Library Of Congress Subject Headings Research Articles

CD‐MARC bibliographic databases as an alternative to other information sources: cataloguers' evaluation of the use of LC CD‐MARC at Kenneth Dike Library, University of Ibadan, Nigeria

The Library of Congress (LC) compact disc machine‐readable catalogue (CD‐MARC) was recently acquired by the Kenneth Dike Library, University of Ibadan. Its use by the cataloguing librarians was evaluated in terms of efficiency (effect on cataloguing lime) and effectiveness (effect on monthly output) when compared with using other information sources such as microfiches, cataloguing‐in‐publication (CIP) data and printed sources — LC subject headings, LC National Union Catalogue, LC monographic series, etc. The positive influence of the new technology was evident as there were reductions in cataloguing time and increases in monthly output of items catalogued.

Subject headings for African American materials

Brown's work offers subject access to materials on all aspects of African American life and culture-from the A.M.E. Church to zoning. Using the same format as the Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH), the book lists approximately 3,000 subject headings that are interfaced with and interlinked to the LCSH and provide a logical continuum for the subject access of materials on the African American experience in the United States. As a supplement to LCSH, this list will be invaluable to catalogers. Useful as a search tool for patrons of academic, public, special, and school library/information centers, the book will also serve library professionals in collection development and benefit students and faculty involved with African American studies.

Shakers in Cyberspace: Electronic Resources and the Bibliography of Dance

Research in the performing arts to a greater degree than other disciplines relies upon literature that crosses and resides within many other disciplines. Researching dance in particular can become a rather interwoven process. Not only is the literature of dance laid across the landscape of the Library of Congress subject headings, but its very subject scope often evolves within other disciplines. Research in dance is environmental and ephemeral, with much of the valuable information found in primary sources as well as in secondary and tertiary sources. When looking at the bibliography of dance as a research inquiry, the direction of the search cannot be narrow. Often, the scope of such research will evolve, taking the researcher circui-tously, but intellectually, around the course of the various disciplines in the arts and the humanities, and the social and physical sciences as well. Moreover, such research requires locating different formats of information, found within a variety of bibliographic structures and searching environments.By utilizing the bibliographic search techniques developed in the Dance Heritage Coalition's workshop, “Choreographing Your Search” (1) bibliographic research in dance can be more fully explored and its findings more easily displayed than through more traditional library research methodology. The purpose of the workshop “Choreographing Your Search” is to provide a basic and general introduction to available on-line resources that can lead to information sources and materials relevant to dance and dance history.

Library of Congress Subject Headings in Jewish Studies: Recent Changes (1994-1995)

The following subject headings of interest to Judaica and Hebraica librarians were culled from Library of Congress Weekly Lists (1994) nos. 6-52 (Feb. 9, 1994–December 28, 1994), and (1995) nos. 1–36 (January 4, 1995-September 6, 1995). This list continues my earlier one, published in Judaica Librarianship, vol. 8, no. 1–2 (Spring 1993–Winter 1994), pp. 73–82. The list is also an update of my 4th edition of Library of Congress Subject Headings in Jewish Studies (New York: Association of Jewish Libraries, 1993).

Subjects of Concern

Reference librarians are expected to retrieve information on a variety of multicultural subjects and languages. Idiosyncrasies in treatment of these subjects must be identified if library users are to be assisted in an efficient manner. Peculiarities, inconsistencies, and other problems associated with the Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH) and with several other LCSH-based indexes when retrieving information on Iran and its culture are analyzed in this article, and suggestions for their future improvement are presented.

How Green Is Your Catalog? Access to Environmental Information

Finding needed environmental information by the library users creates some difficulties. This paper evaluates Library of Congress subject headings related to a broad range of environmental topics. The evaluation is limited to entries found in the subject file of the WLN database. The article also presents recommendations and solutions to improve access to green information. Green information/access to environmental information/green catalog/ evaluation of subject headings/Library of Congress Subject Headings.

