Skip to main content
OCLC Support

Who establishes Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH) needed to enable subject strings to control properly?

  1. Last updated
  2. Save as PDF

Answer

Example: For subdivision Colonies, controlling causes the geographic subdivision to switch places with the topical subdivision. 

LCSH entered correctly: Indigenous peoples--France--Colonies

Controlled LCSH: Indigenous peoples--Colonies--France

This combination of place with colonies is an issue within the heading control software for subjects. There is a portion of that process that looks at subdivisions and whether they can be geographically subdivided and then moves the geographic subdivision to that spot. In the case of these headings with colonies where you can further subdivide by a continent like Africa or Asia, we have two geographic subdivisions that are separated by a topical subdivision and the software doesn't get them into the correct order. We've known about this for a while and have a ticket in place with our developers to try and get that fixed, but that has not happened yet. So, once controlling is adjusted we'll be able to go back through and control them correctly. Otherwise, you ought to be able to add such a heading to a record, leave it uncontrolled, and make use of it that way.