(no subject)

[sebastienne]

In the library we use a classification system called "Library of Congress".

H is the class for the social sciences, so obviously it's by far the biggest section.

Various other letters create subdivisions, such that HF is commerce, HG is finance, and so on.

My coworkers think I'm a conspiracy theorist - and perhaps that's true - but something's been niggling at the back of my mind about this every time I go out shelving, and today I realised what it was.

Q and X. Weird letters. UK vehicle number plates won't even touch Q, it's so strange, see how it demands U to follow it around eveyhwhere; and X is all b-movies and malevolent technology and secrets.

And to what subdivisions does the Library of Congress classification system bequeath the labels Q and X?

HQ: Family; Marriage; Women; Sexuality

HX: Socialism; Communism; Anarchism

Feminism. Queer theory. Marxism.

The Library of Congress shelves these under Q and X.

Share in my psychoses, flist?

Comments

[skibbley.livejournal.com]

Q cars are modified, created, customised - not mass produced.

[sebastienne.livejournal.com]

Or, alternatively, weird freaky things that don't fit into proper categorical boxes? XP

[mejoff.livejournal.com]

Or, you know... better?

[pozorvlak.livejournal.com]

I'd assumed they'd left the letter out so Qs wouldn't be confused with Os when reading vehicle license plates under poor conditions.

[knirirr.livejournal.com]

HX: Socialism; Communism; Anarchism

In the mind of a US government bureaucrat these three are probably much the same, but one is an “odd one out”.

[sebastienne.livejournal.com]

One Of These Is Not Like The Others.

Quite.

[ex-leighwoos982.livejournal.com]

Isn't Q kept off number plates due to issues of it being confused with 0 or O?

I imagine Q and X would be selected becuase they are visually easy to spot and uncommon in every day use - so if you're flagging letters in 60's america for checking by the FBI they'd be obvious choices.

[neoanjou.livejournal.com]

Well the Q hierarchy itself is Science which is of course highly dangerous and subversive ;)

Also apparently the system was essentially complete before 1939, so its an old conspiracy...

[pozorvlak.livejournal.com]

Well the Q hierarchy itself is Science which is of course highly dangerous and subversive ;)

Hell yeah.

[jacinthsong.livejournal.com]

Hmm, but counterfactuals: all the other Qs and Xs are fairly uncontentious, and "Social Pathology, Social and Public Welfare, and Criminology" - which would presumably count as 'weird' - is HV... /contrarian

(missyouomg)

[jix1125.livejournal.com]

When I worked in the library at my alma mater I noticed the HQ section as having the most surprisingly interesting books. Or at least, book titles. It's the only section I remembered and often found myself browsing it when closing.

Unrelated note: many libraries, like the University of Edinburgh, transition from Dewey Decimal to LOC. When I was taking classes there, their "old collection" was in Dewey, and the "new collection" was in LOC. I thought it was interesting at the time that they had to have two different sections for books depending how they were catalogued.