Using Library of Congress
Subject Headings
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH) are a part of
the Library of Congress Classification, a system of grouping books with
similar topics. Subject headings are those words assigned to books that
describe what the book is about. You can use the Library of Congress Subject
Headings to help choose appropriate words or subject headings to search
in the Online Catalog,
and other electronic databases.
Suppose that you are writing a paper about sports. Look
up "sports" in the Library of Congress Subject Headings
books, located by the information desk. You will see this:
Sports (May Subd Geog)
UF Field sports
Pastimes
Recreations
BT Recreation
RT Athletics
Games
Outdoor life
Physical education and training
SA subdivision Sports under military
services, e.g., United States. Army
--Sports; and under ethnic groups
NT Aeronautical sports
Age and sports
Aquatic sports
Ball games
[etc...]
Translation:
"May Subd Geog" (next to the word "Sports") stands for "may
be subdivided geographically." In other words, it might be possible to
search specifically for aquatic sports in California, for example. This
subject search could be used in the catalog
by keying in the terms "aquatic sports California."
- UF stands for "Used For." This means that the subject heading
"sports" is used to find information on "field sports," "past times,"
and "recreations" as well as "sports."
-
BT stands for "Broader Terms." In the example
above, "BT Recreation" signifies that the term "recreation" can be
used in a subject search if the term "sports" is too specific for
your needs. The broader term "recreation" is more general than
the term "sports."
-
RT stands for "Related Terms." These terms
are neither broader or narrower than the term "sports," but may be
used to find more material related to sports.
-
SA stands for "See Also." This reference gives
hints for finding information related to your topic within other subject
headings.
-
NT stands for "Narrower Terms." These are subject
search terms that can be used to find material on more specific topics,
or sub-topics of the subject "sports."
-
Other terms can be tagged on to the subject headings
to narrow your subject search. These terms are preceded by dashed
lines (--) in LCSH. For example, under sports some of the subtopics
provided are "--Accidents," "--Economic aspects," and "--Rules."
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