Page 166 - DLIS402_INFORMATION_ANALYSIS_AND_REPACKAGING

Unit 9: Cataloguing and Subject Indexing: Principles and Practices

In a manual system a greater level of exhaustive content brings with it a greater cost as more man Notes
hours are required. The additional time taken in an automated system would be much less significant.
At the other end of the scale, in a selective index only the most important aspects are covered. Recall
is reduced in a selective index as if an indexer does not include enough terms, a highly relevant
article may be overlooked. Therefore, indexers should strive for a balance and consider what the
document may be used. They may also have to consider the implications of time and expense.

Specificity

The specificity describes how closely the index terms match the topics they represent. An index is
said to be specific if the indexer uses parallel descriptors to the concept of the document and reflects
the concepts precisely. Specificity tends to increase with exhaustively as the more terms you include,
the narrower those terms will be.

Self Assessment

Multiple Choice Questions:
1. ...... is an ordered list of bibliographical records that represent the documents in a particular
collection of documents.
(a) Index (b) Catalogue
(c) Contents
2. ...... involves the translation of the subject analysis into a set of index terms
(a) Exhansive index (b) Assignment index
(c) Extraction indexing
3. ...... is one which lists all possible index terms
(a) Exhansive index (b) Assignment index
(c) Extraction index
4. ...... is the act of describing a document by index terms of indicate what the document is
about or to summarize its content
(a) Exhansive index (b) Assignment index
(c) Subject indexing
5. ...... is taken from a controlled vocabulary
(a) Assignment index (b) Subject index
(c) Exhansive index

9.3 Principles of Subject Cataloguing

Subject cataloguing is a guideline for the staff of the Library of Congress for establishing Library of
Congress classification numbers and assigning them to library materials. The work is not intended to
be a comprehensive work on classification theory nor an exhaustive explanation of the Library of
Congress classification system. Rather, it is an accumulation recurring questions that arise when using
the LC classification.
These guidelines would be of use and of interest to the large number of practising cataloguers who
use the LC classification and wish to assign classification numbers in the spirit of LC’s own policies
and practices. This manual provides guidelines for formulating only the classification portion of
the LC call number. It should be used in conjunction with the Subject cataloguing Manual: Shelf
listing, which provides guidelines for formulating the unique book number portion of the call
number.

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