Page 205 - DLIS002_KNOWLEDGE ORGANIZATION CLASSIFICATION AND CATALOGUING THEORY

Knowledge Organization: Classification and Cataloguing Theory

Notes Collective Biographies

There are works containing biographies of more than three persons. Collective biographies not
limited to any area or to any class of persons, e.g. Lives of Famous Men and Women are simply
assigned the heading Biography. Often collective biographies are devoted to persons of a single
country or geographic area.

Example: Who’s who in the Arab World?
Arab countries – Biography

If there are many entries under any such heading, the biographical dictionaries, with a list a
large number of names in alphabetical order, may be separated from the workers with longer
articles intended for continuous reading by adding the form subdivision Directories, e.g. United
States – Biography – Dictionaries.
Some collective biographies are devoted to lives of a particular class of persons, e.g. Women –
Biography; or persons of a particular occupation or profession, e.g. Librarians – Biography.
To persons connected with a particular industry, institution or field, e.g. Computer industry –
Biography, Catholic Church – Biography. A subject usually broader in scope than a single
category of persons associated at the subject, e.g. – Biography would be player – Biography and
would be more suitable for a collective biography that includes managers, owners of teams, and
other persons associated with the sport.

Individual Biographies

The subject heading needed for the life of an individual is the name of the person. If a work is an
autobiography, the author’s name is entered in the bibliographic record twice as the author and
as a subject. Works about their writings or other activities – subdivisions are added to the
person’s name, e.g. Jesus Christ and Shakespeare, William, 1464-1616. It should be noted that the
use of subdivisions represents the exceptional, not the usual, treatment. For most individual
biographies the name alone is sufficient.
Occasionally, a biography will include enough material about the field in which the person
worked that second subject heading is required in addition to the personal name. The additional
subject headings should be used only when the work contains a significant amount of material
about the field of endeavour in addition to the subject’s personal life, not simply because the
subject was prominent in that field.

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Caution The real reason for not entering individual biographies under categories of persons
is that it violates the principle of specific entry.

10.5.2 Nationalities

The general rule in the national aspect of the subjects is expressed by geographic subdivisions
under the topical subject heading.
Headings that are always stationary are never given national adjectives but subdivided
geographically, e.g. Architecture – France.
Headings that are not stationary are also expressed as topical headings with geographic
subdivision, e.g. Automobiles – Germany and Corporations – Japan.

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