Ambiguities in the Use of Certain Library of Congress Subject Headings for Form and Genre Access to Moving Image Materials

Some Library of Congress Subject Headings have the potential to be used for either subject or form/genre access. A selection of LCSH, cognates with terms from Moving image materials: Genre terms, was searched in OCLC's Online Union Catalog to determine the degrees to which they were used for each of these two types of access. It was discovered that the set of "subject headings" under study was used for form/genre access between 6% and 99% of the time, with a mean average of just over 50%. The guidance provided to catalogers by information contained in Library of Congress authority records is also discussed.

Access to OSU Theses and Dissertations in Kerr Library

The Oregon State University Library currently assigns Library of Congress subject headings to OSU master's theses and doctoral dissertations. A study was undertaken to determine if this activity is warranted. Two surveys were conducted to learn about the usage of these materials and whether other methods of providing subject access would be advisable. The findings showed that graduate students were the primary users. The major reasons were general research and research for individual theses and dissertations. There were no significant differences in searching patterns between general materials and theses or dissertations. We concluded that full subject analysis remains necessary for effective retrieval.

Degree of agreement in naming objects and concepts for information retrieval

The research described in this article extends work done on human behavior in naming concepts and objects by adapting a methodology developed at Bell Labs and applying it to a library indexing language, the Library of Congress subject headings. The study investigated the representation of users' knowledge (names of objects and concepts), database representation for similar objects and concepts, and degree of agreement among users and between users and information system. Three user groups gave names to 40 stimuli. Names generated were compared with each other and with LC subject headings. Degree of agreement was calculated using similarity measures. The analyses identified patterns of agreement and variability in naming. There was little agreement across people in the names they used to describe texts or illustrations. There was little agreement in the names people use and the names recommended for use by LC, implying that retrieval systems should do more to accommodate common naming behavior. © 1995 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Subject Access to African American Studies Resources in Online Catalogs: Issues and Answers

In 1973 the author conducted a seminal research study which concluded that subject analysis for African American studies resources was seriously inadequate and that the area was neglected in research. Twenty years later the author revisits the issues relative to the adequacy of subject analysis for African American studies resources. Specifically, Library of Congress subject headings are examined against the capabilities of online catalogs to retrieve materials relating to this body of literature. The conclusion drawn is that improvements have been made but that problems continue to exist. Prescriptive measures for resolving the remaining problems are offered.

Mapping "Laborline Thesaurus" Terms to Library of Congress Subject Headings: Implications for Vocabulary Switching

This study is an attempt to assess the potential for automatic vocabulary switching from a thesaurus to Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH). Terms from the Laborline Thesaurus were manually mapped to LCSH, with the degree of match indicated by a code from 1 to 19, representing the nature of the match from exact match to no match. An INMAGIC database for the map was created in order to permit analysis of the patterns of matches to see whether there were regularities that could be exploited to improve the performance of switching interfaces. Searches of the database by match codes reveal ranges of 21.98 percent for no matches to .06 percent for translation matches, with 16.30 percent for exact matches. It is estimated that a maximum of 61 percent, but a more realistic figure of 41.5 percent, of the terms could be successfully switched automatically using currently proposed or available strategies. As long as LCSH is used for subject descriptions in online catalogs, it would appear that intelligent...

Vocabulary Control and the Humanities:

Unlike the sciences and social sciences, humanities research explores concepts which are semantically imprecise and, in many instances, infinitely permutable. Vocabulary control through thesauri, such as the Library of Congress Subject Headings, has had varying degrees of success; however, it was not until computerization of subject authority terms, and the ability to link related and narrower terms in one search command, that access to scholarship was significantly enhanced. The MLA International Bibliography, the primary database for literary research, has been a paramount force in effecting these changes. This article examines the history of the database and how its adaptations - both semantic and technological - have transformed information retrieval within the discipline.

