Books

Give us a subject heading ...

Lorcan 1 min read

I was interested to read the following in Susan Gibbons’ The academic library and the Net Gen student.

As gaming becomes a more mainstream pastime and an important element in popular culture, academic libraries should begin to develop collections of books and journals about gaming. To find some recent monographs, search OCLC’s Worldcat using subject headings such as “Internet games-social aspects” and “Computer games-psychological aspects.” [p. 38]

Click for some results:
Internet games — social aspects
Computer games — psychological aspects
Some things that occur ….
First, we do not see subject headings or class numbers often used in that way in text, despite their pervasiveness in our library catalogs. Second, it will become increasingly clear that they apply only to a part of the library collection as we more and more pull together access across the whole collection. And third, how much more should we do with them? Wouldn’t it be nice to have a selection of tags, or authors, or publishers, which are related to these headings in various ways? We are not making them work very hard ….

Share
Comments
More from LorcanDempsey.net
Smile: let's see your teeth
Books

Smile: let's see your teeth

I was excited to discover the graphic novel Smile by Raina Telgemeier. The subject matter has strong personal resonances for me.
Lorcan 3 min read
icon

Lorcan Dempsey dot net

Deep dives and quick takes: libraries, society, culture and technology

Great! You’ve successfully signed up.

Welcome back! You've successfully signed in.

You've successfully subscribed to LorcanDempsey.net.

Success! Check your email for magic link to sign-in.

Success! Your billing info has been updated.

Your billing was not updated.