Africana Librarians Council

ALC CATALOGING COMMITTEE

AFRICANA SUBJECT FUNNEL PROJECT

SPRING 1999

The following subject headings have been proposed since the last update (Fall 1998)
*Art, Comorian
*Art, Tunisian
*Economic assistance, South African
*Erotic poetry, Afrikaans
Ezaa language (revised)
Kassonke language
*Maxims, Gabon
*Political fiction, South African
*Proverbs, Gabon
*Short stories, Mauritian (English)
*Short stories, Mauritian (French)
*Short stories, Yoruba
*Short stories, Zimbabwean
*Technical assistance, South African
*West African poetry (French)
Yemonja (Yoruba diety)

* indicates that the proposal has been found in MUMS as of April 26, 1999.

AFRI SACO LIAISON

Rebecca Williams will no longer be our LC liaison due to reassignment having to do with the change in ILS to Voyager. We thank her for all her help and hard work on our behalf.

"LOST" HEADINGS

A number of headings submitted in the past year have never made it into MUMS. I have resent the proposals in the last few weeks and am waiting to hear about their status. I apologize to anyone who is waiting to be able to use one of them.

AFRICANA SACO WORKSHOP

An Africana SACO Workshop was held yesterday April, 29,1999 at LC. Information about questions, answers, policies and new headings created during the workshop will be sent to the list in the next month. Please contact me (eplantz@nwu.edu) if you have any concerns or questions about the workshop.

ISSUES & QUESTIONS

FYI, the following questions have been sent forward to SACO

"A member of the funnel has submitted a heading for Political fiction, African which turned out to be for a work that LC has cataloged (Arab A. Politics and the novel in Africa, 1982) and assigned the subjects: African fiction -- Political aspects and Politics and literature -- Africa. Could someone provide some feedback on when to use the heading Political fiction and how it differs from African fiction -- Political aspects."

"Someone has proposed the heading Kenyan essays (English) for Nugugi wa Thiongo's Writers in politics, 1997. It is not clear when LC assigns such a heading to a work. In what appears to be an earlier edition cataloged by LC (81-152224) no such heading is assigned rather the topics of the essays are given. Could you please clarify this for the funnel."

"Could you please explain the possible differences between Proverbs, Arabic -- Morocco and
Proverbs, Moroccan. Would both headings be used for a work on Moroccan proverbs? It is not clear how one would decide whether to use a language or a nationality qualifier.

Answer to last question:

A book limited to the Arabic proverbs of Morocco, could use either Proverbs, Arabic--Morocco by itself or doubled with Proverbs, Moroccan (once it was set up). For a collection of the proverbs of Morocco, including Arabic proverbs, but also possibly proverbs in other languages, such as Berber or French, you would use the hdg. Proverbs, Moroccan.

**Please note that the following when setting up subject authorities:

When citing information from a book in a foreign language in a 670, translate everything except the subject term or phrase itself into English.

When searching for references to support a subject heading, the first preference in LCSH is always for an English-language form. Second preference, in the absence of an English term, is for the term in its own language. A term in a third language (French, German, etc) is third choice.