PCC Resources for
December 19, 2011
PSD policy specialist responsible for this list: J. Young
CLASSIFICATION
B187.A55
The focus of the work being cataloged is unclear. If it is about the Greek philosophical concept of aletheia, or truth, then it should be classified in B187.T7. If it is a linguistic analysis of the Greek word aletheia, it should be classified in PA with Greek etymology. The proposal was not approved.
B1026.E45-.E454
The work cataloged contains Egnacio Ellacuría’s university lectures on the works of several other philosophers. It would be better classed in BD25, with general introductions to philosophy written in Spanish and Portuguese. The proposal was not approved.
DD801.R66
Classification captions are based on authorized subject and name headings. A subject proposal for the Rhein-Neckar Metropolitan Region was not approved on List 24, on the basis that the region is jurisdictional and should be established in the name authority file. The name authority has not yet been input. The classification proposal may be resubmitted after the name authority work is completed.
DT393.55.T54
The related subject proposal has been marked resubmit (see below). The classification proposal may be resubmitted along with the subject proposal.
DT2458.K35
The proposal sought to revise the existing caption Karanga to Kalanga. LC’s database contains a work on the Karanga living in Botswana, so it appears that the existing caption Karanga is correct. A proposal for Kalanga in Botswana may be resubmitted as a proposal for a new caption.
HV787.5
Works about Iceland have been classified in HV799.I2, and the meeting wishes to continue this practice. The proposal was not approved.
PN4784.P33
The related subject proposal has been marked resubmit (see Peace journalism below). The classification proposal may be resubmitted along with the subject proposal.
QC168.5.85.M53
The related subject proposal has been marked resubmit (see Gases—Migration below). If the subject proposal is resubmitted, the classification proposal may be resubmitted with it.
R126.H7V85
The work being cataloged should be classified in R126.H6A-Z, individual works of Hippocrates. The proposal was not approved.
SUBJECT HEADINGS
Subdivisions to be added to lists of free-floating subdivisions:
H 1105, Corporate bodies
$v Blogs
H 1147, Animals
$x Embryos $x Effect of water quality on
$x Larvae $x Effect of water quality on
Other decisions:
Aix Island (France)
Two citations provided in the authority record make it clear that this island is a commune, which is a Group 1 jurisdiction. A name authority record should be created to represent both the jurisdiction and the geographic island, per the background statement in H 807. A proposal to cancel the existing subject heading should be resubmitted.
Alternation (Political science)
There was no research cited to indicate what this heading would mean, or whether it is a word used in the study of political science. The proposal may be resubmitted with supporting evidence and a scope note.
Audio-visual materials—Conservation and restoration
The subdivision –Conservation and restoration free-floats under types of library materials (see SHM H 1095). The proposal was not necessary.
Boats and boating—Waste disposal
This proposal was made to add several UFs to the existing heading. Boats and boating—Garbage disposal employs a phrase that is not used in LCSH (Garbage is a UF to Organic wastes and Refuse and refuse disposal). The UFs that include the phrase Pleasure craft should appear at a higher level. The proposal was not approved
Brassica juncea
The authoritative Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS) provides a list of seven synonyms and common names, which should be UF references. Wikipedia, which was consulted, also provides links to authoritative resources which provide more variants, none of which were cited. The proposal may be resubmitted.
Butch/femme (Gender identity)
The meeting feels that the proposal is too narrow and specialized for a general vocabulary such as LCSH. Libraries needing specialized headings of this type should consider creating them as local headings rather than proposing them for inclusion in LCSH. The proposal was not approved.
Butterley Engineering Site (England)
The heading proposed was in the form of an archaeological site; the UFs and BT were for the factory building itself. The meeting feels that since the site is a factory building, and the name of the factory building is the same as that of the company (Butterley Engineering Ltd.), that the established name heading should be assigned to this work, per the background statement in H 1334. The proposal was not approved.
