Nunavut: Revisions to Canadian Subject Headings, Library of Congress Classification, Dewey Decimal Classification and the MARC format

The new Canadian territory of Nunavut was formed on April 1, 1999 from land that had been part of the Northwest Territories. The area constituting the remainder of the present Northwest Territories continues to use its current name until such time as residents vote on a new constitution, which would then require Canadian federal legislative approval.

Name and Subject Headings

The name headings for these territories are "Nunavut" and "Northwest Territories". These headings may also be assigned as subject headings, and will be assigned in this same form as geographic subdivisions. When used as qualifiers, the forms are (Nunavut) and (N.W.T.). Changes will be made to Canadian Subject Headings and to the Répertoire de vedettes-matière to reflect this development.

Library of Congress Classification

Class FC, the Library of Congress classification schedule for Canadian history, has been revised to include a new section for Nunavut: Class FC - Additions and changes number 2.

Dewey Decimal Classification

A new schedule for the area numbers --719 in DDC Table 2 has been created by the editorial staff of the Dewey Decimal Classification, OCLC Forest Press. This schedule was based on a submission by the National Library of Canada. It has now been included in the most up-to-date sources of the DDC, namely Dewey for Windows and WebDewey in CORC.

The number --7192 is to be retained for the old Northwest Territories (1870-1999). The new territories will receive new numbers: --7193 for Northwest Territories (1999- ) and --7195 for Nunavut. Cataloguers at NLC are now using the new numbers.

The National Library is in contact with ASTED, the publisher of the French version, about the French version of this schedule.

For more information, please contact: cataloguing.standards@lac-bac.gc.ca.

MARC Codes

New country and geographic area codes have been defined for use in MARC records.

The new codes for Nunavut are:

• nuc (Country code)
• n-cn-nu (Geographic area code)

Codes for the Northwest Territories will remain the same:

• ntc (Country code)
• n-cn-nt (Geographic area code)

The new codes should not be used before June 20, 1999 to ensure that systems have made the necessary changes to accommodate these codes.

Further information

For further information, contact: