Library of Congress Subject Headings

1. Library of CongressSubject Headings Professor Yan Ma

2. Subject Analysis • Classification number deals with one number, one place. • But you can assign more than one subject heading. • Subject headings are more specific and can be dealt with in many disciplines.

3. Subject Analysis • In addition to author and title entries, library catalogs and other bibliographic retrieval tools provide a topical approach to records in their systems through access points that represent subject content.

4. A User Searches by Subject for the Following Reasons: • 1. To identify or retrieve specific items of which the subject is known. • 2. To search for information on a given subject--In this sense, subject entries serve the dual function of location and collocation. • 3. Because the title does not often indicate the subject content, subject access points are used to evaluate the relevancy of the retrieved items.

5. Two Ways of Searching by Subject: • 1. Through words in titles and /or notes. • This is called Natural-Languageor Free-Text Searching = The available access points are words in the title or note areas of a bibliographic description.

6. Natural-Language/Free-Text Searching: • Advantage - information may be retrieved on the words authors used in titles, words which often reflect current terminology in that particular field. • Drawbacks - User must search all synonyms to retrieve all possible information. Also when a title does not contain words that indicate subject content. i.e. Humanities / Social Science

7. Two Ways of Searching by Subject: • 2. Through words or phrases in specifically assigned index terms. • This is called Controlled VocabularyAccess = Specific words and phrases designated as subject index terms are assigned to each record; each term normally represents only one subject, and a given subject is normally represented by only one term.

8. Controlled Vocabulary Access: • A Controlled Vocabulary depends on a master list of the terms that can be assigned to documents. • For most library catalogs, manual or online, these are called Subject Headings. • For abstracting/indexing systems they are called Descriptorsor Preferred or Authorized Items.

9. Controlled Vocabulary Access: • Preferred terms are maintained in a subject heading list orthesaurus =contains the subject access terms to be used in the cataloging or indexing. • When there are synonymous terms for a given subject, these terms are included in the list as lead-in terms and references under them direct the searcher to the authorized term.

10. Controlled Vocabulary Access: • Three types of relationships are represented in the cross reference structure of LCSH: equivalent, hierarchical, and associative. These relationships are expressed in terms of USE and UF; Broader term (BT), narrower term (NT), related term (RT), and see also (SA) references.

11. Subject Authority System: • Subject headings lists and thesaurus require ongoing maintenance. • This is accomplished through a control system called Subject Authority System. • This system, for each term, documents the basis for decisions on the term and on what links connect it with other terms.

12. Subject Authority File Defined by ALA: • “A set of records indicating the authorized forms of terms used as subject headings in a particular set of bibliographic records; the references made to and from the authorized forms; and the information used, and its sources, in the establishment of the headings and the determination of the references to be made.”

13. Subject Authority Control: • Subject Authority Systems have two main purposes: • To ensure uniformity and consistency in subject heading terminology and cross-references. • To these ends, headings are established when they are used for the first time and subject authority records are set up for them.

14. Subject Authority Control: • A subject authority record contains the following information: • the established heading; • scope notes; • cross-references made to/from other headings; • the sources/authorities the decision on the heading form was based.

15. Subject Authority Control: • Two levels of subject authority control: • 1st. A central agency like LC maintains the subject authority file. • 2nd. A library devises a subject authority apparatus that ensures conformity and currency of thesubject headings and cross-references in the catalog. • Most rely on LCSH or Searslist and create local records for those not yet appearing in the standard list.

16. Subject Authority Control: • All authority records for a given system are kept in a Subject Authority File, which is either part of an online system or maintained manually on cards. • Functions of Subject Authority File: • 1. Cataloging • 2. Cataloging Maintenance • 3. Retrieval

17. Guidelines for Assigning Subject Headings: • 1. Headings assigned are based on the overall content of the work represented by the MARC record not (chapter or articles.) • 2. Headings are assigned to a substantial portion of a work (at least 20%) covering a distinctive subject not adequately represented by headings assigned to the entire work.

18. Guidelines for Assigning Subject Headings: • 3. Headings are assigned for individual persons, corporate bodies, etc. that are considered significant for the work as a whole, even if discussion of these entities occupies less than 20% of the work.

19. Guidelines for Assigning Subject Headings: • 4. Headings that represent precisely the subject content of the work is assigned as the primary heading. In the absence of a coextensive heading, a heading broader or more general than the content of the work may be assigned.

20. Guidelines for Assigning Subject Headings: • 5. A general heading comprehending the specific primary heading is not assigned as an additional heading to a work dealing only with the specific subject.

21. Guidelines for Assigning Subject Headings: • 6. A specific heading is assigned to each topic on works with two/three topics unless there is a broader heading that represents the topics involved. • The Essentials of Money and Banking • 1. Money. • 2. Banks and banking • By land, sea, and air: the story of transportation • 1. Transportation--History.

22. Guidelines for Assigning Subject Headings: • 7. If a single, general heading covering all topics treated in a work on four or more topics is available or can be established, it is assigned even if it includes other topics not covered in the work being cataloged. • Royal children, 1840-1980:from Queen Victoria to Queen Elizabeth II • 1. Great Britain--Princes and princesses.

23. Guidelines for Assigning Subject Headings: • 8. If the term is not in the subject heading list, find the one of a larger group to which it belongs. • i.e. (Sears) elm, ash are not in the list. • If we look at TREES, SA tells you that names of trees, i.e., oak can be added.

24. Subject Cataloging-The Purpose: • Is to list under a uniform word or phrase all the materials on a given subject that a library has in its collection. • Subject=is the topic treated in a book, videotape or other work. • Subject Heading=is the word or phrase used in the catalog to express this topic.