Cennet and Cehennem Sinkholes (Turkey)
SHM H 690, sec. 10.c states that the named group to which an individual feature belongs may be provided as a BT “if appropriate and the heading exists.… Do not establish headings for larger groups only to make the reference.” This proposal was submitted along with separate proposals for Cehennem Sinkhole (Turkey) and Cennet Sinkhole (Turkey); each of these proposals has Cennet and Cehennem Sinkholes (Turkey) as a BT. Not only does the proposal for Cennet and Cehennem Sinkholes not follow the policy in H 690, but it seems unnecessary to have a collective heading for two features, the proposals for both of which have been approved. The two separate headings may be applied to works about both sinkholes. The proposal was not approved
Commelinaceae
There was no authoritative source cited for the addition of the UF Dayflower lily to this heading, and policy specialists could not find one. The proposal was not approved.
Congo (Brazzaville)—Politics and government—1960-
LCSH includes the headings Congo (Brazzaville)—Politics and government—1960-1997 and Congo (Brazzaville)—Politics and government—1997- . These two headings may be applied to the work being cataloged. The proposal was not approved.
Criminals
This proposal was made to add four UFs to the existing heading: Convicted criminals; Felons; Misdemeanant offenders; and, Misdemeanants. The first is inaccurate because not all criminals are convicted; in addition, Convicts is a UF to Prisoners. The remaining three are upward references that the meeting does not wish to add. The proposal was not approved.
Data sets; Databases; Geomatic files
There does appear to be a difference between data sets and databases, but the difference is not clear from the citations provided, which use essentially the same terminology to describe both concepts. The proposal for data sets also does not account for the more generic meaning of the phrase, which is any set of data which is used for research (e.g., interviews). More research should be done, and contrasting scope notes should be provided. The proposals for Data sets; Databases; and the related proposal, Geomatic files, may be resubmitted.
Dominican (Dominica) literature; Dominican (Dominica) literature (French Creole); Dominican (Dominica) poetry; Dominican (Dominica) poetry (French Creole); Revolutionary poetry, Dominican (Dominica)
While the use of the country name as an adjective is not desirable in most cases, neither are headings which are unnecessarily confusing. The existing headings Dominica literature; Dominica literature (French Creole); Dominica poetry; Dominica poetry (French Creole); and, Revolutionary poetry, Dominica clearly indicate their scope. They are also sufficiently distinct from headings that include the word Dominican (e.g., Dominican literature), which is used for Dominican Republican (i.e., from the Dominican Republic). The proposals were not approved.
Ebenezer (S.C.)
The GNIS citation provided clearly indicates that Ebenezer is a populated place and should therefore be established as a jurisdiction in the name authority file. The proposal was not approved.
Economic, social and cultural rights
This proposal overlaps significantly with existing headings such as Social rights, Civil rights, and Human rights. In addition, LCSH does not typically include headings that combine multiple terms into a single heading. For these reasons, the proposal was not approved.
Egypt—History—Revolution, 2011-
The heading Egypt—History—Protests, 2011- was approved on Monthly List 25 of 2011, and includes a UF Egypt—History—Revolution, 2011- . The terminology used to describe the events in Egypt is still in flux, and numerous cross-references were provided to the heading to allow for access in a multitude of ways. When the terminology stabilizes, the heading and references may be reevaluated for accuracy and usefulness. The proposal was not approved.
Experimental philosophy
There were no authoritative resources cited in this proposal, which does not show that the phrase experimental philosophy is in common use, or how the modern use of this phrase is (or is not) different from the experimental philosophy (i.e., empirical method), which has been in use for centuries. Works on this subject have been cataloged using the headings Philosophy—Research and Research. The proposal was not approved.
Fürstengruft (Merseburger Dom, Merseburg, Germany)
This proposal was marked resubmit on Tentative Monthly List 25 of 2011, the Summary of Decisions for which stated, “All elements of a qualifier must be established in either the name authority file or in LCSH. Merseburger Dom has not been established yet. The proposal for Fürstengruft may be resubmitted along with a proposal for the Merseburger Dom.”
Gases—Migration
The terms “gas migration” and “gas flow” seem to be used interchangeably in scientific literature. If there is a meaningful difference between the two, the proposal may be resubmitted along with supporting evidence and scope notes contrasting Gases—Migration with the existing heading Gas flow.
