Library of Congress Classification for Judaica: Recent Changes (1995-1996)

Abstract

This column covers the additions and changes to the Library of Congress Classification made from January 1995 to December 1996 that are relevant to Judaica libraries. Most of the changes come under classes BM (Judaism), BS (Bible), DS (History of Asia), and PJ (Oriental philology and literature). Of major significance are the following changes: (1) Class number BM198 (Hasidism. Hasidim) received a detailed breakdown, the greatest benefit of which is that it allows librarians to classify together works about individual Hasidic sects, as well as works about Hasidism in individual regions and countries. (2) The breakdown for the Holocaust under class number 0804 was expanded to introduce such subtopics as collective and individual biography, special groups of Jewish and non-Jewish victims, rescue efforts and biographies of righteous gentiles. The new breakdown also established separate decimal subdivisions for works of Holocaust denial literature and works on the phenomenon of Holocaust denial.