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LESSON 5 CONTENTS: |
| II. SUBJECT HEADINGS When a book or other item (videotape, CD, etc.) is added to a library's collection, a specialist known as a cataloger examines it and decides what that book is about. The cataloger must describe the subject content of that book as completely as possible by using standardized, officially approved words or groups of words known as subject headings. He/she will assign between 1 and 5 subject headings to describe the content of a book. Subject headings assigned by a human cataloger, therefore, make it possible for you to do a subject search, which you may recall from Lesson 4 is one of the methods of searching a bibliographic database. Subject headings can be one word, a phrase, a city, a country, geographic region, or person. For example, the following are all valid subject headings: HOSPITALS Sometimes, the first word or phrase that comes to your mind is in fact the "correct" (i.e. the valid) subject heading. For example, books on CHILDREN'S LITERATURE, or PHOTOGRAPHY, may be found under those subject words. At other times, however, subject headings are expressed in less obvious terms. For example, you may look up the subject MOVIES in a catalog or index and find nothing. Then you try FILMS --again, no luck. You might assume that there is no information on this subject, but there are in fact many books and articles on movies, under the subject heading MOTION PICTURES. Listed below are more examples of topics with subject headings that wouldn't immediately come
As you can see, subject headings often use very formal language. Given below are some other characteristics of subject headings:
SUBDIVISIONS: ADDING PRECISION TO A SUBJECT HEADING Since subject headings often describe broad concepts, additional words called subdivisions (sometimes called subheadings) are often added as a way to focus on a more specific aspect of the subject. Subdivisions are separated from the main heading by a dash (--) and identify various aspect(s) of a subject that may be of interest to you. For example, AIRPLANES is a valid, but very broad, subject heading. Fortunately, there are many subdivisions that focus on specific aspects of airplanes. Listed below are only a few of the many subdivisions under the main heading AIRPLANES:
TYPES OF SUBDIVISIONS Subdivisions can be one of 4 types:
Catalogers often attach 2 or more subheadings to a main heading in an effort to describe a book as precisely as possible. For example, books on the subject of traveling in Mexico can be found under the heading MEXICO -- TRAVEL. But a more specific book on how to stay healthy while traveling in Mexico would be found under a more specific subject heading: MEXICO -- TRAVEL -- HEALTH ASPECTS. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS SUBJECT HEADINGS (LCSH): Now that you know a little bit about subject headings, you may wonder where they come from. Who decides on the exact word(s) and subdivisions that become an officially approved subject heading? These decisions are made by specialists known as catalogers who work for the largest library in the world: the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. Almost every library in the United States, including Skyline Library, uses the subject headings decided upon by catalogers at the Library of Congress. Catalogers perform a very important and necessary job. They carefully examine each book to be added to a library's collection and assign 1-5 subject headings to the bibliographic record for the item. This laborious task is what makes subject searching possible in online catalogs, computerized indexes, and other bibliographic databases. But they must be very consistent in their work and make sure that all books on a particular subject are all categorized under the appropriate, standardized heading. In other words, a cataloger cannot decide on one day to put a book on date rape under DATE RAPE, and on another day to put it under ACQUAINTANCE RAPE, and on another day under VIOLENCE IN DATING SITUATIONS. In order to be consistent in their work, catalogers assign subject headings chosen from a standardized, official list. This list of approved subject terms is known as a controlled vocabulary. The controlled vocabulary used by catalogers at the Library of Congress is known as the Library of Congress Subject Headings or simply LSCH. When you do a subject search on Skyline Library's online catalog, or almost any other OPAC in this country, the subject headings that appear are Library of Congress subject headings. Bibliographic databases other than online catalogs also use controlled vocabularies. For example, PsychInfo, Sociological Abstracts, Medline, and the ERIC education database are all periodical indexes that use their own set of exact subject terms, which each compile into a master list called a thesaurus. The thesaurus for any given specialized database is usually available in both print and online formats. Why do catalogers go through the trouble of creating controlled vocabularies? The main reason is simply that subject searching only works well with bibliographic databases if it's built on a consistent and highly ordered system. Anything less will be haphazard and difficult to use. A second reason is that subject headings are often shared among different databases. For example, Library of Congress subject headings are often used by general periodical indexes such as the InfoTrac OneFile. Why should a controlled vocabulary system matter to you, the researcher? Simply stated, if you pay attention to subject headings you can take advantage of the order and precision it brings to the database. In other words, if you search a database using valid subject headings, you can feel reasonably certain that every book or article on that subject in that database will be found. In the exercise for this lesson, you will be experience how subject headings can help in your research, even if you don’t know, or cannot “guess,” the correct heading.
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