Tag: subject analysis

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We are what we are / Memento Films International presents in association with Belladonna Productions, Uncorked Productions, and the Zoo ; written by Nick Damici and Jim Mickle ; directed by Jim Mickle ; produced by Rodrigo Bellott, Andrew D. Corkin, Linda Moran, Nicholas Shumaker, Jack Turner. (OCLC #1048571296)

Somebody asked recently on the TCMMF group how people felt about spoilers in subject headings. I am unsure.

For example, the summary of this movie (in the 520) hints that something sketchy is going on:

Behind closed doors, patriarch Frank rules his family with a rigorous fervor, determined to keep his ancestral customs intact at any cost.

But the subject headings are much more direct:

    650 _0 ǂa Serial murderers ǂv Drama.
    650 _0 ǂa Cannibalism ǂv Drama.
    650 _0 ǂa Family secrets ǂv Drama.

What do you think? Do these headings aid researchers? Or spoil the story for film fans? Does it depend on the type of library?

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Легенды и предания украины / автор-составитель Игорь Николаевич Кузнецов (OCLC #893118886)

Both “Ukraine–Folklore” and “Folklore–Ukraine” are valid subject headings – so which is appropriate in this case?

Folklore is a subject heading for folklore texts, which may be subdivided geographically for the source of the folklore.

–Folklore is a free-floating subdivision “for collections of folklore texts on those subjects or for works about those subjects as themes in folklore”

We assigned Folklore–Ukraine to this text; the other formation is much less common!

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Les cités magiques / Jean-Michel Angebert. (OCLC #1503805)

This book describes seven magic cities, whose names are not in the title of the book. We would also not generally include all of them as subject headings, because of the rule of three; they are summarized by the single heading:

650 _0 ǂa Cities and towns ǂv Miscellanea.

For subject access by individual cities, our best bet is to count on keyword access via the contents note:

505 0_ ǂa Thèbes, cité royale -- Jérusalem, cité sainte -- Rome, la
    ville éternelle -- Prague, la ville aux cent tours -- Machu-Pichu,
    la cité perdue des Andes -- Bénarès, la ville sacrée -- Lhassa et
    son double : Schamballah.
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Conoco’s tar sands development in South Texas / Michael W. Britton. (OCLC #898578225)

This title is about tar sands in South Texas. The authorized heading Oil sands can be subdivided geographically, and a geographic term is available for South Texas (South Texas), so we can assign the heading.

650 _0 ǂa Oil sands ǂz Texas, South.

I was surprised that OCLC’s Generate043 macro did not trigger based on this heading, so added the 043 for Texas by hand:

043 __ ǂa n-us-tx

I wonder which other headings are not being detected? Code for the macro is available from Connexion’s Tools -> Macros, and though it is over 2000 lines long, much of it is data, so it seems reasonable to read – maybe I’ll bring this one next time it’s my turn to host Code Club.

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The half-blood : a cultural symbol in 19th century American fiction / William J. Scheick. (OCLC #897378817)

The LCSH subject heading for Native Americans in the United States is “Indians of North America”, so this title has the heading:

650 _0 ǂa Indians of North America ǂx Mixed descent.

The subject heading “Indians” has the scope note:

Here are entered works on the aboriginal peoples of the Western Hemisphere, including Eskimos. Works on the inhabitants of India in general are entered under East Indians.

My colleague Karen Nuckolls is publishing an update to her 1994 article “The Library of Congress Subject Heading Shortfall” which mentions this as an example of a term which needed (and apparently still needs) to be updated.

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The longest shot : Lil E. Tee and the Kentucky Derby / John Eisenberg. (OCLC #897135902)

The subject heading for the racehorse Lil E. Tee (winner of the 1992 Kentucky Derby) was established as a (topical) subject heading:

    150  Lil E. Tee (Race horse)

which is odd. The section of the Subject Heading Manual on “Establishing Certain Entities in the Name or Subject Authority File” says that Named Animals should be established as a name authority, specifically in a 100. The record was entered in 1995, around the time that these distinctions were in flux.

A search in the name authority file for “race horse” only produced about 13 headings of that form (like Man o’ War (Race horse), 1917-1947), but the search for that phrase in topical headings produced close to a hundred headings (including Barbaro (Race horse), born 2003), so there is still inconsistency in how these are being established.

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Surrender or starve : travels in Sudan, Eritrea, Somalia, and Ethiopia / Robert D. Kaplan. (OCLC #52381251)

Though this title is about four different countries, there are more than three of them, so by the rule of three, we include only their broader geographic subject heading:

651 _0 ǂa Africa, Northeast ǂx Description and travel.

The names of the countries are in the title; as they are available from a keyword search, not much subject access is lost by not also including them as subjects.

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A public service announcement from Deb, in Troublesome Catalogers and Magical Metadata Fairies.

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Hold the fort; the story of a song from the sawdust trail to the picket line / by Paul J. Scheips. (OCLC #172805)

This piece is about a particular song, so an access point for that title appears as a subject in the record:

600 10 ǂa Bliss, P. P. ǂq (Philip Paul), ǂd 1838-1876.
    ǂt Hold the fort.

The free-floating subdivision “History and criticism” is only for use under general literary, music, film, television program, and video recording form headings (not individual titles), so we can use it in an additional heading:

650 _0 ǂa Songs ǂz United States ǂx History and criticism.

Note the difference from the similar-sounding “Criticism and interpretation”, which is for use under people.

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Cortázar y París : Último round / Izara Batres. (OCLC #879865498)

This book is about another book: Ultimo round / Julio Cortazar. In a FRBR environment, we could link these related works with designators such as described in/description of, but in MARC records, we record this relationship with subject headings:

    600 10 ǂa Cortázar, Julio. ǂt Último round
    600 10 ǂa Cortázar, Julio ǂx Criticism and interpretation.

The free-floating subdivision “Criticism and interpretation” is only for use under people, so we must use both headings to record the criticism aspect and the specific title.

The call number for a commentary on an individual work is constructed by appending ‘3’ to the last cutter in the call number for the original work, in this case:

    PQ7797.C7145 U43 2014