Class FC, Classification for Canadian history - Fourth Edition

Preface to the fourth edition

LAC’s Indigenous Heritage Action Plan states that we will adapt the way we describe LAC’s collection items related to First Nations, Inuit and the Métis Nation to enhance access and ensure a culturally appropriate and respectful approach.

Because the language describing Indigenous materials is often not reflective of the terminology preferred by First Nation, Inuit and Métis Nation communities in Canada, in 2019, LAC started a review of subject headings and classification. The direct contribution of First Nations, Inuit and the Métis Nation is an essential part of our efforts to update the vocabulary.

The fourth edition of Class FC, a classification for Canadian history, was revised in 2022-2023 to update the vocabulary describing Indigenous Peoples.

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Preface to the third edition

The third edition of Class FC, a classification for Canadian history, is a revision and expansion of the second edition of the schedule which appeared in 1994. This schedule has replaced many LC-like classification schemes used by Canadian libraries to classify Canadian history. Library and Archives Canada applies the schedule in Canadiana, Canada's national bibliography, and in the Library's collection.

Additions and changes to the schedule have been made in five areas. First, the historical time periods have been brought up to date. Second, the new edition contains many more examples under biography and special subjects. Third, a relocation of the classification number for Stephen Harper’s administration from FC640-644 to FC650-654 was necessary to allow for a general 21^st Century Canadian history classification number now at FC640-649. Fourth, all of the Additions and Changes to the second edition that were published in 1995, 1999, 2002, and 2006 have been incorporated into the third edition, including the new classification number for Nunavut, FC4301-4350. Lastly, new classification numbers have been created in order to classify collected works by Canadian statespersons. These numbers can be found under the main Canadian historical periods included in the schedule.

The third edition has been prepared electronically. This will enable Library and Archives Canada to update the schedule on a more frequent basis.

The cataloguing staff of Library and Archives Canada has drawn on its years of experience with the FC schedule and the Library's extensive collection of Canadian history to prepare the third edition. We would like to acknowledge the contributions of the cataloguing staff, and in particular the efforts of Paul Beauséjour, Laura May, Michael van Dyk and Paula Van Strien in the preparation of this third edition.

Comments from interested users have been most useful in updating the schedule. Library and Archives Canada welcomes further suggestions for future expansion and refinement of the schedule.

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Preface to the second edition

The second edition of Class FC, a classification for Canadian history, is a revision and expansion of the first edition of the schedule which appeared in 1976. This schedule has replaced many LC-like classification schemes used by Canadian libraries to classify Canadian history. The National Library applies the schedule in Canadiana, Canada's national bibliography, and in the Library's collection.

The cataloguing staff of the National Library has drawn on its eighteen years of experience with the FC schedule and the Library's extensive collection of Canadian history to prepare the second edition. Additions and changes to the schedule have been made in three areas. First, the historical time periods have been brought up to date. In recognition of the fact that some of the provincial time periods in the first edition were unnecessarily narrow, newly established time periods for the provinces have been made broader whenever this was possible. Second, the new edition contains many more examples under biography and special subjects. The cuttering used in the examples is based on that found in the National Library shelflist. Third, the names used in the schedule have been established using Anglo-American cataloguing rules, second edition, 1988 revision.

The second edition has been prepared on a word processor: this will enable the National Library to update the schedule on a more frequent basis. The National Library has made plans to include the Canadian MARC communication format: classification data in a future phase of its online bibliographic system. The new classification format and the new online system will make it possible for the National Library to maintain Class FC in an efficient manner, and then to distribute the next edition in a machine-readable as well as a paper version.

Comments from interested users have been most useful in updating the schedule. The National Library welcomes further suggestions for future expansion and refinement of the schedule.

Ingrid Parent

Director General

Acquisitions and Bibliographic Services Branch

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Preface to the first edition

The Canadian Task Group on Cataloguing Standards in its Report to the National Librarian in 1972 recommended that the National Library develop and adopt a standardized classification schedule for Canadian history. As a result, an expert in classification and Canadian history, Mr. T.R. McCloy, under contract to the National Library, completed in the fall of 1974 an entirely new classification scheme that is compatible with the Library of Congress classification system. The new schedule includes references to related topics in various LC tables.

The FC class schedule replaces the old F5000 schedule (1960) in Canadiana, the national bibliography of Canada, and should replace various LC-like classification schemes used by Canadian libraries to classify Canadian history.

The Library of Congress recognizes the need for a new and expanded classification schedule for Canadian history and thus officially endorses the FC class as an alternate to its F1000 class.

As the FC class follows closely the pattern of the E-F classifications, the Library of Congress gives assurance that no other schedule will be developed independently by the Library of Congress to conflict with this new schedule.


