Rad Ref's LCSH Blogging Party!

Dear Library of Congress,

Progressive Librarians Guild: UA Chapter would like you to please add both Bollywood Films (proposed by Sanford Berman 14 August 2007) and Freeganism (also proposed by Sanford Berman, 28 June 2007).

This post is part of the Radical Reference Library of Congress Subject Heading Suggestion Blog-a-Thon.

1. Bollywood Films
When searching LC's online catalog, you have 103 entries for the keyword "Bollywood". According to Wikipedia, it is one of the biggest film producers in the world. Many of your collected materials even have the term Bollywood in the title, such as Bollywood: the Indian cinema story by Nasreen Munni Kabir.

From the publisher's description, "Culture and Global Change presents a comprehensive introduction to the cultural aspects of third world development. It contains 25 chapters from leading writers in the field which each offer their own particular take on 'culture' and explore the significance and meaning of cultural issues for different people in different parts of the contemporary world... this book considers the relationship between culture and development within a truly global context." This describes Culture and Global Change edited by Tracey Skelton and Tim Allen. If Bollywood is an important cultural issue and has had a part in influencing development in the Indian subcontinent, it should be substantial enough to warrant a subject heading.

2. Freeganism
Although a neologism, it still is not too new of a term to include; it began, officially, in the mid 1990's. This not only describes a movement, but an important extension of veganism, which "although the term "vegan" started in the United Kingdom about 50 years ago with the formation of the Vegan Society, the practice of not eating animal products actually began long ago." (from VeganNet)

There are 124 entries in the LC online catalog for the keyword "vegan", and 212,000 entries on Google for "freeganism". The site, Freegan.info explains the movement as,

"Freeganism is a total boycott of an economic system where the profit motive has eclipsed ethical considerations and where massively complex systems of productions ensure that all the products we buy will have detrimental impacts most of which we may never even consider. Thus, instead of avoiding the purchase of products from one bad company only to support another, we avoid buying anything to the greatest degree we are able."

Considering the increase of people interested in socially responsible, green living, it would be an important topic to be able to research. Even Oprah had a segment on Freegans!

Most of the publications about the topic seem to be blogging and articles, yet not many books, but hopefully that will change in the near future. Having a subject heading for it might influence more non-electronic-only publications.

Sincerely,
PLG: UA Chapter