INTRODUCTION
    The KF Modified system has been called Canada's national law classification scheme (4). It is used at approximately 167 libraries across the country, with its popularity growing particularly among corporate libraries (5). A 2002 survey found that, of 183 Canadian library respondents, 84 were using KF Modified. The system came out ahead of locally-developed systems, as well as Library of Congress Classification, Dewey, Moys and others (6). It was observed around the time of the survey's publication that some KF libraries were contemplating a switch. Nonetheless, it seems clear that the system remains a significant influence.

HISTORY
    KF Modified was first developed during the late 1960s by a group of Canadian academic librarians who were unsatisfied with Library of Congress's (LC) approach to classifying legal materials by jurisdiction, regardless of subject. In other words, LC would group all common law publications from the U.S. together, followed by all common law materials from other countries. The Canadian librarians decided to modify LC's KF classification for U.S. federal law to include publications from all common law countries (7). Ironically, a few years later LC hired a Canadian librarian to develop a jurisdictional KE classification for Canadian legal publications. Despite her efforts, Ann Rae, the Canadian librarian seconded by LC to develop the KE system, acknowledged in a 1988 book that "while KE enjoys wide use in North American academic libraries, including law libraries in the United States, it is not employed in the majority of Canadian law school libraries." (8)

    Judy Ginsberg, chair of the KF Modified Classification Committee of the Canadian Association of Law Libraries, said the modification approach was unique. "As far as I know, no other country has developed modified forms of KF, but the Canadian academic law libraries were forced to develop something in the late sixties as Canadian legal publishing was becoming voluminous and LC had not, as yet, developed KE," said Ginsberg in an e-mail interview. "I suspect other countries did not feel they had to develop their own classification schemes and simply waited for LC or used another scheme entirely like Moys or Dewey or Los Angeles County." (9)

    Today, cataloguers rely on a publication called KF Classification, Modified for Use in Canadian Law Libraries for classification guidelines. Updates are mailed to subscribers and Ginsberg said there are no plans as yet to make KF Modified available over the Internet (10). The guide is a publication of the Canadian Association of Law Libraries, although the association does not promote it over other systems.

IDENTIFYING CHARACTERISTICS

The following three points were identified by Ginsberg in an earlier article as the main characteristics of KF Modified.

KF Modified mirrors LC's KF classification in many subject areas, keeping the same number for all jurisdictions. "For example," she wrote, "a general treatise of United States Family Law would both be classified in KF 505."(11)

However, a Geographic Division is applied to "certain, specific numbers" within subjects to identify countries and their major political boundaries, such as provinces (12). It takes the form of a Z Cutter number. Interestingly, the United States is the only country that does not receive such division. Thus, U.S. publications on a given subject are filed first, followed by materials from other common law countries on the same subject. "This mechanism," wrote Ginsberg, "which is primarily used in subject areas which tend to be crowded because of the amount of writing done in the area, allows for differentiation by jurisdiction without sacrificing the subject approach." (13)

Special tables were also created for materials inadequately covered by the U.S. KF classification. "As a case in point," Ginsberg noted, "there is nowhere in the KF U.S. schedule to fit material on the 1982 Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms." (14)

APPLICATION

The following examples were used during a presentation to the Canadian Association of Law Libraries in 2003. Speaking notes from the presentation by Ginsberg, Tim Knight and Humayun Rashid, including the following examples, are available online. (15)

Using Geographic Divisions

U.S. Income Tax Law - KF 6499 Canadian Income Tax Law - KF 6499 ZA2 Australian Income Tax Law - KF 6499 ZD2

Some Geographic Division Numbers:

Canada ZA2 Alberta ZA3 Ontario ZB3 Quebec ZB5

Examples of Special Tables in KF Modified:

Constitutional Law, Quebec Civil Code, Parliamentary Materials