Cataloguing Literature & Language Essay Research Paper (Essay Sample)

CATALOGUING POLICIES
SUBJECT ANALYSIS
Subject analysis involves determining what subject concept or concepts are covered by the intellectual content of a work. Once this has been determined, as many subject headings as are appropriate are chosen from a standard list. Again, an authority file must be consulted if the subject headings are to be properly collocated into the catalogue with other works covering the same or related subject concepts.
It is the part of cataloguing that deals with determining what intellectual content of a document is about. The cataloguer must observe and translate a document characteristics of discipline or topic into the conceptual ( ie notion or thought conceived in the mind) frame of the system.
The subject analyzer must usually determine first the subject eg an item titled History of Mathematics is about Mathematics not History.
Once the cataloguer determines what the intellectual content of an item is about, he/she then chooses a classification notation from the classification used by the library and one or more verbal subject terms most often appear as access points for the document (item) in the library catalogue. It is necessary to note that, some books in the library can be summed up in a single word. Sometimes even in the simplest document may contain information on several topics which may be relevant to a person’s interest. Analysis can result in much more effective exploitation of a library’s stock allowing significant articles, chapters, and sections to be highlighted.