Using the Library of Congress Terms for the Subject Field
There are two worksheets, LikelyTerms and TermsQuickSheet, in the LikelyTerms
spreadsheet.
Worksheet “LikelyTerms” has the terms from the Library of Congress (LOC) subject list,
which we may come across in personal histories, images, and other records during this
project. LOC subject terms that correspond with the Crossroads on the Columbia
themes are indicated with a darker green background fill.
1. The first column is the Subject Term. To facilitate proper sorting, “(a)” and
other such letters have been added, but these are not part of the Library of
Congress subject words. A light green background fill was added to the first
instance of a subject term to help spot them. Please just ignore the (a) entries..
2. The second column is for facet breakout. Examples would be “Stevens County”
or “World War, 1939-1945”.
3. Depending on the specific subject term, there are six other possible types of
terms.
1) SN refers to Search Notes. It guides researchers on how to search for this
term. It may provide clues on the item you are recording.
2) UF refers to unacceptable terms. These terms can be older, no longer used
terms, alternate spellings, or out of fashion words. A pale rose color
background fill was added to these terms to make them easier to spot.
3) BT refers to Broader Terms. These may or may not have been left in the
LikelyTerms worksheet. They give you clues to other words that might help
describe the item being recorded. Usually, you are requested to use the
narrower term to enhance search results.
4) NT refers to Narrower Terms. These are more precise terms for an item, for
example Apple instead of Fruit.
5) RT refers to Related Terms. These are terms that have a relationship with
the word, but are neither specifically broader nor narrower than the subject
term.
6) CN refers to Catalog Notes. This will guide you to determining which like
terms to use.
7) There are thousands of terms that are not listed in this worksheet. If you
can’t find the word you think best applies to the text or image you are
recording, just put it down. It will be up to the Internet Technicians to
finalize this.
4. The spreadsheet only has seven rows. This is intended to help you see the
terms without having to slide the field of view from left to right. My hope is it
will be easier to use the Ctrl-F (Find) function to look for words with this
presentation format.
5. Not included on this worksheet are the many types of photographs and prints
listed. If an item is described as having been created with a specific technique
include that term in the subject. Unless you are a historical photograph or art
researcher, it is probably best we don’t guess as to the process used to make it.
The second worksheet, TermsQuickSheet, is a more compact list. Many terms were not
carried over to this list, as they are broader terms and we will be using the narrower
ones, or they are less likely to be referenced about a photograph. Broader Terms and
Related Terms and a number of the Notes were dropped to make using this sheet
easier. Narrower terms for items that just don’t exist in Stevens County were dropped
out. These were left in the LikelyTerms worksheet, to give you context for the term,
but are more apt to get in the way here. It should be easier to find terms in this
worksheet with the “Find” function as many of the duplicate terms that showed up as
Broader or Related have been removed. For some of the terms, an Unacceptable term
was left on this worksheet, because that is the term many of us know the item as and
sometimes a Broader Term was kept to clarify the meaning of the term. If you find a
term from the LikelyTerms worksheet is needed, just go ahead and copy and paste it
over to the TermsQuickSheet.
The Internet Technicians for the project are required to use Library of Congress terms
for the Subject field, but for the volunteers these modified lists are there to help you
describe a document, text, or photograph. It is desirable to use at least three subject
terms for an image, if at all possible. Use more if it is warranted.