Library of Congress Subject Headings
The Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH) comprise a
Subject headings are normally applied to every item within a library's collection and facilitate a user's access to items in the catalog that pertain to similar subject matter, in order to save time finding items of related subject matter. Only searching for items by 'title' or other descriptive fields, such as 'author' or 'publisher', would take more time and potentially miss locating many items because of the ineffective and inefficient search capability.
An art and a science
Subject heading is a human and intellectual endeavor, by which trained professionals apply topic descriptions to items in their collections. Without a uniform standard, each library might choose to categorize the subject matter of their items differently. The widespread use and acceptance of the Library of Congress Subject Headings facilitates the uniform access to and retrieval of items in libraries across the world; users can use the same search strategy and LCSH thesaurus, if the correct headings have been applied to the item by the library. Some LCSH decisions are achieved by extensive debate and even controversy in the library community.
LCSH is the world's most widely used subject vocabulary.
LCSH policy issues
Historically, given the complicated nature of the United States, its various ethnic groups, and changing society, numerous classification issues have been related to the terms used to identify
Until the 1990s, the LCSH administrators had a strict policy of not changing terms for a subject category. This was enforced to tighten and eliminate the duplication or confusion that might arise if subject headings were changed. As a result, the term 'Afro-American' to describe African-American topics in LCSH was used long after it lost currency and acceptance in the population. In 1996 LCSH decided to allow some alteration of terms to better reflect the needs and access of library users.
But, many common terms, or 'natural language' terms, are not used in LCSH. This may limit the ability of users to locate items. Research has increased in
Sanford Berman, a notable American science scholar on this subject, has noted the difficulty in finding material on certain topics, such as various denialisms, because the Library of Congress has not yet incorporated the natural language terms for them, for example, climate change denialism, into LCSH.[4]
As ideas about human sexuality have changed in the United States since the late 20th century, the LCSH has been criticized for biased organization and description of materials on sexuality. For instance, works about heterosexuality are scarcely labeled as such in LCSH; this suggests that heterosexuality is the norm and only queer sexuality needs a separate classification.[5]
Data access
The Subject Headings were formerly published in large red volumes (currently ten), which are typically displayed in the reference sections of research libraries. They also may be accessed online in the Library of Congress Classification Web, a subscription service, or free of charge (as individual records) at Library of Congress Authorities. The Library of Congress adds new headings and revisions to LCSH each month.[6]
A web service, lcsh.info, was set up by Ed Summers, a Library of Congress employee, circa April 2008,
After some delay, the Library set up its own web service for LCSH browsing at
Using LCSH
Timothy Binga, director of libraries at the Center for Inquiry, notes issues that make it more difficult to use the standardized language of LCSH to find material. These include systems that allow patrons to informally tag materials in the catalog, book creators and publishers who do their own cataloging, and the incorrect application of LCSH to controversial material.[12]
Increasingly, the use of
Criticism
Indigenous studies
Indigenous material classification under LCSH has been criticized by scholars in Indigenous studies and
LCSH use the term "Indian" which is considered inappropriate for scholarly use outside of referencing the Indian Act, or similar historical legislature. The ambiguous nature of the word also perpetuates a cycle of miscataloguing. On WorldCat, the search terms "Indians---Food" give results on South Asian Cuisine, while "Indian cooking" does not yield any results relating to Indigenous cooking.[13]
Judaica
The compilation, Library of Congress Subject Headings in Jewish Studies, does not have a separate list of generally applicable subdivisions or geographic headings, but the introduction notes that it does include "the generally applicable subdivisions for Jews, Judaism, Hebrew language, and Israel ' The compiler goes on to explain that "some of these subdivisions are based on the pattern headings for ethnic groups, religions, languages , and places " Subdivisions based on pattern headings are interfiled with generally applicable ones (e g Encyclopedias), so it is hard for the Judaica cataloger to identify the subdivisions of Israel that may be applied to Holocaust for example. [16][17]
Developments in Canada
LCSH representatives worked with staff of the
In addition, the
See also
- Library of Congress Linked Data Service
- Library of Congress Control Number (LCCN)
- Faceted Application of Subject Terminology (FAST), a simplified syntax of LCSH
- Library of Congress Classification
- Minnie Earl Sears: formulated the Sears Subject Headings, a simplification for use by small libraries.
- AGROVOC
- Books in the United States
References
- ^ "Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH)". Librarianship Studies & Information Technology. Retrieved 9 August 2020.
- ^ Padilla, Steve; Rivera, Selene (3 April 2016). "Library of Congress to stop using term 'illegal alien'". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 8 August 2020.
- ^ Aguilera, Jasmine (22 July 2016). "Another Word for 'Illegal Alien' at the Library of Congress: Contentious". The New York Times. Retrieved 8 August 2020.
- ^ Berman, Sanford (2017). "Library Catalogs Deny Science Denial". Skeptical Inquirer. 41 (3): 8.
- S2CID 54961169.
- ^ "About the Subject Headings Approved Lists". Library of Congress. 10 August 2011. Retrieved 9 August 2020.
- ^ Rob Styles (2008-04-02). "SKOS, Linked Data and LCSH!". I Really Don't Know. Archived from the original on 2010-03-14. Retrieved 2010-01-12.
- ^ Ed Summers (2008-12-18). "lcsh.info " Blog Archive " uncool uris". Archived from the original on February 26, 2009. Retrieved 2010-01-12.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link) - ^ "Tim Berners-Lee's comment on Uncool URIs". 2008-12-20. Archived from the original on February 26, 2009. Retrieved 2010-04-20.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link) - Tim Spalding (2008-12-22). "LCSH.info, RIP". Thingology. Retrieved 2010-01-12.
- ^ "Library of Congress Update for 2009 ALA Annual Conference, January-May, 2009 (The Library of Congress at ALA Annual Conference 2009)". Library of Congress. Retrieved 2010-01-12.
In April, 2009 the Beta version of ID.LOC.GOV with the LCSH vocabulary went live.
- ^ Binga, Timothy (2017). "Information Bias in Library Catalogs". Skeptical Inquirer. 41 (3): 9.
- ^ a b Lee, Tamara; Bullard, Julia; Dupont, Julia (12 November 2021). "Comparing the Cataloguing of Indigenous Scholarships: First Steps and Findings". North American Symposium on Knowledge Organization. 8 (1): 1–11.
- ^ – via Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library.
- S2CID 151677695– via JSTOR.
- ^ Weinberg, Bella Hass. (1990). “Compilations of Library of Congress Subject Headings for Judaica: Comparison, Evaluation, and Recommendations.” Judaica Librarianship 5: 36–40.
- ^ Weinberg, Bella Hass. (1993). Library Resources: The hidden classification in Library of Congress subject headings for Judaica. Library Resources and Technical services 37 (4): 369-379.
- ^ Rowe, Daniel J. (2019-02-07). "Humble intellectual leaves unique legacy". The Eastern Door. Retrieved 2019-02-09.
- hdl:2429/54261.
External links
- Browse LCSH online
- Library of Congress Cataloging home page
- Cataloging Distribution Service – primary source of Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Library of Congress Authorities – allows users to look through the subject headings at no charge