Matilda, where are you: subject description of juvenile fiction in the Slovenian catalogue and catalogues of neighbouring countries

Abstract

ABSTRACTDifferences in subject description of juvenile fiction was investigated on five examples of international classics in five library catalogues: Oton Župančič Public Library (Knjižnica Otona Župančiča) in Ljubljana, Slovenia, Stadtbibliothek public library in Graz, Austria, integrated catalogues of libraries in the Gorizia region in Italy (Sistema bibliotecario della Provincia di Gorizia) and the Karlovac region in Croatia (Skupni katalog knjižnica Karlovačke županije) in September 2008. As Slovenian youth rarely speaks languages of neighbouring countries, British Library catalogue was added.Results show that catalogue records are inconsistent within an individual library aswell as in comparision with other libraries in the sample. Librarians do not make consistent subject descriptions. Class number, which is present in all catalogues except in the Austrian one, usually represents: the author’s country, language and/or nationality, the literary genre, and the target audience. Subject headings in the sample bring information on the subject (aboutness), author’s country, language and/or nationality, the literary genre, and target audience. Summaries tell more on the story. But they can also bring information on emotional experience of the reader, information on the author or history of the literary work. It would be economically beneficial if subject description could be more consistent. But uniform subject description is not possible because of diverse library collections and users. The solution might be in the use of multiple levels of subject description regarding to the type of the libraries.