Yesterday, we added a new number to the classification:
973.934 Administration of Joseph R. Biden, Jr., 2021-
I wrote last year about how we maintain the numbers for leaders of countries in the history schedules. Yesterday’s publication also closed out the time span in the caption of 973.933, for Biden’s predecessor. Browse in the Relative Index and you’ll see the following:
What’s the difference between these two terms? Future works about Joe Biden himself, such as biographies, belong at 973.934092 (T1—092 Biography added to the new number). Works about Biden’s whole administration just belong at 973.934. The Relative Index term reflects that this number is for Biden as a subject in American history.
Now, I said future works about Joe Biden. See the Manual note T1—092 (WebDewey link), especially the section “Public figures”. It explains that you should classify comprehensive works based on the highest office a person reaches, unless there’s a compelling reason to do otherwise. Generally, someone elected US president will have had biographies about them before. There is no need to reclassify biographies of Biden as a legislator (328.73092, such as Promises to keep) or a vice president (973.932092, such as Promise Me, Dad), but for future works that also cover his presidency, prefer 973.934092.
Finally, we can’t forget Kamala Harris, the new vice president, and the first woman, first African American, and first Asian American to hold that office. Although we don’t name vice presidents in the schedules, they class with the presidential administration in which they served. The Manual note referred to above says, “Use 930-990 for monarchs, presidents, other heads of state, prime ministers, vice presidents, and regents, using the number for the period during which they held office.” Still, I went ahead and mapped the Library of Congress name authority record for Harris to 973.934092. No need to reclassify works on her, either. For now, it’s the best place for biographies of her going forward, but as Biden himself shows, “highest office reached” often doesn’t stop there.
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