• Library and Archives Canada
• Great Library, Law Society of Upper Canada
• Osgoode Hall Law School Library, York University
• Gerard V. LaForest Law Library, University of New Brunswick
• Supreme Court of Canada Library
• Law Society of Saskatchewan Library
• Law Library, University of Manitoba
• Law Library, University of Calgary
• Law Library, University of Windsor
• University of Western Ontario

Also note that if you have Library of Congress classification numbers for either KD or KE you might be able to convert them to KF Modified using Rashid Humayun‘s KD/KE/KF (Modified) Concordance Chart.

I hope you had a chance to work on the exercises posted in Part 3. Here are the answers for those exercises.

In this post we’ll take a look at Table V for classification numbers with 2 numbers. This will set us up to consider the remaining titles for class numbers with 5, 10, and 20 numbers.

Table V begins on page F20 of the KF Modified schedule. If you compare this to Table VI you will see some familiar form divisions listed there:

• Bibliography;
• Periodicals;
• Looseleaf services;
• Form books;
• Dictionaries;
• Congresses;
• Treatises;
• etc.

The difference here is that these form divisions are now spread across a 2 number range. For example, the form division for Periodicals is found at 1.A15 and Congresses is at 2.A5.

So let’s look at an example.

Here’s an Ontario Bar Association CLE title from March of this year:

This is a collection of papers dealing with construction liens, which is referred to in the Library of Congress Subject Headings and Classification scheme as ‘mechanics’ liens’ for the purposes of classifcation.

In KF Modified this is found under Contracts at KF899-900:

We know from last time that collections of CLE papers are put into the form division for ‘Congresses. Symposia. Collected papers, addresses, and essays’ which in Table V is 2.A5.

The class number for Mechanics’ liens has 2 numbers:

If collected papers are associated with 2.A5 in Table V then we would use the second number (i.e. KF900) and apply the form division to that number. So this title will go in KF900.A5. Adding the cutter number for the main entry and the publishing date gives us a finished number of KF900.A5 O583 2011.

Here’s another example, this time we have a general treatise on international trade dealing with the law in Great Britain.

This would be classed in KF Modified at KF1975-1976.

Because this is a general title we need to locate the form division for general monographs. This is always found toward the end of the form divisions:

This form division tells us to use the second number and to then cutter by the main entry or in RDA terms the “preferred access point.”

So our 2 number range in this case consists of:

We are instructed to use the second number, so KF1976 and then cutter for the preferred access point between A7 and Z8. In this case the number will be KF1976 C37 and adding the publication date of 2010 give us KF1976 C37 2010.

This is an area of the form division tables that the cataloguer needs to watch out for. You are only permitted to cutter general works between A7 and Z8. If the author’s name had been John Adams there would be a conflict.

Adams would normally be cuttered at A32, but this falls outside of the prescribed range available to the cataloguer. A cutter number for a name beginning with ‘A’ cannot fall before A7. The cataloguer must therefore construct the cutter number a little differently.

The easiest way to do this is to start with A7 and then add to that the cutter number the number usually applied for the name Adams, i.e. A32. Putting these two numbers together (i.e. A7+32) will give you a new cutter number of A732 that will not conflict with the specified range.

Although less likely, the same thing would apply for authors whose last name ends in ‘Z’, for example a name like one of our faculty members Peer Zumbansen. There would be no conflict in this case though because this name would normally receive the cutter number Z86 which is within the given range.

However, a name like Adan Zye would cause a conflict because this will normally fall in a Z9 number which is outside of the range that should be used. Again applying the same logic as above. Take the usual cutter number, in this case Z94 for Zye and apply it to the last number in the given range Z8. This would result in a cutter number that will neither clash with the number for Zumbansen nor run into Z9: i.e. Z894.

With the holidays approaching I won’t include any exercises this time. We’ll continue with our look at the form division tables in KF Modified after the holiday break.

Hope you have a great holiday and all the best for you and your family in the new year!

So, first things first. Here are the answers to last week’s little quiz:

So let’s take a closer look at one of the more frequently used tables, Table VI.

I’ll use a recent Law Society of Upper Canada continuing legal education volume of proceedings as our first example:

Example 1

This is a CLE collection of papers dealing with probate law and practice. General works on probate law and practice are found at KF765 in the KF Modified schedule.

Once we’ve established the classification number for the title a form division can then be assigned using Table VI. CLE programs are considered to be conferences/congresses in terms of classification so we’ll want to apply the form division for conferences/congresses to KF765.

