[PW] Holocaust subject heading - definitive answer from Library of Congress

[Reference]

Hi - and thanks to those who replied to my
question. I contacted LoC, and thought I'd share
their response.

Barb


> 
> We have been asked this question on several
> occasions.  The subject heading
> Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) was established
> in the Library of Congress
> Subject Heading system (LCSH) September 1968. 
> In the Cataloging Policy and
> Support Office (CPSO), we have an archival card
> file of the subject
> authority cards that were filed in LC's old
> Official Card Catalog, and it
> contains a card for that heading that is date
> stamped.
> 
> The machine-readable database that had been
> used to produce the printed
> Library of Congress Subject Headings volumes
> was converted to the MARC
> Authority Format in February 1986.  All the
> headings in existence through
> December 1985 were converted and then sorted
> according to the LC filing
> rules.  The approximately 150,000 headings were
> assigned Library of Congress
> card numbers (LCCNs) beginning with the prefix
> sh 85, indicating that they
> were in existence in 1985.  Subject headings
> established subsequently in
> LCSH bear LCCNs with a prefix indicating the
> year that they were created
> from sh 86 through the current year sh2007.
> 
> Thanks for your interest in LCSH.
> 
> Lynn El-Hoshy
> Senior Cataloging Policy Specialist
> LC CPSO
> 
> 
> >>> "Barbara Smith" <bdsmith at mcl.org> 11/05/07
> 11:23 AM >>>
> I am trying to find out when the term
> "holocaust" (referring to the
> Jewish holocaust) was first used as a library
> subject heading. In the
> LOC subject authority records, under Holocaust,
> Jewish (1939-1945) there
> is a sh code beginning with 85. I assume that
> means that particular
> subject heading was created in 1985; however I
> would like to know if
> there was an earlier version. One source I
> found, an article called
> "What is Holocaust Literature?"
> http://tinyurl.com/3aze8k in the book
> Jews, Christians, and the Burden of History,
> indicates the heading was
> first used in 1968. 
> 
>  
> 
> Can you tell me how I can find a definitive
> answer?
> 
>  
> 
> Thank you.
> 





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