WHAT ARE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS SUBJECT HEADINGS?

Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH) are the "official" subjects used by the Library of Congress in their card catalog (and now their online catalog). Other libraries in the United States use this list as their guide to subject headings for their catalogs. That way, you know that what you use as a subject in one library will be used as a subject in the next library. It makes your searching much easier. This list is also used by the Pierce College Library. When you search through our library catalog, you can choose to do a "subject search". Those subjects come directly from LCSH. You will find LCSH (4 volumes of large red books) near the online catalog computers.  or see our QuickTips page about the Library of Congress Classification System.

SYMBOLS AND ABBREVIATIONS

Various symbols and abbreviations are used in LCSH to help you narrow or broaden your searches. Under official subject headings, you'll see subdivisions that you can use to narrow or broaden your search.

Abbreviation	Meaning	Read as...
NT	"narrower terms"	use this to narrow your search, make it more specific
BT	"broader terms"	use this to broaden your search, make it more general
RT	"related terms"	other headings which are ok to use; related terms do not necessarily broaden or narrow your search, they are simply related to your subject in some way.
UF	"used for"	DO NOT USE THESE TERMS; UF terms have to do with cross references and cannot be used as subject headings.

SAMPLE ENTRY FROM LCSH

         Sleep disorders
            [RC547]
           UF    Disorders of sleep
           BT    Nervous system--Diseases
           NT    Dreams
                  Hypersomnia
                  Insomnia
                  Narcolepsy

[RC547] is the Library of Congress call number area where you'll find books on this topic. If you would like to just browse our library shelves for books about sleep disorders, you can just write down this number, and go find the books that begin with the call number RC547.

UF stands for "used for" and tells you that the subject heading "Sleep disorders" is used as the official subject heading for the phrase "disorders of sleep"

BT stands for "broader term(s)" and tells you that "Nervous system--Diseases" is a more broad, general term for the main subject heading.

NT stands for "narrower term(s)" and tells you that the terms listed here are narrower, more specific than the main subject heading.

Although the names of many cities and people (i.e. proper nouns) do not appear in LCSH, you can use them as subject headings.