Radu Popa, secretary/treasurer for 1995-1997, reports the following election results:
Bill McCloy will assume the office of Chair at the Annual Business Meeting in Baltimore on July 22.
FORWARD to next article: From the Vice Chair.
BACK to Contents page.
-----------------------------7d3272670280
Content-Disposition: form-data; name="file6"; filename="S:\Burke\fcil-sis\fcil newsletter website\vol11\issue3\113kz.html"
Content-Type: text/html
by Aaron Wolfe Kuperman
Library of Congress
The Library of Congress has started using the KZ and JZ schedules. Public international law will class in KZ, and international relations will supposedly class in JZ. The new schedules address the relationships between the subjects by providing options for libraries that don't want to arrange their books the way the Library of Congress does. Several libraries are already using the new schedules based on a provisional draft, but the new schedules will remain fluid for a long time (I suspect, until long after they are officially published, since their captions have to serve a more diverse group of users than any of the previous law schedules).
The former JX schedule provided adequate numbers for books published in the early 20th century, but left no good way to cover "modern" topics (such as regime theory). When originally conceived a century ago, JX was a quasi-legal schedule. International law wasn't fully regarded as law yet (thus, it was put immediately preceding the yet to be written K schedules). Political science didn't really exist as a discipline yet, so works on the theory and practice of non-military relations between nations were more in the realm of legal scholars than anyone else. Over the last seventy years, and especially since the creation of the UN system and the increased activity of intergovernmental and supranational organizations, the study of international relations has evolved into a distinct discipline that is more of a subdiscipline of political science, though anyone studying international law will need access to the literature of international relations, and especially to its source materials.
The interdisciplinary nature of the legal and political aspects of international relationships is addressed through a close connection between JZ and KZ. In theory, the legal aspects of a subject class in KZ, while JZ will use the identical number for the non-legal aspects. However in many cases the non-legal aspects of subjects addressed by the study of public international law have traditionally been classified in numbers outside of JX. For example, while the law of warfare is clearly KZ, books on warfare have classed either in U (military science) or in D (history of specific wars). Legal aspects of IGOs always class in KZ, but the non-legal books on IGOs that focus on a specific subject (e.g. postal service, health, labor) should continue to class with the subject.
This is the first time a law schedule has had to worry about its relationships to a non-law schedule or how useful general (non-law libraries) find LC classification. These issues can and should be addressed by extensive cross-references to and from non-K schedules (something rarely done in the past) and through alternative arrangements for libraries not following "LC-centric practices" or "Law Library-centric" practices.
Most of the numbers are fully interchangeable between KZ and JZ, so that a library can exchange a number between JZ to KZ without conflicting with the other schedule. In effect, virtually all KZ numbers are "reserved" for the legal aspects of whatever the same number is in JZ, and all unused JZ numbers are "reserved" for the political aspects of the international law subject being discussed in the same number in KZ.
A law library that wants its international relations materials to shelve with its international law material can use the JZ numbers from a source bibliographic record and change the letters to KZ. This will facilitate copy cataloging between libraries that have different collection needs. There is no precedent for this in the history of the LC classification, though this is probably a precedent for how theocratic law will be treated in the future KB classification. While LC will probably continue to class historical treatments of foreign relations in history (classes D to F), there are numbers available that may be used by LC for either "policy" as opposed to history, or perhaps will not be used. Numbers are provided for libraries that fully classify for the major international document sets, even though LC doesn't catalog these items.
Because of the above, proposals for changes to the JZ and KZ schedules will be more complicated, since any proposal to one is inherently a proposal to the other. Whereas in the past a "bracketed" (in parenthesis) number in an LC schedule meant it was a rejected number, in JZ and KZ it will indicate that the number is reserved for whatever it is used for in the other schedule. The relationships with the history and other non-law schedules will make SACO proposals (which are definitely welcome and needed) much more complicated than other cooperative proposals.