Gays—Violence against
The UFs being proposed for this existing heading are not synonymous with the heading. Not all violence perpetuated against gays is “anti-gay violence” (i.e., the fact that someone is gay does not mean that any violence committed against him was in response to his sexuality); queer-bashing is not necessarily violent; and homosexuals as well as heterosexuals, transsexuals, etc., may be targets of sexual orientation victimization. The proposal was not approved.
Gołyński family
The heading Golinsky family already exists. A proposal to revise Golinsky family may be resubmitted.
Group games; Team sports; Team sports—Coaching
These proposals are resubmissions from Tentative Monthly List 1123. Instead of simply removing from Group games the UFs that include the word “sports” and establishing a separate heading Team sports, the proposal should cancel the existing heading Group games and create two new headings. In other words, this is a heading split. Step-by-step instructions for making such proposals are provided in H 193. Also, there was no bibliographic file maintenance (BFM) submitted for this proposed update. The LCSH database includes almost 200 bibliographic records that include the heading Group games, and those records should all be examined to determine whether they need to be revised. The proposals may be resubmitted.
Hillside Homes (New York, N.Y. : Apartment houses)
According to the GNIS citation provided in the proposal, Hillside Homes is a variant name for the populated place Eastchester Heights. Populated places as well as planned communities and housing subdivisions, which this appears to be, are all established in the name authority file. The proposal was not approved.
Homophobic incidents
The scope note for Homophobia states, “Here are entered works on active discrimination against, or aversion to, homosexuals by heterosexuals.” Since homophobia is defined as active discrimination, which implies an incident or incidents, it would seem that there is tremendous overlap between the existing heading and the proposal. Furthermore, it seems unlikely that an “incident” could be passive. The existing heading Homophobia should be assigned to the work cataloged, post-coordinated with Hate crimes, Gays—Violence against, or other suitable headings. The proposal was not approved.
Hispanic American HIV-positive persons; Indian HIV-positive persons
These proposals caused the meeting to reconsider headings in this form and decide that they set an undesirable precedent. The existing headings, which are listed in the next entry below, will be cancelled on a future list. The above proposals were not approved.
African American HIV-positive persons; African American HIV-positive men; African American HIV-positive women; Hispanic American HIV-positive men; Hispanic American HIV-positive women; Indian HIV-positive women
These proposals were made to add additional references to the existing headings. Since these headings will be cancelled on a future list, the proposals were not approved.
Hygieia (Greek deity)
The proposed UF, Hygie, is merely the French form of the deity’s name. LCSH does not generally include foreign-language variants unless the variant is well-established in English-language reference sources (see Subject Headings Manual H 373). The proposal was not approved.
Infection
The meeting does not wish to begin routinely making plural UFs for headings established in the singular and singular UFs for headings established in the plural, and there does not seem to be a need for an exceptional plural UF in this case. The proposal was not approved.
Intelligent dance music; Nu jazz; Trip hop (Music)
There was no evidence provided to support the choice of BT in these proposals. The proposals may be resubmitted.
Jet transports—Crash tests
It does not seem that there is a significant difference between crash testing of jet transports as opposed to other types of aircraft. The existing heading Airplanes—Crash tests may be post-coordinated with Jet transports. The proposals were not approved.
Labor Theater (New York, N.Y.)
SHM H 405 indicates that theaters are Group 2 entities and as such they should be established in LCSH. The proposal to cancel this heading in favor of a name authority was not approved.
Lesbians—Identity
The meeting does not wish to routinely add UFs for phrases when the phrase is represented by a [heading]—[subdivision] combination (e.g., UF Lesbian identity SEE Lesbians—Identities). The meeting also does not wish to begin adding a UF in the form of a plural phrase (e.g., Lesbian identities). The proposal was not approved.
Monier family
According to American Family Names (Hanks), Monier is a variant form of Meunier, which is already established as Monueir family. A UF will be added to the existing heading. The proposal was not approved.