The listing for the Table VI form divisions begins on page F25 in KF Modified. If you work your way through this list you’ll find this form division number for conferences/congresses:

Adding the form division to the classification number will give you this: KF765.A75. Now add the cutter number for the main entry and the date of publication to create the finished number:

                KF765.A75 L393 2011

OK, here’s another example again using Table VI.

This title is an annotated bibliography dealing with Canada and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Example 2

The subject ‘children’s rights’ is classed in KF Modified under KF479:

This is a bibliography so we need to go to Table VI and look for the form division number for a bibliography. Which is actually pretty easy to find because ‘bibliography’ is the first form division listed in Table VI.

So the class number for this title with the form division will be KF479.A1.

Add the cutter for the author and the date of publication and the final number for this title will be:

                KF479.A1 T35 1999.

OK, so let’s stop there.

Try to work out the class number and form division numbers for the following titles. These will all use Table VI.

And finally, a few more identify-the-form-division-table-to-be-used exercises:

Have a great week!

As previously mentioned there are 9 form division tables available for use in KF Modified. Each table is identified using a Roman numeral and most are meant to be used with classification numbers that contain a specific range of numbers or single numbers with special characteristics.

Table II for example is used with classification numbers that span 10 numbers. KF3861 to KF3870, the classification number for resources about ‘Food. Drugs. Cosmetics’, is an example of a classification number that contains 10 numbers.

Here are the 9 available tables along with their corresponding number ranges:

At this point don’t worry about Tables VII, VIII and IX. As you can see they are to be used in special situations and we’ll come back to those after we’ve mastered the first 6 tables.

When looking at these first 6 tables the first question that comes to my mind is: why are there two tables for classification numbers with 5 numbers? I’m not sure about the history behind these two tables so I don’t have a good answer. They are different though with Table III having fewer available form divisions to choose from than Table IV. So let’s park that question for now.

I would say the most frequently used tables in KF Modified are Table VI for single classification numbers and Table II for 10 numbers. You’ll also encounter Tables I, III and IV in the schedule, but less often.

In the KF Modified schedule the cataloguer will be instructed to use one of the tables using the following type of notation:

3124	Interference practice (VI)

This tells the cataloguer that when classifying a title in KF3124 you would use Table VI when applying the applicable form division.

Similarly,

	Road traffic. Automotive transportation
2201-2210	Motor vehicles in general (II)

tells the cataloguer to use the Table II form division table when the title covers motor vehicles in general.

Recall that when a number is eligible for the Geographic Division the form tables are not used. So for something like this,

	Business corporations
1396-1415	General (I) (G.D. 1415 [1396-1415])

the G.D. takes precedent and the form division Table I is not used.

So a conference dealing with Australian business corporations in general would be classed in KF1415.ZD4 not KF1414.A2 (the form division for Congresses, Symposia, Collected papers, addresses, and essays). However, if you were classifying a collection of papers dealing with the law of U.S. business corporations in general you would use Table I and KF1415.A2 would be the correct number to use.

OK, so try this quick exercise:

Which form division table would you use for the following classification numbers or range of numbers in KF Modified?

We’ll review the answers and look at the form divisions in more detail in the next post.

Have a good week!

The form divisions are intended to do the same thing in KF Modified. However, there are a couple of things to be aware of right off the top when using these tables in KF Modified.

• Form division tables are not used with numbers that use the G.D. (Geographic Division)
• There are a number of categories listed in the form division tables that are only to be used when cataloguing U.S. federal resources (these are marked with an asterisk in the tables); otherwise they are not used

Keep this in the back of your mind. We’ll return to these two points later as we work our way through this series.

The form division tables where completely revised in the LCC in 2007. Many subdivisions were discontinued at that time and reassigned to some of the other existing form division numbers. The discontinued form division numbers appear in parentheses in the tables and include a note indicating which number should is now applicable.

For example:

(14.5)        Encyclopedias
                           The Library of Congress discontinued use of this form
                           subdivision in 2007
                           see 17

17              Dictionaries. Encyclopedias

There are nine form division tables available for use in KF Modified. Gone are the days when most of these form division tables were laid out in one large table in KF Modified with each table appearing in its own column. It was a rather confusing set up. Each table is now presented on its own making it much easier to read and determine which of the form divisions should be used.

Over the next little while I’ll take a closer look at these form division tables, provide some general practice information and tips, and work through a few examples.