Library of Congress Subject Headings in Jewish Studies: Recent Changes (1992-1994)

The following subject headings of interest to Judaica and Hebraica librarians were culled from Library of Congress Weekly Lists nos. 21–51 (1992) (May 20, 1992–December 16, 1992), 1–51 (1993) (December 30, 1992–December 15, 1993), and 1–5 (1994) (January 5, 1994–February 2, 1994).
 This list continues my earlier one, published in Judaica Librarianship, vol. 7, no. 1–2 (Spring 1992–Winter 1993), pp. 72–78. This list is also an update of my 4th edition of Library of Congress Subject Headings in Jewish Studies (New York: Association of Jewish Libraries, 1993).
 The term "Jewish Studies" is defined broadly and includes Old and New Testament studies, rabbinical literature , Hebrew and other Jewish languages, Hebrew and other Jewish literatures, Jewish history (including history of the Jews in the Diaspora), Israeli history (including current events in the Land of Israel), geography of the Land of Israel, history of the early Near East (Assyria, Babylonia, etc.), and more. The list also includes headings that may be subdivided with the Religious aspects-Judaism subdivision and with the Religious aspects subdivision that may not be subdivided further.

Jewish Archival Holdings in the Five New States of Germany: Creating an Inventory

The Leo Baeck Institute, New York, is creating a database registering the Jewish archival holdings of repositories in the five new states of Germany. The Colloquium about Problems and Issues in Jewish Archives and Historiography in the Five New States of Germany, led to the shaping of a project utilizing the lnstitute's experience in computer-based cataloging, its expertise in the formulation and expansion of a German-language version of Library of Congress subject headings, and the ground-breaking research surveys of Helmut Eschwege. The project, funded by the German Interior Ministry, Section for Religious Affairs, is administered through the Historische Kornmission zu Berlin, under the academic guidance of Prof. Reinhard Rürup, chairman of the LBl's Academic Council in Germany. Further cooperative projects to refine the cataloging of Jewish holdings are in the process of development with the state and local archives in the new states. This interim report comes near the halfway point in a two-year funded project. Planning and technical aspects are described. Preliminary reports of findings illustrate the value of the work.

Cataloging Pierre Bourdieu's Books

The problems of culture and ideology have been studied in phenomenology, structuralism, and historical materialism, but they fail to make connections between theory and social reality. To solve this situation, Pierre Bourdieu proposes the Theory of Practice. This Theory of Practice, together with his notions of Cultural capital, Field, Habitus, Social reproduction, Symbolic power, and so on, are the subjects of 23 books written by Bourdieu up to 1991. Because the purpose of Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH) is to guide users to the subject(s) of a given book, one would expect to find those conceptual categories present in the subject headings assigned to Bourdieu's books. This paper is a study of the subject headings given to those 23 books, and their different translations into English, Spanish, Portuguese, and German, comprising 89 records in OCLC as of December 1991. However, due to lack of availability one book and its respective record were eliminated, reducing the universe to 22 books and ...

Report on the IFLA Satellite Meeting "Subject Indexing:

The IFLA Section on Classification and Indexing sponsored a satellite meeting, Indexing: Principles and Practices in the 90's, August 17-18, 1993, in Lisbon, Portugal. Speakers from 11 different countries described their subject access systems during the session, Systems and Practices Today: An Overview. The second session, Current Issues in Subject Indexing, included four speakers on diverse theoretical topics. The use of precoordinated subject headings in large general catalogs is the norm and received theoretical support. Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH), including adaptations and translations, have been adopted by many countries. The conference underscored the increasing attention that is being paid to international cooperation in the area of verbal subject access.

