Your posting for March 2001 gave us the number 972.0837 for Vicente Fox. In October 2001, you changed the number to 972.0841. Why did the number change so quickly?

While reviewing the 900 schedule for Edition 22, we decided that the year 2000 was a good date to start a new history period for most countries. As we began revising developments for the new millennium in individual countries, we observed that it was also time to start a new era for several of them. Mexico was one of those countries, because a new era had indeed begun with the election of Vicente Fox. His election ended the eighty-year hold of the Party of Revolutionary Institutions (PRI) in Mexican politics. The number we originally chose in March was just another number in the PRI era. Starting a new sequence of presidential administrations under the number 972.084 would clearly signal that a new era had begun in Mexican history.

We then faced a dilemma: Should we keep the faith with the librarians who had already begun using the number we posted only seven months ago, or should we switch to a number that more clearly defines the importance of the political shift that took place in 2000? We chose the latter course, believing that most of the relatively few librarians who had immediately begun using 972.0837 would soon appreciate the updated number that reflects this peaceful revolution in Mexican history.

Last revised: 05 September 2003