Since the mid-seventies, the law book collection at the Department of Justice Library in Ottawa was organized according to an old edition of the LA County classification scheme, in conjunction with Library of Congress classes. By 2005, this unique in-house classification scheme which proved to be more and more difficult to maintain, was deemed outdated and inadequate by the library management. A few years went by, and following the request of Fiona McPherson, Director, Library Services, I was requested in my capacity as Law Cataloguer to come up with a new viable and alternative classification scheme to organize our law book collection.

After examining the options available to Canadian law libraries, I recommended that we adopt the KF Modified classification scheme in conjunction with LC classes as our alternative scheme. It must be noted that a similar classification system was already in place at the Supreme Court of Canada Library in Ottawa. Since our law book collection was comprised in large part with publications from Canadian and other common law jurisdictions (i.e. British, American, Australian, New Zealand publications), it seemed a natural choice.

In addition, given that our collection was also comprised of a large section of civil law documents, mostly from the province of Quebec, but also notably from France (and other civil law jurisdictions) as well as a substantial number of international law books, the LC classes were a perfect fit to complete this combined classification scheme.

The only inconvenience at the time was the fact that the KF Modified scheme only provided a small section to house the Quebec civil law section publications (e.g. general civil law books, civil law reform reports, and Quebec civil codes). This meant that all books on specific civil law aspects such as family law, property law, etc. had to be classed and shelved together with other common law books on these topics.

Needless to say, we realized early enough that our Civil Law Section lawyers would not accept this arrangement since they were used to having all the Quebec civil law materials classed and shelved together under the old LA County classification scheme. Initially, as a solution to this problem, I recommended that we derogate from the use of KF Modified scheme for these books and that we use LC’s KEQ sub-class instead to class and shelve all Quebec civil law documents. However, this option was not accepted by our local library management.

Since we wanted to keep all Quebec civil law publications in the KF Modified scheme along with all other Canadian materials, it was deemed preferable instead to modify and enhance the existing Quebec civil law classification provisions in the KF modified scheme. After meeting with F. Tim Knight, Head of the CALL KF Modified Classification Committee in Quebec City (at the IFLA Satellite Meeting on RDA), in August 2008, and discussing this matter with him, he referred me to consult H. Rashid, law librarian at the University of Toronto, and an experienced and longstanding KF Modified Editorial Committee member.

In the fall of 2008, Mr. Rashid and I started our work on the Quebec Civil law section enhancement. After a few options were discarded, we resumed the work in the spring of 2009, just as we, at the DOJ Library, were involved in a major reclassification project. In August 2009, we came up with the new Quebec Civil Law enhancement based on LC’s KEQ class (Quebec law). The new enhancement was accepted and approved officially by the CALL Committee, and by December 2009 it became an updated part of the KF Modified Classification scheme.

In September 2009, after obtaining the approval of our library management, I reclassified our Quebec civil law publications by using the new enhancement. Subsequently, in October, these books were all reprocessed as a part of our on-going reclassification project at the DOJ Library, in which we managed to reclassify our whole law book collection (approx. 14,500 titles). As a result, we were the first library to apply in its collection, the new Quebec Civil law enhancement of the KF Modified Classification scheme.

Two years have passed since then, and we can honestly say that we are very happy and satisfied with our new library classification arrangement. Once applied in a collection, the KF Modified Classification scheme is really advantageous in the sense that it allows staff and clients to search, retrieve and access the requested documents in a much quicker, economic and timely fashion (by subject instead of repeated searches by jurisdictions). And the fact that we were able to develop and enhance the Quebec Civil law section in the KF Modified scheme has proven how accommodating the system really is. It has allowed us at the DOJ Library to develop (amongst other things) our Quebec civil law collection (which is substantial enough), and at the same time, respect and maintain the jurisdictional integrity, unique terminology and specific character of the Quebec civil law. And all this by means of a classification system conceived as a common law library classification scheme from the start.

Alain Rochefort
Law Cataloguer
Library
Department of Justice Canada
Ottawa, Ont.

It’s truly a wonderful space and I hope if you’re in the neighborhood you can drop in for a visit. See the Dean of Osgoode, Lorne Sossin, talk about the new building in this short video. You’ll see some shots of the new library there, although the book stack end panels and some of the library furniture is missing in this footage.

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This, amongst other professional commitments, has deflected me from my usually fairly timely KF Modified update schedule. And as a result the updates are tardy. But they have today been sent to the Canadian Association of Law Libraries headquarters and you should see them delivered to your desk(s) shortly.

