Subject Headings

Minerva primarily uses Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH).

This page provides some quick reference info about LCSH: where to find out about it, some common vocabulary, and the general structure of the vocabulary.  Other subject vocabularies that may appear in Minerva are mentioned at the end of the page.  Only Library of Congress Children’s subjects, MESH (Medical), and gsfad (genre) are approved for Minerva records.  Others (like bisac (trade)) should be removed when brought in or by any cataloger that finds them.

Looking up LCSH information

visit: http://www.loc.gov/aba/publications/FreeLCSH/freelcsh.html

Library of Congress Subject Headings are identified by the second indicator 0 in a subject field:

  • 650 _0

The entire vocabulary is available for free online, as downloadable (and searchable) PDF files.  An introduction is also included on the page to help orient the user.  When searching the vocabularies, it helps to know the following abbreviations and descriptions from “Introduction to Library of Congress Subject Headings”

USE – Use another subject instead of this one

  • Cars (Automobiles)
    • USE Automobiles

UF – Use for – Use bold subject in place of this one

  • Automobiles
    • UF Cars (Automobiles)
  • Raw Foods
    • UF Food, Raw [Former heading]
    •        Uncooked Food

BT – Broader Topic – points out a broader subject that may be (more) relevant

  • Exterior Lighting
    • BT Lighting

NT – Narrower Topic – points out a narrower subject that may be (more) relevant

  • Lighting
    • NT Exterior Lighting

RT – Related Term – an associated subject (but not in the same hierarchy)

  • Ornithology
    • RT Birds
  • Birds
    • RT Ornithology

SUBDIVISIONS

the things that come after the dashes: topical, form, chronological, geographical

Topical – “limit the concept expressed by the heading to a special subtopic”

  • Corn–Harvesting, Women–Employment

Chronological – indicate the time period

  • Philosophy, Frehcn–18th century
  • Art, Chinese–To 221 B.C.

Geographic – indicate locations. List tells whether geographic subdivisions are allowed with (May Subd Geog) or (Not Subd Geog)

Form – “used to indicate the form in which the material on a subject is organized and presented (e.g., congresses, dictionaries, periodicals). . . what a work is rather than what it is about.” Always last element in a subject string

  • Massachusetts–History–Colonial period, ca.1600-1775–Juvenile Literature
  • United States–History–Periodicals

 

Examples of other types of subjects :

MESH -(used in Minerva)- Medical Subject Headings.  These should be left in Minerva properly identified with their second indicator 2.
https://www.nlm.nih.gov/mesh/

  • 650 _2

GSFAD -(used in Minerva)- for indicating some Genre headings. These should be left in Minerva, properly identified with their second indicator 7 and the subfield 2.  See Genre Headings page for more details.

  • 655 _7 |2gsfad

Bisac -(not used in Minerva)- Subject headings created mainly by the publishing and book sales trade.  These should be removed from Minerva records if found.
http://www.bisg.org/activities-programs/activity.php?n=d&id=47&cid=20

  • 650 _7 NATURE / Animals / Mammals.|2BISAC
  • 650 _4 NATURE / Animals / Mammals.

They are often mis-identified with the second indicator 0, as if they were LCSH subjects, but they often look different and can be caught by eyeballing the record.