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
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