Considering the importance of subject retrieval for scientific visibility, and the need to guide authors in self-archiving their papers in institutional repositories of university libraries, this study observed the patterns and strategies used by authors while indexing for keyword assignment. The study examined four categories of analysis:…

Discovery of digital items by scholars and the public is highly dependent upon effective metadata to ensure inclusion and prioritization in search engines. Subject descriptions based on controlled vocabulary, such as Library of Congress subject headings (LCSH), are particularly useful to enhance discovery, but they may be expensive to provide. In…

The University of Michigan Library wanted to learn more about the kinds of searches its users were conducting through the "one search" search box on the Library Web site. Library staff conducted two investigations. A preliminary investigation in 2011 involved the manual review of the 100 most frequently occurring queries conducted…

Although fiction plays a prominent role in the interdisciplinary field of medical humanities (MH), it is physically and intellectually isolated from non-fiction in academic health sciences libraries. Using the Literature, Arts, and Medicine Database (LAMD) as a tool for selection and subject analysis, we suggest a method of integrating fiction…

This subject guide to materials in the reference collection of the Thomas G. Carpenter Library at the University of North Florida brings together reference works on similar subjects that are cataloged under dissimilar Library of Congress call numbers. The reference works listed are some of the more notable and frequently used titles in the…

This discussion of the establishment of the archives at Fitchburg State College, an institution with an enrollment of 3,700, provides details on the background of the project, approval process, literature search, planning, collection development, continuing publicity efforts, and facilities. Useful items found through the literature search are…

This paper begins with some general remarks about the indexing of electronic publications. Characteristics of today's information world are highlighted, including decentralization, distributed data collections, and heterogeneous data structures and indexing procedures. Three possible models for managing access to information are summarized: a…

Discussion of the information needs and information-seeking behavior of interdisciplinary scholars and students focuses on kinds of research needed at both basic and applied levels. Topics include prior research; the organization, description, and indexing of information in libraries for successful information retrieval; and research techniques in…

This paper examines the use of the Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC) system at the U. S. Conn Library at Wayne State College (WSC) in Nebraska. Several developments in the last 20 years which have eliminated the trend toward reclassification of academic library collections from DDC to the Library of Congress (LC) classification scheme are…

This report is a revision and expansion of an earlier research report that described the design of the University of Guelph's documentation system for the organization of government publications within university libraries. The design of the Guelph document system represents a deliberate departure from cataloging and classification theory and…

The 16 articles in this theme issue focus on ways in which libraries provide subject access to their collections in a fast-changing technological environment: (1) "Uncovering Information" (Neal K. Kaske and Peter Paulson); (2) "The New York State Library's Evolving Public Access Catalog" (Alexandria Wolff and Jean Hargrave);…