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ENGL 10 (Baker, Summer 2024): Subject Headings

Subject Headings

Subject headings are specific, predefined terms that the Library of Congress assigns to printed material. The indexers who assign these must use terms that are listed in a controlled vocabulary, and not all indexers will apply the same "tags" to a given book. 

Subject headings can be useful in discovering books and materials, but their use can be very limiting. For example, they typically do not include multi-disciplinary or complex topics, and it is impossible to apply a subject heading to every topic that is covered in a given book, so they only identify the overarching subject that a book covers. 

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