An Amicable Divorce: Programmatic Derivation of Faceted Data from Library of Congress Subject Headings for Music

Abstract

Music catalogers have embraced in current cataloging the flexibility, intuitiveness, and expressivity afforded by the Library of Congress’s new faceted vocabularies. In order to realize the full benefits to discovery these vocabularies offer, however, methods for programmatically assigning faceted terms retrospectively to existing metadata for music resources are required in order to mitigate the costs of manual enhancement of legacy data. This article describes efforts to repurpose existing Library of Congress Subject Headings as faceted data, taking advantage of recent developments in the MARC 21 formats. Limitations inherent to this process and ideas for future directions are described.     

Chronology in Cataloging Chinese Archaeological Reports: An Investigation of Cultural Bias in the Library of Congress Classification

This article first examines cultural limitations embedded in the Eurocentric Library of Congress Classification and calls for catalogers' sensitivity to authors' cultural background while cataloging the Bronze China archaeological materials. It then discusses the ambiguity in Library of Congress Subject Headings Manual H1225 and presents a debate on the necessity of including Chinese dynastic information in constructing subject headings through comparing facets extracted from this manual and title patterns of Chinese archaeological reports. Furthermore, this article elaborates the significance of the chronological issue from three different perspectives: Faceted Application of Subject Terminology headings, local library users' need, and next-generation catalogs.     

Library of Congress Subject Headings

No abstract available for this article.     

Transcending Library Catalogs: A Comparative Study of Controlled Terms in Library of Congress Subject Headings and User-Generated Tags in LibraryThing for Transgender Books

Perhaps the greatest power of folksonomies, especially when set against controlled vocabularies like the Library of Congress Subject Headings, lies in their capacity to empower user communities to name their own resources in their own terms. This article analyzes the potential and limitations of both folksonomies and controlled vocabularies for transgender materials by analyzing the subject headings in WorldCat records and the user-generated tags in LibraryThing for books with transgender themes. A close examination of the subject headings and tags for twenty books on transgender topics reveals a disconnect between the language used by people who own these books and the terms authorized by the Library of Congress and assigned by catalogers to describe and organize transgender-themed books. The terms most commonly assigned by users are far less common or non-existent in WorldCat. The folksonomies also provide spaces for a multiplicity of representations, including a range of gender expressions, whereas these entities are often absent from Library of Congress Subject Headings and WorldCat. While folksonomies are democratic and respond quickly to shifts and expansions of categories, they lack control and may inhibit findability of resources. Neither tags nor subject headings are perfect systems by themselves, but they may complement each other well in library catalogs. Bringing users’ voices into catalogs through the addition of tags might greatly enhance organization, representation, and retrieval of transgender-themed materials.     

“There was Sex but no Sexuality*:” Critical Cataloging and the Classification of Asexuality in LCSH

Abstract

This paper examines the addition of “asexuality” to the Library of Congress Subject Headings as a case study from which to examine the critical cataloging movement. Beginning with a review of some of the theoretical and practical issues around subject access for minoritized and marginalized sexualities, this paper then contextualizes, historicizes, and introduces the critical cataloging movement to the literature, situating it within a larger and longer history of radical cataloging. It will define critical cataloging as a social justice-oriented style of radical cataloging that places an emphasis on radical empathy, outreach work, and recognizes the importance of information maintenance and care. This paper introduces the concept of “catalogic warrant” to characterize the process of “reading” the catalog to examine the harm or benefit of terms on users and the wider library community.     

Expand,Humanize, Simplify: An Interview with Sandy Berman

In this interview, Sanford (“Sandy”) Berman discusses his career and his efforts to promote responsive, user-friendly cataloging practices over uncritical deference to prevailing standards. Topics covered include his work at Hennepin County Library, his thoughts on the campaign to change the subject heading “Illegal aliens,” his ongoing practice of proposing new Library of Congress Subject Headings, and his relationship with the Library of Congress.     