25. Procedures to Determine Subject Headings: • Examine the Book. • Table of Contents • The Book Itself • Use the Most Specific and Direct Headings • Uniformity of Choice of Words

26. Subject Cataloging-The Purpose: • Subject Entry is at the top of the catalog entry, above the main entry in card catalogs. In MARC format, subject headings are provided in 600s fields. • “SA” = “see also” and introduces a “General Reference” not to a specific heading but to a general group or category of things that may be established as needed.

27. Library of Congress Subject Headings: • Is a list of subject headings developed by the LC for use on its cataloging records. • It was first published in 1914. • LCSH is essentially a Subject Authority List--it is a list of terms authorized by the LC for use in its own subject cataloging.

28. Library of Congress Subject Headings: • To use LCSH effectively, we need to know its scope--what it contains and what it does not contain. • LCSH contains many terms that are not authorized as headings but are included as lead-in/referred-from terms to help users as well as catalogers find the applicable authorized term for a topic at issue.

29. Library of Congress Subject Headings: • Cross-references ensure the lead-in terms give directions to the associated headings. • However, not all authorized subject headings appear in LCSH: catalogers may derive headings from the Name Authority File or construct suitable headings on their own.

30. Library of Congress Subject Headings: • LCSH is a controlled vocabulary for subject cataloging of the LC collection. • The LC collections serve as the literary warrant (i.e. The literature on which the controlled vocabulary is based) for the LC subject headings system. • The number and specificity of the subject headings are determined by the nature and scope of the LC collections.

31. LCSH: • Format of Subject Headings: • In the print version of LCSH, the headings appear in boldface type. • Ex. Reference Books

32. LCSH: • Topical Headings - • Represents a concept or object dealt within a work. It reflects what the work is about. • If a heading represents the physical form of the item, it is called From Heading • Ex. Automobiles--bibliography. Botany

33. LCSH: • A topical or form heading may contain more than one word. • When a heading contains more than one concept, either the form of a phrase heading or a heading with subdivisions, it is called Pre-Coordinated Heading. • Ex. Budget in business • Church and industry • Biology--Scholarships, fellowship, etc.

34. Syntax: • Conjunctive Phrase Headings: • Literature and Science • Church and Social Problems • Bolts and Nuts • Prepositional Phrase Headings: • Children in Motion Pictures • Costume in Art • Figures of Speech

35. Syntax: • Inverted Phrase Headings: • Chemistry, Organic • Maps, Statistical • Knowledge, Sociology of • Free-Floating Phrase Headings: • [Topic/Place] in art • [Topic/Place] in literature • [Name of River] Watershed • [Personal Name] in fiction, drama, poetry

36. Syntax: • The resulting combinations are usually not listed in LCSH: • Nixon, Richard in fiction, drama, poetry • Culture in Literature • New Zealand in Art

37. Syntax: • Uniform Heading (one heading per subject--control of synonyms): • Synonymous terms and variant forms of the same headings are included as entry vocabulary. • i.e. As referred-from terms

38. Syntax: • Unique Heading (one subject per heading--control of homographs) • Homographs are distinguished by parenthetical qualifiers. • Ex. Pool (Game) • Cold (Disease)

39. Subdivisions: • Represents an activity or operation applied to or associated with the subject denoted by the main heading. • A main heading may be subdivided by one or more of four kinds of subdivisions: 1. topical 2. geographic 3. period 4. form

40. Free-Floating Form and Topical Subdivisions • In order to ensure consistency and better control of subject strings, subdivisions and main headings are not combined randomly or at will by each cataloger at the LC. As a rule, each new combination of a subdivision with a main a heading must be approved by an editorial committee at the library before its use becomes authorized.

41. Free-Floating Form and Topical Subdivisions • An exception to the rule is a group of widely used subdivisions call free-floating subdivisions. The term refers to those form or topical subdivisions which subject catalogers a the LC are authorized to used under a particular subject or name heading, where applicable and appropriate, without prior authorization.

42. Free-Floating Form and Topical Subdivisions • Consequently, these main heading/subdivision combinations may appear on LC bibliographic records WITHOUT being listed in LCSH.

43. Free-Floating Form and Topical Subdivisions • Free-floating subdivisions refer to those form or topical subdivisions which subject catalogers at the LC are authorized to use under a particular subject or name heading, where applicable and appropriate, without prior authorization. • They are listed either separately or under main headings called pattern headings.

44. Free-Floating Form and Topical Subdivisions • Free -floating subdivisions may be used under any existing headings without establishing the usage editorially.

45. Free-Floating Form and Topical Subdivisions There are four categories of free-floating subdivisions: • those of general application • those to be used only under specific categories • those controlled by pattern headings • those indicated by "multiple."

46. Free-Floating Form and Topical Subdivisions • Form and topical subdivisions that are applicable to a large number of headings are designed as free-floating subdivisions of general application. A list of these subdivisions are available in Subject Cataloging Manual:Subject Headings.

47. Free-Floating Form and Topical Subdivisions Examples: • --Dust control • --Library resources • --Lighting • --Software

48. Free-Floating Form and Topical Subdivisions • Instruction is given as to the types of headings to which the particular subdivision is applicable. For example, Dust control is applicable only under main headings representing industries, industrial plant, and processes.

49. Free-Floating Form and Topical Subdivisions • Many subdivisions are only applicable to, and only authorized for use as free-floating subdivisions under, specific categories of main headings.

50. Free-Floating Form and Topical Subdivisions • Separate lists of free-floating subdivisions have been established and published in Subject Cataloging Manual: Subject Headings for use with the following categories: 1. classes of persons. 2. ethnic groups. 3. names of corporate bodies. 4. names of persons. 5. names of places. 6. names of bodies of water, streams, etc.