Subject Headings

A "subject heading" is a descriptive phrase librarians assign to an item to describe its contents or subject. Finding the subject heading that leads to the information you seek is sometimes one of the most difficult aspects of doing library research. The words you think of to describe your topic may not be the same words or in the same order as the words used in the online catalog as subject headings. For example, the catalog uses the subject heading "Automobiles" instead of "Cars," "Betrothal" instead of "Engagement," and the phrase "Indians of North America" instead of the terms "Native Americans" or "American Indians." If you were looking for a Thai cookbook, you would use the subject heading, “Cookery—Thai.”

Looking for Subject Headings
When you are looking for subject headings, search the catalog using keywords first. For example, on the previous page you searched for the keywords visual communication and found many items, some useful and some not so useful. If you clicked on one of the useful items and looked at the bottom of the computer record, you would be able to see that the catalog uses the formal subject heading Visual communication.

At this point, you could click Visual communication to find all the other records that share the same subject heading, Visual communication. By doing so, you would eliminate such books as the picture dictionary retrieved in the example on the previous page.

Sometimes a search can take you a while as you try to think of the right search terms and find the proper subject headings. But it becomes easier with practice. Remember, you can always ask a reference librarian to help you.

Another way to find the appropriate subject heading for your topic is to look it up in the Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH). This five—volume set contains over a million subject headings. Because of cross-references, you can usually find one that will work for you.

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