K.A. Bayruns asked some questions in regard to the "LC Subject Headings
of interest to art librarians from May 2005 weekly lists" message on
ARLIS-L. The questions seemed appropriate to pass on to Millicent
Wewerka, the art subject specialist at the Cataloging Policy and
Support Office at LC. She responded:
To: Sherman Clarke
From: Milicent Wewerka, CPSO, LC
Sherman: Below is my explanation of issues relating to the questions
raised in the ARLIS message. Please feel free to post this on the
ARLIS list.
Britannia (Symbolic character); Marianne (French emblem); Snake devices
(American colonies); and other similar headings. These are not new
headings. Their appearance on the weekly list is due to a revision of
the reference structure. The individual headings were not considered
for revision. The qualifier (French emblem) on the heading for
Marianne is due to the official status of this symbol as a
representation of France.
The heading He-Man figures is based on the pattern for G.I. Joe
figures; Star Wars figures; and other such headings. The work was
limited to the figures for the He-Man character.
The heading Alien films has a scope note limiting its use to the films
with the Ellen Ripley character.
----------------- End of quoted message ---------------
Millie's explanations point out the importance of scope notes and other
information that may be in an authority record, including the date it
was produced. Any subject vocabulary changes over time and this will
present either inconsistencies or uncontrollable maintenance.
Unfortunately, the user suffers in either case. And scope notes may not
be available to the user in our opacs.
LCSH is available in the LC heading browse search at
http://authorities.loc.gov
Sherman Clarke, NYU Libraries - [log in to unmask]
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