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The KF Modified Committee meeting is an opportunity for the Committee members to meet face-to-face and discuss and work out some of the editorial details that have been in development over the past year. All but one of the Committee members (Joan Yanovsky, Supreme Court of Canada Library) were able to attend this year. In attendance were: myself (Chair); Humayun Rashid, Bora Laskin Law Library, University of Toronto; Darren Furey, Gerard Forest Law Library, University of New Brunswick; and Alain Rochfort, Dept. of Justice Library. We were also pleased to welcome Sarah Sutherland, from McMillan LLP, who was joining us for the first time.

The meeting began with a discussion of ways to promote the KF Modified schedule. With the broadening of the title to include common law libraries in general the use of KF Modified is poised and ready to expand beyond its current use in Canadian law libraries. With the recent introduction of the optional expansion for Quebec civil law at KF 385 ZB5 it was agreed that we should approach Quebec and New Brunswick law firms either directly or through the appropriate law associations or both. In addition many law libraries using Moys may appreciate using KF Modified which is an updated and ‘living’ classification scheme. Moys has a similar organizational structure but updates are irregular. There are also a number of law libraries that use home grown classification schemes who may be ready to switch to something more formal like KF Modified. HR, DF and AR agreed to draft a letter that we could send and/or use as the basis for email communications.

An ongoing concern continues to be the lack of an electronic version of KF Modified. TK is concerned because KF Modified is still produced in WordPerfect and suggests that at the very least steps should be taken to convert the current format to something that is more open like Open Office. There was a brief discussion about the possibility of providing an open access version of KF Modified that would allow anyone to access the schedule. There was no consensus reached but discussion with CALL head office should be a first step. TK will also pursue getting the schedule converted to a format other than WordPerfect and consider creating a database version that could be reused/repurposed to a variety different formats, i.e. print, web-based, searchable electronic, etc.

Information about the current subscription status was not available at the time of the meeting and TK will get an update from the CALL office.

HR provided some background on the enhancements that he and AR had been working on over the past year. He is pleased that we have been able to respond to some of the requests that libraries have been making for improvements to the classification schedule and cites this ability as one of the advantages KF Modified has over some of the other schemes. KF Modified caters to many different types and sizes of law libraries, some are specialized and need to have more numbers available to better organize their collections. The enhancements used the KE classification (the LCC classification for law in Canada) as a starting point adding new concepts, legislative developments, the expressed needs of law libraries, and other influences. As a matter of editorial policy we want to avoid adding new numbers beyond those provided in the original KF classification (the LCC classification for federal U.S. law) because that will ensure there will be less likelihood that conflicts between the two schedules will arise. Conflicts can lead to costly reclassification projects. This is why expansion of the Cutter number is preferred, for example adding Z9 to KF 3776 to add numbers for particular divisions under public health services.

There was a discussion of KF 3819 and the probability of adding this to all sections instead of general sections. Agreed to review and possibly add scope notes where necessary. HR pointed out that making use of the form tables is more convenient and more likely to be used.

DF noted that due to other professional obligations he has been unable to make much progress on the revision of Guide to KF Modified. The remainder of the meeting was devoted to review and discussion of the enhancements for environmental law and labour law prepared by HR and AR.

As Jolande Goldberg notes the following motivations for the development of this classification in the introduction to Class KIA-KIP,

The rising interest and marked increase in studies on contemporary indigenous law, environment, protection of cultural property and language is documented by steadily growing course offerings in U.S. and Canadian universities – as well as by inter-institutional collection development
projects that give presence and visibility to the “heritage” of Indigenous peoples. All generated great demands for bibliographic keys to the hard to find materials on a broad and varied number of subjects.

She adds, “Even LC Class KF (Law of the United States), which has a section on American Indian law and law-related materials (KF8220+), does not reflect the sovereign status and autonomy of the Indian nations, nor does it reflect current Indian law making and law developments.“

Comments, suggestions and questions are welcomed by Jolande Goldberg (jgol@loc.gov) at the Policy and Standards Division.

The presentation slides and cataloguing exercises are now available. If you didn’t happen to be one of the thirty or so attendees at the session last Wednesday morning now’s the chance to brush up on your KF Modified cataloguing. The session, Working With KF Modified: Changes and Enhancements, went very well even if we were rather swallowed up in the very large room we were assigned. Great facility though which made delivering the presentation a pleasure.

On behalf of Rashid, Darren and myself thanks to everyone who made it out bright and early on Wednesday morning and even after the closing banquet! Much appreciated!!

Here’s the three of us plus Alain Rochefort after the presentation*.

The KF Modified Crew

* Thanks to Angela T. for taking this pic!