THE POWER OF DESCRIPTION:
Unique Subject Headings and the Evolving
Catalog
Bill Schultz, Jr.
Eastern Illinois University
DO YOU EVER WONDER…
01/29/15 (School of Visual
Arts, NY)
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Q: I'm trying to catalog a
book with no copy in
OCLC - it's about applying
Alcoholics Anonymous
teachings and principles to
"the disease of racism". I
usually don't deal with
books on this subject
matter and am having a
hard
time. Does anyone have
any suggestions for this?
A: Twelve-step programs
4/15/15: (Poplar Creek
Public Library, IL)

So, I was just putting
together a record for a
Mental Health Board's
resource guide and was
assigning subject
headings. And I began to
question -650 0 Family violence $x
Services for
Services for *prevention*
is implied by this,
right? Or am I overthinking this?
ANATOMY OF CATALOG RECORD
The Myth of Emptiness and the New American
Literature of Place by Wendy Harding
Magic Search: Getting the Best Results From Your Catalog and
Beyond / Rebecca Kornegay, Heidi Buchanan, and Hidlegard B. Morgan
“Effective use of subdivisions in searching is
essential in a time when libraries talk constantly
about the need to optimize resource discovery for
their patrons.” (Kornegay, et al. V)
 Focuses on subdivisions
 Inspiration for…

DEVELOPING MY OWN COLLECTION

My background
Special collections
 Unique items
 Specialized collections


Getting a “feel” for what is useful
Deceptively vague topics (Twelve-step programs)
 Specific audiences/genres (High school students’
writings)


Currently...look to at least enhance everything
we touch
Control headings
 Add headings

THE BIG PICTURE…SEARCH IN THE 21ST
CENTURY…

More and more piled in
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Books, Media, Articles, Digital collections, etc.
Single search boxes
Easy to be imprecise
 “Although libraries may be inclined to design their
home pages around a single search box to give an
impression of simplicity, inadequate functionality
and resource coverage may frustrate users and hide
significant portions of library resources and services”
(Lown, Sierra and Boyer 2013)

IMPORTANCE FOR USERS
Is “discovery” a bad word?
 Powerful combination of OPAC capabilities and
use of subject headings
 Kornegay suggests reference librarians learn 25
most popular subdivisions

SPIDAL AND CUMMINGS (2014)

2005 study by Gross and Taylor


36% of results for a given research question would
not be found if just keywords were not found in
subject headings
2011 study (Spidal and Cummings)
Survey of reference/instruction librarians about
instruction
 33% rarely or never mentioned subject headings in
sessions
 29% sometimes mentioned
 14.5% always mentioned

NEED FOR CONTROL…
CONTROLLED VOCABULARIES AND
INFORMATION OVERLOAD
Discovery systems – limits by facet (geographic,
topic, chronologic, etc.)
 Importance in Music


Recital recordings
Inherent value...captured in ways that we may
not even see yet as catalogs and things like
Bibframe evolve
 Need for description, precision

AND ON TO SOME SELECTIONS…
ALMOST TOO OBVIOUS…
Altered states of consciousness
 Big Churches
 Burnout (Psychology)
 Curiosities and wonders
 Eccentrics and eccentricities
 Problem youth
 Retro (Style)

THE UNEXPECTED…
African American wit
and humor
 Indians in literature
 Jewish clothing and
dress
 Mathematics in
nature
 Medicine, magic,
mystic, and spagyric

http://sculptsite.com/Archive/sculpture-headlines-Patrick-Dougherty-05-04-10.html
IMPRESSIVELY PRECISE…
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American dream in art
Creative ability in science
|x Effects of technological
innovations on
Japanese American
baseball players
Life change events
Privatization in education
Reflective teaching
Refuse and refuse disposal
in motion pictures
Sociology of disability
Text messaging (cell phone
systems) and traffic
accidents
NeedleHaystack-photo-courtesy-of-Flickr-user-HikingArtist_com
A FEW CALL NUMBERS…

AC8 (Collections of essays – individual authors)

E162-E169 (U.S. description and travel by period)

GT2400 (Manners and customs – relative to private life General)


GT2868 (Manners and customs – relative to private life - Bread)
PN4888.O73 (Journalism – Special - Op-ed)
HOW DO I USE THESE?
Alphabetical including subdivision
 Small enough to be a general reference



150 items
Form of a heading leads to others of a similar
nature
Sociology of (Disability)
 Relations with women
 Violence in sports


From “Tennessee, East” came…
NORTH CAROLINA, WESTERN
http://www.ashevilleguidebook.com/wnc/images/Fall%20in%20the%20mountains.jpg
IN CLOSING…
We need description more than ever
 Metadata is part of the foundation for access
 Presence of metadata is key

Filtering
 Tagging
 Refining

WORKS CITED
Kornegay, Rebecca S., Buchanan, Heidi E. Morgan, and Hildegard B. Magic Search:
Getting The Best Results From Your Catalog And Beyond. Chicago:
American Library Association, 2009. Print.
Lewandowski, Dirk. "Search Engine User Behaviour: How Can Users Be Guided To
Quality Content?." Information Services & Use 28.3/4 (2008): 261-268.
Library, Information Science & Technology Abstracts. Web. 24 Apr. 2015.
Lown, Cory, Tito Sierra, and Josh Boyer. “How Users Search the Library from a Single
Search Box.” College & Research Libraries 74, no. 3 (2013): 227-241.
Spidal, Debra, and Lara Ursin Cummings. "Teaching The Use Of Library Of Congress
Subject Headings As A Research Strategy For Undergraduate Students."
College & Undergraduate Libraries 21.2 (2014): 155-176. Library,
Information Science & Technology Abstracts. Web. 17 May 2015.
Swanson, Troy A., and Jeremy Green. "Why We Are Not Google: Lessons From A
Library Web Site Usability Study." Journal Of Academic Librarianship 37.3
(2011): 222-229. Library Literature & Information Science Index (H.W.
Wilson). Web. 1 May 2015.
THANK YOU!
Questions?
William (Bill) Schultz, Jr.
Eastern Illinois University
wnschultz@eiu.edu