This table was constructed
using information drawn from the resources listed on the resource page.
| KF Modified |
Moys |
|
| Usage |
In 2003 , 11 academic, 41
corporate, 7 law societies, 7 court houses, 10 government, 3 other
libraries in Canada subscribed to KF Modified. (16) |
In 2002, of 183 reporting
Canadian libraries, 17 used Moys. 6 more were indicating intent
to switch
to Moys (17). In B.C., Moys is currently used by the BC Courthouse Library, UBC Library, and several corporate libraries in Vancouver. In a 1988 survey of UK Law Libraries, Moys predominated in law firms, and was used for certain sections of the law collection in university law libraries (18). Used at over 100 libraries in Australia, including the library of the High Court of Australia and the Law Library at the University of Western Australia. It is also used in Papua New Guinea, Fiji and Hong Kong. |
| Scope |
Grouped by subject, not
jurisdiction. One classification scheme for all common law
jurisdictions, also Quebec and Louisiana. Other civil law
jurisdictions and non-common law concepts must be classified using
another system such as L.A. County Law Library scheme. Knight’s study showed that large libraries, whose coverage extended beyond the common law or includes a high-level of non-law material, tend to use KF Modified AND another scheme. Most likely to be used in a library covering selected jurisdictions. |
Treats common law
countries as a unit, with all other jurisdictions as separate legal
systems; material is then divided into primary sources arranged by
form, then secondary sources arranged by subject.Separate section for
European communities law. |
| Notation |
Does not cause any
disruption or conflict with original LC KF schedule. |
Two different
notations: One similar to LC (K-KKZ) One similar to DDC (340-349) |
| Ease of Use |
Easy for cataloguers to
learn and apply. Main libraries usually use LC, so users don’t
have to learn another scheme. |
Flexible system, easy to
work with, and numbers do not become lengthy. |
| Index available? |
Library of Congress
Classification K, Subclass KF, Law of the United States Cumulative
Index (compiled by Larry D. Dersham, 1982). |
Index provided with “use,”
“used for,” and “related term” references, and some scope notes. |
| Copy cataloguing? |
National Library of Canada
provides CIP.
Source agencies such as LC and NLC use LC, so difficult to find copy
records for KF Modified; results in cataloguing inaccuracies. |
Difficult to find copy
records because source agencies use LC. Classification and
maintenance is expensive. |
| Editorial Board? User Group? |
CALL/ACBD subcommittee on
classification and an
Editorial board is responsive to users and scheme is flexible. |
New editorial board
convened for 2001 edition. Moys User group started in 1995. |
| Updates |
Published by York
University Law Library. Quarterly updates are published along
with LC updates. Subscription possible. |
4th edition published
2001; 3rd edition 1991. Updates are not frequent, so new legal
topics are not being covered. Updates rely heavily on the Moys Users
group suggestions. |
| Limitations |
Since it was developed to
classify common law materials, it isn’t well suited to classify civil
law materials (19). |
Practise area does not
suitably provide for division of courts for our federal and provincial
jurisdictions – Catherine Kerr at BC Courthouse adapted it to
compensate. Not enough specificity in some areas, problems in improvising and extending shelf marks. New legal topics not well covered (20). |