, based on the scope note, even if the words ostracism or rejection are not used in the title or description of the work being cataloged. The proposals may be resubmitted with contrasting scope notes.
Palais de la Roseraie (Bidart, France)
The information provided in the source citation does not identify the location of this palace, which is necessary to support the qualifier and the choice of broader term. The proposal may be resubmitted.
Pariahs
The second UF being added is not supported in the source citations. The cataloger should either provide a citation or delete the UF. If the UF represents a romanization issue, the cataloger should supply an explanation in a cataloger’s note. The proposal may be resubmitted.
Polemics, Turkish
Polemics are not in a literature hierarchy; therefore, no other polemics headings are qualified by language. Instead, Polemics is in the Propaganda hierarchy. Propaganda has been qualified by nationality or topic of the propaganda (e.g., Propaganda, American; Propaganda—Anti-communist).
The work being cataloged is about Turkish polemics as a literary form to which the cataloger can assign the headings Polemics along with Turkish prose literature—History and criticism.
The proposal was not approved.
Post-truth
The term “post-truth” does not really stand on its own. Some sources in this (well-researched) proposal say that the term may be used as a noun, but the OED says that it is only used as an adjective. One of the citations uses the phrase “post-truth condition,” but without context, that phrase sounds like a medical problem. The meeting could not find a satisfactory way to qualify or extend the term that would resolve the ambiguity.
Without context, it is problematic how the term would be interpreted and applied. As a heading in LCSH, it should be used only for works about the concept of post-truth. However, it would probably be assigned to works that simply contain the term in the title or description, or to works that the cataloger believes to be untruthful.
Finally, the proposal was submitted with only 12 records for BFM, and almost all of them have the heading Truthfulness and falsehood assigned. The heading Truthfulness and falsehood has UFs that include Believability, Credibility, Lying, and Untruthfulness. Post-truth fits nicely as an additional UF.
Post-truth was added as a UF on the heading Truthfulness and falsehood. The proposal was not approved.
Printing presses in education
The cataloger provided information in a cataloger’s note, which should have been included in the 670 source citation. The proposal may be resubmitted.
Religious drama, Russian
The source citation for the work being cataloged does not provide any indication in English about the language of the drama being discussed. The language of the subject of the work cannot be assumed from the language of the text. (For example, the work could be written in Russian, but the subject could be French drama.) The proposal may be resubmitted.
Sonnets, Urdu
The cataloger provided information in a cataloger’s note, which should have been included in the 670 source citation. The proposal may be resubmitted.
Teenage superheroes
None of the works cited are eligible to have the proposed heading assigned per H 1610. The Announcement in the Summary of Decisions for list 2002 stated,
Going forward, the meeting will consider only those proposals in which the work being cataloged should be assigned the heading, according to current rules and guidelines on LCSH assignment as stated in the SHM. If the work being cataloged would not be assigned the heading, the proposal will be marked not necessary. This is consistent with the practice for all other proposals for new terminology.
The proposal was not necessary.
Temporary emigration
The existing heading Emigration and immigration does not imply that it refers only to permanent emigration and immigration. Some of its narrower terms (e.g., Return migration; Repatriation) imply that the term can be used for both permanent and temporary emigration and immigration. The topic of temporary emigration may be handled by the assignment of two terms Emigration and immigration and Temporary workers.
The proposal was not approved.
Thibodaux Massacre, Thibodaux, La., 1887
The cataloger did not provide enough information in the source citation to support the geographic qualifier, the date, or the use of the term “massacre.” A description of the event should be supplied including the circumstances, participants (who attacked whom?), location, and date. The proposal may be resubmitted.
Sugar Cane Labor Strike, Thibodaux, La., 1887
This proposal lacks enough information including the location of the strike, the date, the parties to the strike (was it one company or more; identify the company). See H 2100 for instructions about information required. The proposal may be resubmitted.
Ukrainian question
There was no information provided in the source citations that supports the proposed heading or the scope note. Further, there have been problems with LCSH [topic] question headings because they are wide open to interpretation. For instance, this heading could mean that it refers to the current-day problems in the Crimea, but according to the bib record, it does not. The preference is to use specific headings instead of a general heading such as this. Based on the proposed scope note, headings such as Ukraine—Boundaries; Territory, National—Ukraine; and/or Europe—Politics and government might be assigned instead. The proposal was not approved.
Women superheroes, Asian
The Announcement in the Summary of Decisions for list 2002 stated, “… only proposals for groups of superheroes qualified by a single ethnic, gender, sex, age group, etc., will be considered. Proposals that combine two or more qualifiers into a single heading will not be approved.” This proposal for superheroes contains two qualifiers, women (sex) and Asian (ethnic group). The proposal was not approved.
Young adult literature, Ukrainian
Only the Ukrainian-language title of the work being cataloged was provided to support the proposal. The proposal may be resubmitted with information in English that explains the relationship of the heading being proposed to the work being cataloged.
GENRE/FORM TERMS
Alphabet rhymes
The proposal was made to add the BT Alphabet books to the existing heading Alphabet rhymes. Not all alphabet rhymes are, or are in, alphabet books. The proposal was not approved.
Text corpora
On list 1906, the decision was made to not approve proposals for individual types of data sets. Instead, catalogers should use the subject headings to reflect the contents of the data set.
Text corpora datasets cannot be described by a subject heading that reflects the contents of the data. The subject of the data would be irrelevant. Assigning the term Data sets would be insufficient. Therefore, the proposal for Text corpora was approved exceptionally.
MEDIUM OF PERFORMANCE TERMS
Changes were made as indicated on the approved list.
STATISTICS
|
LCSH |
LCGFT |
LCMPT |
LCDGT |
Children’s |
Approved* |
212 (87%) |
9 (90%) |
2 (100%) |
0 |
0 |
Authority records cancelled+ |
11 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
Not necessary |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
Not approved |
13 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
Resubmit |
16 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
*The number of proposals approved is approximate and may change slightly during the final processing of the Approved List.
+The number of authority records cancelled is also included in the total number of proposals approved.