Peace journalism
There was not any research provided to indicate what this heading means, or that it is a phrase in common use. The proposal may be resubmitted.
Peppers—Pungency
Pungency as a concept must be established before this heading can be approved. The proposal for pungency should clearly indicate whether it refers to spiciness or taste, or to some other quality. The proposal for Peppers—Pungency may be resubmitted along with a separate proposal for pungency.
Popular music—Puerto Rico—2011-2020
The subdivisions are free-floating per H 1916.5. The proposal was not necessary.
Probation
Probation is a sentence given out to offenders who have committed felonies and also those who have committed misdemeanors. Therefore, the UFs proposed for this existing heading, Misdemeanant corrections and Misdemeanant probation, are upward references. In addition, corrections refers to imprisonment, not probation. The proposals were not approved.
Red drum; and related proposals
This proposal includes a UF Spotted bass (Red drum), and there is also an existing heading Spotted bass; the former is in the genus Sciaenops, and the latter, Micropterus. The name spotted bass is therefore ambiguous, and the Latin form should be used for the spotted bass species in genus Micropterus. The proposal may be resubmitted with the related proposals, along with a proposal to revise Spotted bass.
--Religious aspects
This proposal seeks to make the subdivision –Religious aspects free-floating under all non-religious topics. Due to the difficulty of determining which headings are inherently religious, the meeting wishes to maintain the scope as-is. Instructions on applying this subdivision, including cases in which it is free-floating and those times when it must be proposed for use under a specific heading, are available in SHM H 1998. The proposal was not approved.
Sadāprarudita (Buddhist deity)
The form of heading was not supported in the sources cited fields (670s) of the authority record. The proposal may be resubmitted.
Saint Helena Island National Park (Qld.)
According to H 1925 sec. 1.d, separate headings are made for the park and the geographic feature when the park is co-terminal with the feature. This proposal appears to conflate Saint Helena Island and Saint Helena Island National Park, and it is unclear whether a heading for the park or for the island is desired. The proposal may be resubmitted.
Secrecy
There is no work cataloged cited in this proposal, and thus it is unclear that there is a need for the proposed UFs, many of which are words that are not in common use (e.g., clandestinity). In addition, most of the proposed UFs are not exact synonyms to secrecy and/or are represented by another heading (e.g., covertness is represented by the existing headings Espionage and Undercover operations). The proposal was not approved.
Shudraga
It appears that the UF proposed is a foreign-language term that is not in common use in English-language reference sources. The proposal was not approved.
Six Flags Great Adventure Safari Park (N.J.)
This entity is partially a zoo, and partially an amusement park. The former are established in the name authority file, while the latter are established in LCSH. Since the amusement rides are a highly significant part of the park, the meeting wishes to retain this heading in LCSH. The proposal was not approved.
Tigré (African people)
There was no research cited in support of this proposal. There are alternate names listed in Ethnologue and in the African Studies Thesaurus, and both resources also provide information useful in assigning a BT. The proposal may be resubmitted.
Transphobic incidents
This proposal was not approved for the same reasons that the proposal Homophobic incidents, above, was not.
Turcology
In LCSH the standard way to represent the study of a geographic area is through the formulation [place]—Study and teaching. There are a few exceptions, such as Egyptology, that the meeting does not wish to consider precedents. Headings such as Middle East—Study and teaching, Ottoman Empire—Study and teaching, and Turkey—Study and teaching may be assigned to the work being cataloged. The proposal was not approved.
Upper Egypt
Since Upper Egypt is not the northern part of Egypt, but a roughly corresponds to the Nile Valley in Egypt, a scope note is advisable. It also seems that works on Upper Egypt have been assigned the heading Egypt, or headings subdivided by Egypt, but no bibliographic file maintenance was submitted. A proposal that includes a scope note may be resubmitted along with marked-up bibliographic records to be revised.
Voter turnout
Voter turnout is not a new concept, and works on it have been assigned the headings Voting and Elections. There was no BFM submitted. The proposal may be resubmitted along with marked-up bibliographic records to be revised.