W.J. Welsh			C. Durance
Director			Director
Processing Department			Cataloguing Branch
Library of Congress			National Library of Canada
January 19, 1976

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Introduction

The Canadian history section of the Library of Congress F schedule was long ago recognized as being far too limited to meet the needs of Canadian scholarly libraries. Nearly thirty years ago Dr. W. Kaye Lamb, then chief librarian of the University of British Columbia Library, devised the original F5000 schedule for Canadian history to meet the needs of the newly acquired Howay-Reid collection. This greatly expanded schedule was adopted by degrees and with variations by most scholarly libraries across Canada.

Of the various modifications of F5000 the one prepared by the Public Archives of Canada with the collaboration of the National Library of Canada is probably the most widely used, but even it has been subject to local changes. With the National Library planning to publish classification numbers based on this schedule in the national bibliography, Canadiana, librarians began to be concerned about this lack of uniformity. They were also aware that the schedule was weak in some areas, and that more guidance in the use of classification was needed. The whole matter was discussed by the Canadian Task Group on Cataloguing Standards, with the result that a complete revision of the F5000 schedule was recommended.

Mr. T.R. McCloy, recently retired chief librarian of the Glenbow-Alberta Institute Historical Library and a former cataloguer, agreed to undertake the revision, making it clear that he felt a complete revision should be a new schedule in order to bring in ideas that were lacking in the old one. Eventually, to preclude conflict with older schedules, it was decided to make the new schedule the FC schedule, thus removing it from possible conflict with any other existing schedule. This feature should be helpful to any libraries which decide to adopt the new schedule.

The new schedule has greater similarity to the E-F schedule for American history than the old F5000 did. It attempts to classify Canadian history more logically and in greater detail than the latter. It differs from most earlier schedules in its provision for unspecified Special topics. This permits works on any subject to be brought together under a cutter number and in this respect makes the schedule a very flexible one. It is to be hoped that classifiers will not be too enthusiastic in making use of this provision, for it should not be used when better alternatives are available. Important topics which can be fitted in by a decimal arrangement should be classified in that way when possible, and there are examples of this in the schedule.

Biography has been given a special number in each period and with some topics which have their own number. Other topics which have their own number may create a biography place by adding .1 to their number (e.g. Loyalists in New Brunswick are classed FC2471.3; biographies of these Loyalists may be classed FC2471.31) but topics with a cutter number are classed using the second cutter for the biographee and distinguishing biographies by various authors by adding a digit to the cutter number (e.g. the biography of the Rev. William Duncan by E.D. Kohlstadt should not be separated from the history of Metlakahtla and should be classed FC3822.9.M4D94).

In classifying biography or any other topic not more than two cutter numbers may be used. When two cutter numbers already occur in the class mark, further subdivision may be made by

adding a date to the class mark or by adding a digit to the second cutter.

In the tables at the end of the schedule, Table VII provides for the arrangement of works under individual biographies. The table can only be used for biographies in a biography number. It departs from Library of Congress practice in that a subdivision for bibliography is included, for this type of bibliography is wanted only in relation to the individual and it is often useful to be able to consult it when examining the literature on him.

The principle of classing bibliography with its subject for convenience is extended to the smaller geographical subdivisions and hence appears also in Tables II-VI. Unless specified, however, bibliography classes in Z. Some libraries may wish to class all bibliography in Z.

A place has also been provided in the more recent historical periods for pamphlet box material. This is a convenience number for those who wish to use it. Similar numbers could be added elsewhere in the schedule.

In developing the schedule ideas have been borrowed from many sources, the two most important being the Library of Congress classification schedules and the Canadian history schedule of the Bibliothèque nationale du Québec. The interest shown by librarians all across Canada who have taken the time and trouble to send in comments and suggestions has been very encouraging. They have influenced the schedule more than may be readily apparent.

On a personal note, I must thank those librarians whom I was able to visit for their unfailing courtesy and helpfulness, and in particular I wish to thank Mr. Edward J. Blume, Chief, Subject Cataloguing Division, Library of Congress. I also wish to thank the members of my Advisory committee, Miss Eleanor Magee, Chief Librarian, Ralph Pickard, Bell Library, Mount Allison University, Sackville, N.B.; Mademoiselle Lucille Busseau, Chef, Service du Catalogue, Bibliothèque nationale du Québec, Montréal; Mr. Stuart Mackinnon, Douglas Library, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario; Mr. Seno Laskowski, Head, Cataloguing Department, University of Alberta Library, Edmonton; Mr. J.F.C. Gray, Cataloguing Divisions, University of British Columbia Library, Vancouver; and Mr. Hlib Sirko, Chief, Descriptive Cataloguing Division, Cataloguing Branch, National Library of Canada, Ottawa.

T.R. McCloy

1974

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Note

FC is an independent schedule for Canadian history but it is designed to be used with the Library of Congress classification in other fields. References to other classification numbers are to the Library of Congress schedules.

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