Using LCC (Library of Congress Classification) to Classify International Legal Materials: A Light-Hearted Series of Articles: Part 2 Brian Striman University of Nebraska - Lincoln Bstriman1@unl.edu

[Editor's note: Thanks to Classification columnists Regina Wallen and Marie Whited for their help with this article.]

This is the second installment of articles in TSLL on classifying legal materials. The first article appeared in the December 1998 TSLL. So let's continue...

Scene— your messy office. More international stuff is waiting for you to catalog, plus there are a few titles that have JX call numbers on their spines and some books that you've been asked to reclassify from the dead JX. Below is a totally fake dialog between "You" and a fictious character named "Help".

You: muttering JX, JX, I don't have time to reclass this stuff... I'm sick of piece-meal reclassing. I don't have a plan. There's no room in the KZ area on the shelves... geeze, I haven't even had time to go measure the JX's for reclass shifting requirements. How am I going to get all the JX's into the JZ and KZ areas?

Help: Quit your grumbling. What's your problem?

You: Well, actually, right now it's this dumb JX book. It's a publication dealing with Intelligence activities and espionage/sabotage, but JZ doesn't seem to have what I need, so I hate to force it in JZ5630. What do I do?

Help: First, let's take off your "JXequal-JZ-and-KZ" blinders. You need to be more flexible, more creative! If you don't find a comfortable classification fit, maybe you need to pull away and consider the other LC schedules. Like in this case, how about the U and V schedules, military and naval sciences? Try looking at UB250273. You know the U and V schedules were created simultaneously with JX in 1910 and cover a number of the same subjects!

You: You want me to be more "creative?" I thought classification was pretty cut and dried stuff.

Help: Not much is cut and dried about classifying international legal materials. You've got be thinking on several different levels when you class this stuff. Not everything can or should be forced into JZ and KZ. You've got to resist the temptation to think of these new schedules as some kind of "offshoot" for JX... JZ and KZ were never intended to be a replacement of JX. JX was a hodge-podge mishmash, and a classifier could sometimes only guess in many areas of JX where to put things.

You: What about the K (jurisprudence, comparative and international uniform law)?

Help: Yes.

You: <long pause> Yes.... WHAT?

Help: It's one of the most important schedules that interplays with the dead JX, and the new JZ and KZ schedules. You need to have the K schedule in your default-zone when you are classifying international legal materials. The work might just be properly classed in that schedule.

You: Okay. Fine. Let's say I'm classifying a book on the law of partnerships in India, and I come up with what I THINK it might be, but I'm not sure it's right. What can I do to verify the number?

Help: Use the Internet to visit some other law library catalogs and perform a call number search under the call number you gave your book. See if it's close. Look at it this way... how many books are you going to acquire on Indian law? So, you don't want to spend hours dwelling on this, but you do want the number to be pretty accurate for anyone else who shares the same bibliographic utility and uses LCC. So do a good job for your colleagues, but don't worry too much about pinning down an "exact" number, because it's possible there isn't an "exact" number in the schedules!

You: Fine. What's a good site to check for international legal materials classed using LCC?

Help: There are several. The first place to look is obviously the Library of Congress locis.loc.gov. Their call number browsing is very easy. The technique is to decide on what you think is the class stem number for the piece in hand, then go into LC's online catalog. Follow the screen instructions, and just do the browse call number stem and look at the hits you get; are the titles they bring up close to yours? Look at the subject headings assigned to the entry; are they ones that match what you'd assign? If so, you're in the right classification area, and you can more confidently use that number. Also, try the University of Iowa <oasis.uiowa.edu>. You can just telnet to it. Telnetting is faster than Web-browsing OPACs. Try OhioLink <eagle.lit.cwru.edu>. You can even call or e-mail Brian Striman bstriman@unl.edu and he'll give you some more sites to try. Many of the libraries are in the process of reclassification, retrospective conversion, and classing the newer materials with JZ and KZ. You've got to remember, we're all in this boat together, so you have to use your best judgment and do the best you can. You can also search their catalogs by important keywords and see what call numbers display from your hits. Also, check the subject cataloging entries for call number ideas.

You: What if I don't find any useful classification number on any of the Internet searches I did?

Help: Then you consult the LCC Ouija board! Dim the lights in your office, place your hands gently across the open KZ schedules volume. When your fingers move, don't try to control them. If nothing happens, then you could post a query on the TS-SIS electronic discussion list. If you have a question on a classification assignment, probably others will have questions also.