System meets user: Problems in matching subject search terms

摘要

Sixty-one undergraduate and graduate students in psychology, economics, and librarianship provided the subject terms they would use to search an academic library catalog in 30 hypothetical search instances. The subject indexing tested was that of the Library of Congress, which is used in most large libraries in the United States. The large number of responses on each search instance enabled an unusually detailed, systematic evaluation of various aspects of the LC approach. Results (including evidence of many inadequacies) were produced on see references, subject/place order, noun/adjective order, specific entry, direct entry, and a priori probability of subject term matching. It was found to be very difficult to develop a good strategy for searching a catalog using LC subject headings. The overriding conclusion was that the LC subject cataloging approach is badly in need of rationalization.