The Music Thesaurus: Function and Foundations

In her recent article, American Music Libraries and Librarianship: challenges for the Nineties, Mary Wallace Davidson's discussion of focused on the notion of contextual searching. Indeed, contextual searching helps users cope with too much as well as too little information retrieved.(1) However, terms in most standard subject heading lists are arranged alphabetically rather than conceptually. Given the obvious limitations of such an alphabetical sequence, keyword searching has emerged as the most sophisticated form of conjoining like concepts. But keyword searching does not easily, if ever, bring together concepts or broad categories that are inherent to the structure of a thesaurus. For example, categories such as liturgical sacred vocal forms, instrumental forms, or topical songs are built into the music thesaurus. These and similar broad categories are commonly sought but are almost impossible to retrieve by keyword searching. Keyword searching is like shining a flashlight into the black hole of information: searchers see only the spot on which their light shines. By contrast, contextual searching illuminates not only exact concepts but also the environment surrounding those concepts. Contextual searching allows searchers to evaluate how they search and what they find in relation to what they want and what is available. The full benefit of contextual searching in the discipline of music depends, however, on the availability of a comprehensive music thesaurus--a work currently in progress, the foundations of which are discussed briefly here. The actual development of a music thesaurus may have caught some of us by surprise, but the ideas represented in this project have long been in the minds and writings of music librarians and other scholars. Since the turn of the century, the Library of Congress has attempted to provide subject headings for the vast variety of materials in its collection. Perhaps it is both in spite of and because of this valiant effort that specialists have recognized the need for more specific subject access to individual disciplines than LC has been able to supply. As early as 1933, music librarians attempted to standardize their indexing vocabulary by issuing a provisional list of subject headings based on the music card catalogues of the Library of Congress.(2) Two years later, the Music Library Association issued another list, this one containing subject headings for the literature of music used in the dictionary catalogues of LC.(3) Once the lists were distributed, complaints followed. In a 1948 Notes article, Helen E. bush and David Judson Haykin stated that neither of these lists was found both acceptable and adequate.(4) The primary complaint was the lack of form headings in the Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH) to represent musical works. The authors expressed two fundamental concerns about subject headings: the user's approach and the language of the heading. The user's approach to a subject was described in terms of specificity, ranging from relative to exact. The authors suggested that closely connected to the user's approach should be the language of the heading and the cross-references it provided: It helps to bring related headings together and thus indicates to the reader how he may broaden his search in the catalog.(5) Such was the insight of our forerunners! What they were proposing almost fifty years ago: 1. a standard vocabulary for the discipline of music 2. a hierarchical arrangement of that vocabulary 3. a faceted terminology 4. a rich lead-in vocabulary 5. a complete syndetic structure is what we are presenting today as the foundation for the music thesaurus. STANDARD VOCABULARY The vocabulary of music is as diverse as the discipline and its participants. One might well question how it is possible to collect and maintain an exhaustive set of terminology for any subject. …

Library of Congress Subject Headings in Jewish Studies: Recent Changes (1991–1992)

The following subject headings of interest to Judaica and Hebraica librarians were culled from Library of Congress Weekly Lists nos. 30–51 (1991) and 1–20 (1992). This list continues my earlier one, pub­lished in Judaica Librarianship, vol. 6, no 1–2 (Spring 1991–Winter 1992), pp. 81–93. The list is also an update of my 3rd enlarged and updated edition of Library of Congress Subject Headings in Jewish Studies (New York: Association of Jewish Libraries, 1992).

Measuring the Success of Keyword Search Strategy in an Online Catalog

In the present environment of database searching, the research library user who is familiar with the concept of keyword searching with Boolean logic capabilities very often uses this same slrategy in the online catalog rather than looking up the established form of the heading listed in Library of Congress Subject Headings and Library of Congress Name Authorities. Questions that needed to be addressed were: does keyword searching provide a satisfactory substitute for searching by the authorized heading, and what kind of service or disservice do libraries do their users when keyword searching is the only strategy tried? This study determined how many of the nonauthorized headings listed as cross references in an authority system could be found in the bibliographic record. It also examined the necessity for truncation of the keyword term derived from the nonauthorized heading. A weighted system measured the frequency with which individual MARC fields provided matches for the keywords. The results of this st...

Library of Congress Subject Headings Relating to the Social Sciences:

After a general review of the recent movement for substantial change in the patterns and use of LC subject headings, several suggestions are presented for improving LC headings in the area of the social sciences.