Changes in LC Subject Headings: Resource for Authority Work

Joyce Ogden out of Olympia, Washington recently sent me an email telling me about her work as the compiler/publisher of Library of Congress Changed Subject Heading Subdivisions. Ms. Ogden, though now retired, has been in the cataloguing world since she graduated from library school in 1954 and, impressively, has worked in a variety of libraries for over 40 years.

In an effort to reach more of us cataloguers and to spread the word about this annual publication, Ms. Ogden asked if I would be willing to post something on my blog for those of you not familiar this handy resource on LC authorities. Of course, I’m more than happy to do just that! So, here’s a little summary about the publication and a link to the website:

The 2010 edition of “Library of Congress Changed Subject Heading
Subdivisions” is now available! Your library will need the latest
edition for your subject catalogers and authority workers to use in
updating older catalog copy. Between “–Addresses, essays, lectures”
and “–Zoning maps”, this year’s fully cumulated and enlarged
compilation now contains over 2,200 changed, discontinued, and
re-arranged LC subdivisions. The new edition includes changes through
July 2010..

Single orders (ISBN 978-0-9726688-8-0) are available for $20.00
per copy postpaid. Send a regular library purchase order to me at
address, 2924 28th AV SE, Olympia WA 98501. (Telephone and e-mail
orders also accepted with your Purchase Order #).

Standing orders (ISSN 1543-916X) may also be placed directly with me or
through your regular dealer such as EBSCO or Blackwell

WorldCat – Increased number of controlled headings

The following information was posted on the MOUG-L listserv by Glenn E. Patten, Director WorldCat Quality Management.

Automated processing is now being used to identify, modify, and control
specific types of personal name headings in WorldCat bibliographic
records. This processing, based on data used to build WorldCat
Identities  and developed by Thom Hickey, Chief Scientist in the OCLC Office of Programs and Research, is projected to control more than 26,000,000 headings over the next few weeks.

In this phase of processing, personal name headings that consist of more
than a single subfield and that match the established form or a
reference in the authority record are being updated (if necessary); the
heading is then controlled and the record is replaced. Records affected
by this processing can be identified by the symbol “OCLCG” in field 040
$d. When a problem is encountered, the record is skipped and reported
for manual intervention.

Dr. Hickey has posted a description of the project on his blog,
Outgoing.

Contextualizing Subject Access Across Digital Collections

This is a bit old (2006) but Joseph Dalton’s presentation on Contextualizing Subject Access Across Digital Collections is still a useful resource to go through. When I reviewed it, it sparked some thinking on my part as to how I can apply Mr. Dalton’s ideas to our non-digital collection. I’m always interested in professionals discussing access issues.  Those of you who work with digital materials may find it especially useful.