Claire,
Thank you for calling our collective attention to "The end of LCSH"
which, as you can imagine, has played rather loudly on cataloging lists
and in realtime conversations. Karen Calhoun's report to LC has
certainly raised a lot of questions, and hackles ... and dreams.
I'm not sure she's said it exactly but I think Karen's point is that
LCSH is more complex than it needs to be. The FAST (Faceted Application
of Subject Terminology) research project at OCLC is looking at how LCSH
could be separated into its constituent parts (topic, geography,
chronology, genre/form). The point is that controlling the words is
important and helpful to the end user; at the same time, determining
whether the geography should precede the chronology or not is a
somewhat different question. For those of that really like browse
indexes, consistent application of order is still important.
Some people are building library records with AAT in headings combining
terms from multiple facets. Most applications that I know of in visual
resources collections use AAT terms individually (more like FAST for
LCSH words).
Sherman Clarke
NYU Libraries
[log in to unmask]
----- Original Message -----
From: Claire Dannenbaum <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Tuesday, May 9, 2006 1:17 pm
Subject: [ARLIS-L] FW: The End of LCSH? (from LJ Academic Newswire)
> Hello ARLIS:
> This is very interesting in light of many issues that came up
> at the ARLIS conference about cataloging visual materials,
> conceptions of shared cataloging, and the use (or lack) of
> authority control.
>
>
> Claire Dannenbaum
>
> ***********************************
>
>
> The End of LCSH? Provocative Report Stirs Up Cataloging Discussion
>
> Should the Library of Congress jettison Library of Congress Subject
> Headings (LCSH), the longstanding professional taxonomy? ...
__________________________________________________________________
Mail submissions to [log in to unmask]
For information about joining ARLIS/NA see:
http://www.arlisna.org/join.html
Send administrative matters (file requests, subscription requests, etc)
to [log in to unmask]
ARLIS-L Archives and subscription maintenance:
http://lsv.uky.edu/archives/arlis-l.html
Questions may be addressed to list owner (Judy Dyki) at: [log in to unmask]
