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The College of St. Scholastica Library Lab Worksheet Three: Finding Books Finding LC Subject Headings For this worksheet, you will need to translate the "natural language" of your topic into a Library of Congress subject heading. Here are four methods you can use to find a Library of Congress subject heading that describes your topics.   1. Work From Your Bibliography In Worksheet Two you located an article from a subject encyclopedia that had a bibliography. More than likely there was at least one citation for a book in the bibliography. In Worksheet One you learned how to look a book up by title in a library’s catalog. Therefore, one way to find LC subject headings is to locate a book in a library’s catalog and use the subject headings already assigned to the book. Remember the last question from Worksheet One?  You looked up the record on PALS for Spiritual Midwifery by Ina May Gaskin.  At the bottom of the record were 3 LC subject headings –  Subject: Obstetrics.  Subject:  Midwives.   Subject:  Natural childbirth--Case studies.  A good bibliography is helpful in many ways. Here it gives your three different subject headings to expand your search with.   2.  Use the "Red Books." 2.  Use the “Red Books.” Most libraries will have a copy of the five-volume Library of Congress Subject Headings, referred to as the “Red Books” because of color of the covers. This is an alphabetical listing of LC subject headings. Ask a librarian where they are located (you will more than likely impress the librarian with your request!).

1.  Access the main PALS page at:  http://www.pals.msus.edu/webpals/
2.  Click on “Search PALS.”
3.  At the bottom of the “Select Library and Resource” page is a link for “Additional Resources.” Click on 
      this link.
4.  Use your cursor to highlight the little button to the left of “Library of Congress Subject Headings” and 
     click on “Go.”
5.  If you are working from off campus, you will be prompted for the following:
     User Name: Your User Name is not your name.  It is your PALS bar code number. 
     Password: Your Password is your last name.

If we click on then numbers 0003 we can see the full display for the subject heading “midwives.” Because the computer allows for searching that cannot take place in a print work, we see an abbreviated version of the entry for “midwives” from the print Red Books (see above).

Because space is not an issue in the online version, the abbreviation system is done away with - UF becomes “Use-for:.” For an explanation of terms, see the above entry for the Red Books.
 

4.  Pearl Growing

Pearl growing is a library term for turning a “bad” search into a good one. Throughout this workbook you will be urged to subject search when possible. Pearl growing is a way to turn keyword searching into subject searching.

1.  In a library catalog, conduct a keyword search for a natural language term that represents your topic.

2.  Sort through the results. If you find a record for a book which addresses your topic, examine the complete record and make note of the subject headings in the record. These should be LC headings that describe your topic.
 

Worksheet Questions

2a.  Using any of the methods discussed in the lab [Red Books, LCSH file on PALS, bibliography, pearl growing], find a Library of Congress subject heading that represents the topic you are researching.

LC Subject Heading: