Subject Headings

Table of Contents

Change the Subject Project / SUNY Office of Library and Information Services

Last updated February 19, 2024

LIBGUIDE

In March 2022, the SUNY Library Consortium decided to accept the Library of Congress Subject Heading of “Noncitizens” as a replacement for “Aliens.”  SUNY did not accept the LCSH “Illegal immigration” and continues to use the local subject heading “Undocumented immigrants.”  This project page explains the use of SUNY local subject authority records in Alma, Alma normalization rules, and Primo VE Display Norm rules to make these changes.

DEI Subject Heading Enhancements at Deschutes Public Library / Emily O’Neal & Casey Cheney

ALA Core Authority Control Interest Group presentations, September 2022

An overview of a subject heading enhancement project that to replace or to add additional subject terms from the ERIC thesaurus, Homosaurus, and Backstage Library Works’ Indigenous Authority File

Did Libraries “Change the Subject”? What Happened, What Didn’t, & What’s Ahead / Jill Baron, Violet Fox, Tina Gross

NETSL 2023 Annual Spring Conference, April 2023

recording & slides

On November 12, 2021, the Library of Congress (LC) announced via a press release issued by the American Library Association that it would update the cataloging subject headings “Aliens” and “Illegal aliens” to “Noncitizens” and “Illegal immigration.” Three library workers, Baron, Fox, and Gross, organized focus groups in November-December 2021 in order to find out how library workers felt about the change.  This session reports on the findings of the focus groups and the wider movement to drop the ‘I’ word in our library catalogs.

Evolution of a Subject Heading: The Story Continues / Anna M. Ferris

in Library Resources & Technical Services. Vol. 66, no. 2 (April 2022)

article

In 2018, the author published a paper that describes the process by which catalogers at Program for Cooperative Cataloging (PCC) institutions create and propose new subject headings for inclusion in the Library of Congress Subject Heading (LCSH) controlled vocabulary. In a related vein, this paper describes the process of proposing a revision to an established subject heading via the Subject Authority Cooperative (SACO) Program’s Subject Heading Proposal System. Two separate proposals are presented: one to revise the authority record for the subject heading, Concentration camps [150] by removing the cross reference, Internment camps [450], from that authority record; the other proposal is to establish the cross reference as an authorized subject heading. The reasons for revising subject headings are explored, and a detailed review of the revision process using the SACO Proposal System is presented for the benefit of other catalogers seeking to make changes to subject headings they encounter in their own collections. 

Mapping LCSH to Alternative Subject Headings / Northwestern University Libraries

May 2021

controlled vocabulary

An ongoing list of local authorities mapped from LCSH, instructions for creating local authorities in Alma, MARC authority record files, and some normalization rules for batch updating headings in bibliographic records.

On Overlap and Otherness: A Comparison of Three Vocabularies’ Approaches to LGBTQ+ Identity / Brian Dobreski, Karen Snow, Heather Moulaison-Sandy 

in  Cataloging & Classification Quarterly. Vol. 60, issue 6-7 (2022)

paywall

article

Bibliographic records can include information from controlled vocabularies to capture identities about individuals, especially about authors or intended audiences; personal name authority records can also contain information about identity. Employing a systematic analysis of the overlap of the Homosaurus, Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH), and Library of Congress Demographic Group Terms (LCDGT), this article explores the extent to which LGBTQ+ identities are represented in the three vocabularies. Despite LCSH’s long, iterative history of development and the faceted, post-coordinate nature of LCDGT, neither vocabulary was found to be adequate in covering the complex, LGBTQ+ identities represented in the Homosaurus.

A Path for Moving Forward with Local Changes to the Library of Congress Subject Heading “Illegal Aliens” / Kelsey George, Erin Grant, Cate Kellett, Karl Pettitt

in Library Resources & Technical Services. Vol. 65, no. 3 (July 2021)

article

In June 2019, a new SAC Working Group on Alternatives to LCSH “Illegal aliens” was convened to survey local institutions implementing changes to the subject heading and to chart a path for librarians to address the subject heading at the organizational level. At the 2020 ALA Annual Conference, the working group presented their report. This paper builds upon that report and details next steps both for the working group and library professionals who plan to implement changes at their own organizations.

Problem LCSH

controlled vocabulary

A crowdsourced compilation of Library of Congress Subject Headings that some consider problematic for a variety of resources.  The list includes the current LCSH and the corresponding preferred term with comments that explain why a term is problematic and in some cases, links to further information.  The list is downloadable in CSV, Excel, and PDF file formats.

Report of the SAC Working Group on Alternatives to LCSH “Illegal Aliens” / Fox, Violet ; Bennyhoff, Nick; George, Kelsey; Grant, Erin; Gross, Tina; Kellett, Cate; Kirkland, Arden; Jurgemeyer, Karla; Perera, Treshani; Pettitt, Karl; Piascik, Jeanne; Robinson, Lisa; Tomaras, Deborah

in ALA Institutional Repository, June 2020

report

The SAC Working Group on Alternatives to LCSH “Illegal aliens” was formed to help libraries make revisions to their own catalogs using alternatives to LCSH. This report includes a timeline of the steps related to the eventual change of LCSH “Illegal aliens” and the results of a survey on what libraries are doing to address the continued use of LCSH “Illegal aliens.”

“Words that Hurt: A Documentary” / Brooklyn Public Library

July 2022

documentary film

A short documentary film focusing on reactions and thoughts from areas residents to Brooklyn Public Library’s project to replace the LCSH “Illegal Alien” in its catalog