Zeravshan Range (Tajikistan and Uzbekistan)
The proposal does not include any indication of the work being cataloged, or any additional research, in support of the proposed UF. The proposal may be resubmitted.
Zero (Fighter plane)
According to the Virtual Aircraft Museum web site, the A6M had several reporting names. Therefore, the cataloger should consider whether Zero is the best heading, and whether A6M (Fighter plane) might be better. The proposal may be resubmitted.
ANNOUNCEMENTS AND REMINDERS: SUBJECT HEADINGS
Geographic subject headings: foreign-language UFs
Recently there have been several proposals to add foreign-language variants to existing geographic subject headings. The SHM is clear in H 690 sec. 10.a that only foreign-language variants that are pertinent to the feature are permitted. This includes forms in official language(s) of the country where the feature is located and the form in the language of any countries that previously controlled the feature. On this list, for example, there is a proposal for the Virgin Islands that sought to add UFs representing the Afrikaans, Bosnian, Breton, Catalan, Czech, Danish, German, Estonian, Basque, Greek, Spanish, Croatian, Polish, Hebrew, Swahili, Vietnamese, and Icelandic forms of name, among many more. The Virgin Islands were explored and/or controlled by the Danish, Dutch, English, French and Spanish, and thus are the only language forms that may be represented in the record.
Source citations: Wikipedia
An announcement in Summary of Decisions for Monthly List 23 of 2011 discussed the ways that Wikipedia articles can be useful to catalogers making proposals and also explained that more authoritative reference sources are usually readily available and should be consulted and cited instead of, or in addition to, Wikipedia.
Of late, several proposals have cited Wikipedia when there was no need because the information quoted from Wikipedia was already present in citations from more authoritative reference sources. Reference sources may be inconsistent in the ways that they define a concept, and at those times, it is important to record all of the definitions, whether they are consistent or contradictory. Such a practice exhibits thoroughness and enables faster approval of the proposal. In cases where a standard reference source and Wikipedia have the same information, however, there is no need to cite both; the standard source alone needs to be cited. Citing Wikipedia in these circumstances amounts to a needless, and occasionally time-consuming, duplication of effort.
Proposals of marginal utility
Over the past several months there has been a significant increase in the number of proposals that seem to be made only for the sake of technical correctness (e.g., modifying qualifiers on existing headings for airplane models from the plural form to the singular, or to make the qualifier more specific, such as revising the qualifier Fighter plane to Jet fighter plane). The meeting is also seeing more proposals made for the sake of adding UF references that are marginal in terms of validity and/or usefulness (e.g., see above the discussions of the proposals for Criminals; Gays—Violence against; and Probation), and many of the proposals do not cite a work being cataloged. Given the current economic climate, in which many libraries are operating with reduced resources, the meeting would like to encourage catalogers to consider using their limited time to propose new concepts for LCSH and to provide comments on the Tentative Monthly Lists.
GENRE/FORM TERMS
Cinema novo films
Over the past months there have been several genre/form proposals for individual film movements. Rather than continue to consider each on an individual basis, the meeting believes that there needs to be a general policy on whether film movements constitute genres or forms, and thus whether they should be included in LCGFT. This proposal has been withdrawn until such time as that policy is developed.
Recreation maps
The phrase recreation maps seems to be a descriptor that may be applied to a variety of genres and forms of maps (e.g., tourist maps, road maps, topographic maps). The specific genre/form term may be assigned, post-coordinated with the subject heading Outdoor recreation—[place]—Maps. The proposal was not approved.
Sagas (Motion pictures); Sagas (Television programs)
It is unclear how these terms would be applied. The sources cited seem to indicate that they refer to works about a family through time, often over generations. This definition, though, could apply equally to the adaptation of John Jakes’ North and South trilogy and to Days of our Lives. The terms could also be interpreted as referring to epic works such as The Lord of the Rings. In each of the above cases, there are other genre/form terms that can be applied. Additionally, in LCSH, “Saga” is defined as a form of Old Norse literature, and if approved these terms could prove problematic as the literature genre/form project gets underway. The proposals were not approved.
