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This is in response to Linda Zellmer's question posted on the list Jan. 15th:
 
Ah, the shortcomings of the LC G-class system, where do I begin... Seriously
though, this is but one example of some vagaries of the system itself. As a
full-time map cataloger I've learned over the years to do the best you can
and if have/need to fudge some things for the sake of consistency for local
records then by all means do so. Debbie Lords' response of "...what you
do must work for your collection and your patrons" is not only correct but
extremely important. It allows me to do some "non-legal" things within our
collection such as separately classifying the maps showing BLM districts as
regions so that these will not get mixed in with items at the state level.
 
Phil Hoehn's recommendation was good and probably the best thing to do if
you want to keep things "legal" as far as putting an original record into one
of the bibliographic utility databases (i.e. OCLC, RLIN, WLN), then after
that you should do whatever is best for your patrons and collection. Definitely
use the subject cutters for the topographic and geologic maps as they will be
clearly distinguished by ".C2" and ".C5", then after that you can follow Phil's
idea or, howabout:
 
1. Use a "fake" colon technique (I know, this is quite the ugly way to do thing
s, but if it works). We all know that the colon technique is for places within
politically administered areas, but why not fudge this for yourself for the
Geyser basins and come up with something like; G4262.Y4:U5 for the Upper Geyser
basin and G4262.Y4:L6 for the Lower Geyser basin. At least this indicates a
subregion withing the National Park.
 
2. What about simply creating a region cutter for the two basins, that neither
conflicts with the cutters in LC's _Geographic Cutters_, nor with existing
cutters for regions within your own collection? Something like G4262.U55 for
the Upper Geyser Basin and G4262.L7 for the Lower Geyser Basin. One of the nice
things about the western mountain states is that there aren't a whole lot of
places to conflict with anyway. The drawback to this is that it isn't quite as
clear looking at the class number that these are subregions within Yellowstone.
 
Anyway, just a couple of ideas to throw out to not only Linda but also to
everyone else out there on the list. I would like to see other ideas thrown
in for comparison, so I hope there are further responses to Linda's question
in the coming days. Linda, hope this helps!
 
Mr. Paige G. Andrew
Map Cataloger
Univ. of Georgia Libraries
Univ. of Georgia
Athens, GA 30602
Phone: 706-542-0585
Internet: [log in to unmask]
Bitnet: [log in to unmask]