Uniqueness Matters: Author-Supplied Keywords and LCSH in the Library Catalog

This study concerns the overlap between author-supplied keywords and Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH) in Electronic Thesis and Dissertation (ETD) bibliographic records in the library catalog. The article provides a discussion on uniqueness, matching, and complementariness based on a replication of Strader's methodology and rubric from a 2009 article. Findings support most of Strader's conclusions, including the complementary nature of keywords and controlled vocabularies. Both keywords and LCSH provide unique terms that enhance access. Researchers also broke new ground regarding partial matching, particularly within LCSH. The fact that uniqueness matters has implications for the continued use of LCSH, for LCSH maintenance, and for further research.     

Teaching the Use of Library of Congress Subject Headings as a Research Strategy for Undergraduate Students

Library of Congress subject headings (LCSH) are such a powerful tool that ACRL recognized them in the Information Literacy Competency Standards. The Standards state that the information-literate student should be able to select discipline-specific controlled vocabulary and construct a search strategy. The authors, recognizing this often-forgotten Standard, surveyed instruction librarians to determine if LCSH are still taught in the library instruction classroom, and, if so, which strategies are used for identifying relevant subject headings. Survey results were mixed. While teaching the use of controlled vocabulary has clearly fallen from popularity, it is still recognized as a valuable tool.     

SACO: Past,Present, and Future

Abstract

This article discusses the history and development of the SACO (Subject Authority Cooperative) Program of the Program for Cooperative Cataloging (PCC). The current proposal process is examined. The University of California, Davis Library is presented as a participating institution, with some forward-looking utilization of Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH).     

Correlations between Title Keywords and LCSH Terms and Their Implication for Fast-Track Cataloging

Budget pressures and increased workloads are causing cataloging departments to look for ways to capitalize on the resources they have. This study applied a rubric to books in the areas of religion, theology, and biblical studies to determine if content-level designation or publisher are good indicators of which books could be fast-tracked through cataloging without compromising quality. Findings indicated that while neither content-level nor publisher were indicators of materials suited to fast-track cataloging, Bible commentaries had a 97% match rate giving a higher level of confidence to fast-track cataloging of these materials.     

Genre Terms for Chemistry and Engineering: Not Just for Literature Anymore

ABSTRACT

We developed a project utilizing the local form/genre heading, “property data,” and specific subheadings to help chemists, engineers, and those librarians assisting them to more easily locate library resources containing chemical and physical properties of substances. This article describes the project and examines possibilities for improving access to physical sciences literature in relation to Library of Congress Subject Headings and ongoing developments in authority records for form/genre terms. It also introduces functionality of such headings in the new “next generation” catalogs.     

美国国会图书馆地图收藏服务的调查研究

由于地图在国家的经济、国防、文化、教育等各方面有着十分重要的作用,世界上许多重要的图书馆,尤其是国家级图书馆,都非常重视对地图的收藏。美国国会图书馆极其重视对地图资料的收藏与服务,在采、编、藏、阅及地图数字化等各方面都取得了非凡的成绩。地图作为图书馆的一种特色藏品,其收藏与服务实际上是一个综合的系统工程。     

美国《国会图书馆标题表》的最新版本

The paper reviews briefly the concise history of the publication of the LC Subject Headings by means of emphatically analysing the macroscopic and microscopic structure of LCSH 11-14 and making a quantization statistics and analysis of the latest edition.Also,a pertinent review for and an approach to the way forward of the LC Subject Headings with a list of strong and weak points are given which are of pratical and theoretical significances for reference to the subject indexing.3 tabs.9 refs.     

An Expert System for Determining Title Proper in Descriptive Cataloging

The human process of determining bibliographic data from title pages of monographs is complex, yet systematic. This paper investigates the intellectual process involved, in conceptual and logical levels, by proposing a model of the expert system for determining title proper as the first element of the first area in ISBD. It assumes that the title page of a monograph consists of more than one block of character or graphic representation. Each block has its physical and content characteristics and can be separated from other blocks by separators. Three categories of expert knowledge are identified, and the system model is discussed along with its individual system component. It applies the "list" concept for the system data structure and addresses the potentiality of this conceptual model.     

《美国国会图书馆分类法》与《中图法》的比较

论文从标记符号、复分表和体系结构三个方面对《中图法》与《美国国会图书馆分类法》进行了对比研究，并给出了两者的类号对照表。