Library of Congress subject headings 

Books, journals, databases, and other material cataloged for the St. Thomas Libraries are assigned one or more subject headings which describe their content.  Like many other academic libraries, the UST Libraries use the Library of Congress Subject Headings, an extensive list of authorized or preferred terms established by the Library of Congress.  These subject headings can be helpful when you are looking for information on a specific topic:  because books on similar topics are generally assigned the same subject headings, one word or phrase will bring together the material available on that topic.

Because Library of Congress Subject Headings are very structured, they can be tricky to search.  For example, if you wanted to find materials on the Civil War, what term would you use to search?  Civil War?  There have been a lot of those, in different countries.  American Civil War?  United States Civil War?  War Between the States?  There are many possibilities.  But once you find out that the subject heading to use is United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865, you don't have to think of all the possibilities, because using that term will get you a list of the materials we have on that topic.

To determine the best L.C. Subject Heading(s) for your topic, do the following:

• Do a keyword search in CLICnet, the library catalog.
• Find one or more records that appear to be on your topic, and look at the full display of one or more of them.
• If the record looks relevant, look at the subject headings within that record.
• Select the subject heading(s) which BEST describes your topic.

Some guidelines:

• If you don't find something with a subject keyword search, try a title keyword.  Sometimes terms show up in titles before they become "official" subject headings.
• If your first try doesn't work, try again using different wording.  
• Check your spelling.
• If you need help, ask a librarian.

See also:

• Library of Congress Subject Headings, print edition kept at Libraries' reference desks.