KZ should be fairly easy for experienced law catalogers. It has fewer and simpler tables than the other K schedules. The arrangement is quite logical and easy to follow (with no warranty what it will seem like a century in the future). For many materials, specific cutters are assigned for major works which will clarify where the work is classed and how to cutter it (thereby resulting in easier and faster cataloging). For the first 1152 numbers, JZ and KZ closely follow JX and in some cases can be interfiled with JX (these numbers are for the basic document sets, which did not cause the problems that required the new schedule). Where personal names or geographic names appear in the schedules, they are in the standard AACR2 form.
Regime theory is now reflected in the subject arrangements. The range for the law of the sea provides for optional inclusion of "private" topics now classed elsewhere, e.g. maritime law (KZA1150+), currently classed in K1150+, for those libraries wishing to keep all aspect of the topic together but also following current international trends. Similar arrangements hold true for space law in KZD. While general space law has been treated as "public" international law in JX, some aspects have been classed elsewhere, e.g. "Artificial satellites in telecommunication" in K4307. As non-terrestrial jurisdictions develop (e.g. the first time someone writes a dissertation addressing the hypothetical astronauts who elope on the space shuttle, not to mention the first inside traders on Mars), it will probably go to KZD+ (by the way, the Decimal Classification has had a place for extraterrestrial law in its 340 schedule for some time). Thus while K and KZ are non-jurisdictional, everything between them, and after KZ is for a jurisdiction or a quasi-jurisdiction.
Any ambiguity of where to class "war crime trials" is resolved. If by a national court, they class with the law of the jurisdiction. Thus the Eichmann trial classes in KMK44.E33 because it was before a regular Israeli court. Only if the trial is before an international tribunal will the trial reports class in KZ. This has been the policy at LC for many years, but no one got around to fixing wrong references in other schedules. Consider the case of an alleged "terrorist" who rapes an "enemy" civilian in what he believes to be illegally occupied territory. He might claim his was a patriotic act designed to end the illegal occupation of his country and that the court trying him lacks jurisdiction. These are issues for professors, not librarians. For catalogers, it is easiest to class based on the nationality of the court, since that is not in dispute.
JZ includes some materials that aren't a problem, such as the general documents of international organizations such as the United Nations or works on the mechanics of diplomacy. It provides a much better arrangement of topics and leaves room for more specific developments. And of course, a law library might want to class all the JZ materials in KZ (especially if they collect very little international relations, except in order to support their international law program). It may be a bit vague as to whether documents or works on international organizations class in JZ if they arguably have a place elsewhere, but this will be easy to determine over time.
However, it isn't clear what will happen to books describing historical events that affect international relations. In the past most have gone to the history numbers (usually in D). Peace treaties were classed in D but will now go to KZ (this makes much more sense to legal scholars than to historians) so one has to ask, do the non-law books on peace treaties and peace conferences move to JZ as well? Should general works on foreign relations class in JZ or D-E-F? The KZ tables specify what aspects of peace conferences (e.g. final acts, official reports) belong in KZ, but don't address the border between JZ and D-E-F.
For example, the agreement between the PLO and Israel classes in KZ (though arguably it will someday class in KMM as a constitutional document of a future Palestinian jurisdiction). However, where does one class a book about the "peace process" that led to the agreement? One theory would argue it should be in a JZ number equivalent to the KZ number where the agreement classes. However, such literature has gone to a number in DS119.7. While a general library will not be thrilled at losing historical books on international relations, a law library not associated with a larger library might prefer to keep the materials together in JZ (rather than history), or to put them all in KZ.
One theory is that anything about a specific country belongs in history, and only "theoretical" works should go to J. Another theory is that descriptions of events belong in history but "policy" oriented books belong in J. However, most political scientists describe events in their books, and historians frequently use social science methodology in their work. Catalogers don't like to waste time thinking about overly fine distinctions that are meaningless. LC has been inconsistent in the past, but the new schedule means LC will try to be consistent in the future, while at the same time providing a schedule that is friendly for an unusually diverse group of users with disparate needs. It should be "interesting" (and at least, the strictly law materials aren't the main problem).
This article is not an official communication from the Library of Congress. The views expressed are solely those of the author, who wishes to thank Jolande Goldberg and Marie Whited for their assistance. Official decisions will be published by the Cataloging Policy and Support Office (CPSO).
FORWARD to next article: FCIL Clearinghouse for Internships and International Personnel Exchanges.
BACK to Contents page.