Former Colonies
When cataloging a work about or including significant content on a country’s colonial era, a subject heading for the colonizing country should also be added. It cannot be subdivided more narrowly than –Africa. E.g., a publication on government in Côte d’Ivoire throughout the 20th century should include a subject heading, France—Colonies—Africa—Administration, in addition to CoÌ‚te d'Ivoire--Politics and government--To 1960. The country code for France, e-fr--- , should be added to the 043 field; the overly general country code f------ may be omitted.
Don’t add a chronological element to the subject heading, since that time span is already limited by the nature of the subject heading to the late 19th century – 20th century. (Though there might be exceptions to this.)
Note provided in the subject authority file for Ç‚x Colonies : “Do not further subdivide geographically headings of the type [topic]--[place]--Colonies.” In other words, Railroads—France—Colonies—Africa would be incorrect; it should be Railroads—France—Colonies.
In some situations, the subject topical subdivision –Colonies shifts forward when one tries to control that subject heading in OCLC. Railroads—France—Colonies will become Railroads—Colonies—France when controlled. This is incorrect because –Colonies is supposed to follow names of countries, cities, etc. Leave such subject headings uncontrolled when the sequence would be affected.
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