After learning to create IBC records, the next step toward "full book cataloging" includes the assignment of Library of Congress subject headings (LCSH) and LC call number. This part of the cataloging process, I have heard, is often the most time consuming, as a quality assignment of subject headings and call number demands an understanding of the book's content as well as experience in navigating the LC classification system and its correlation with LCSH.
In theory, the assignment of subject headings and class number is a relatively straightforward process: the cataloger chooses one subject that best represents the work, such as "Socialism," and then they search the classification system and the subject headings for the standardized subject heading and the corresponding classification number. Additionally, they add a cutter for the main entry and a year to the call number.
However, many works are not so simple. If a work could potentially be classed under socialism, biography, and Jewish history, where does it go? Multiple subject headings can represent one work, and so the cataloger does not necessarily need to choose just one subject to represent a work. A book's call number, however, is singular. Is there a way to combine two or three of these subjects into one call number? Often, there are classification numbers that represent a subject and a sub-heading, such as "Judaism and education" or "Socialism and biography."
As a student relatively new to cataloging, I have encountered challenges in simply navigating the applications and trial-and-error methods that my supervisors use to find an appropriate class for a work. I will often spend 30 minutes "trying on" a variety of classification numbers for a single work, which includes finding the number in a similar record or in the schedule itself and comparing it to other works with the same number in the LC, and here I recall my cataloging professor's words -- that cataloging is not a straightforward business; it's very much an art and a science.
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