In response to the question about the validity of a subject heading
"Law--Georgia (Colony)," my understanding has been that this is not valid in
the LCSH system.
There are two sections in LC's Subject Cataloging Manual: Subject
Headings which can be used to verify this. At the beginning of memo H 708,
"It is subject cataloging policy to assign as a subject heading or as a
geographic subdivision, only the latest name of a political jurisdiction
that has had one or more earlier names, as long as the territorial identity
remains essentially unchanged."
Also, in memo H 830 (p.3), "Latest name. When subdividing locally, use
the latest name of any entity whose name has changed during the course of
its existence, regardless of the form of the name or period covered in the
work cataloged." (In the illustration given, the subject heading "Banks and
banking--Zaire--Kinshasa" is assigned for a book entitled "The Banks of
Leopoldville, Belgian Congo," published in 1950.)
Another SCM:SH memo (H 1149.5) suggests that the subject string "Law--Great
Britain--Colonies," would be a valid construction, but it would only be used
for works discussing collectively the colonies ruled by Great Britain, and
not for works discussing an individual colony.
Alva T. Stone
Head of Cataloging
Florida State University Law Library
Tallahassee, FL 32306
e-mail: atstone@mailer.fsu.edu
tel: 904-644-2881
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