FC Class
Background
The FC class is the class created for Canadian History by Library and Archives Canada. It is designed to work within the LC Classification system and to replace the LC range F1001-F1144.
The first edition of the schedule appeared in 1976. A second edition appeared in 1994 and there have been several updates since then. The schedules are maintained by Library and Archives Canada and are available online from the Collections Canada site.
History of FC
Soon after the Library of Congress Classification scheme was adopted by
Canadian Libraries in the early 20th century, cataloguers realized that
the range of numbers for Canadian history in the LC system was much too
limited for Canadian history collections, especially in Canadian libraries. Many libraries adopted a scheme invented in the 1940s by W. Kaye Lamb, then chief librarian of the University of British Columbia library, which used F5000-F5999 for Canadian History. When the National Library of Canada decided to publish class numbers in Canadiana, the national bibliography, the Canadian Task Group on Cataloguing Standards decided that the F5000 range should be revised to make it clearer and more consistent with other LC classes and internally with itself. The group eventually decided to create an entirely new class which would not conflict with the F5000 scheme already in use in many libraries. The new class scheme was to use the letters FC. It was developed by T. R. McCloy, using the LC Classification and the Bibliothèque nationale du Québec as examples.
How to Use It
Using the FC schedule is fairly simple. Most situations where the FC schedule would be used are ones where the Library of Congress would assign a number from the F1001-1150 range (see our examples page). The exception is that LC classes everything about the War of 1812 in E351-E364.9 (United States > Revolution to the Civil War, 1775/1783-1861 > By period > Early nineteenth century, 1801/1809-1845 > Madison's administrations, 1809-1817 > War of 1812), regardless of whether the material is about the Canadian or American side of the war. According to the FC class, works on Canadian aspects of the war should be classed in FC442-FC449 (The British colonial period, 1760/63-1867 > The two Canadas, 1791-1841 > War of 1812).
Who Uses It
The FC schedule is used by many Canadian universities and colleges, by Libraries and Archives Canada and by Canadiana, the national bibliography. Some institutions that use the FC class still have materials in the F5000 range that were catalogued before the FC class was available. This causes problems for those libraries because it means that Canadian materials are split between the two areas with material about French and Latin America in between. Unfortunately, the cost of reclassifying all of the older material is too high for many institutions.
While LC has promised not to use FC for anything else, it has not adopted the FC class for its own use either. LC and most American libraries continue to use F1001-1150 for Canadian material.
Canadian history books that have Canadian Cataloguing in Publication data usually provide a call number in the FC range as well as in the F class.
Please refer to our examples page to see specific examples of the FC class in use.
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