In a message dated 2008/05/06 2:20:36 PM Eastern Daylight Time, 
[log in to unmask] writes:

> Using accurate -- and updated -- subject headings helps people  
> identify what they want to read, too.

Mary, 

Definitely!  I've been deleting all the messages from the usual respondents, 
because I've been on this list long enough to know who's going to say 
what--over and over again.  And I'm not interested in reading it over and over again.  
I've also learned which ones have intelligent discussions to contribute and 
who backs it up with qualified research, instead of personal opinion.

But going back to the subject headings--as a librarian I'm conditioned to 
think in terms of Library of Congress Subject Heading (LCSH).  And as one who has 
catalogued hundreds (thousands?) of manuscript collections into MAchine 
Readable Cataloguing (MARC), I've found that there are always some things that 
puzzle me--they are not as intuitive as some people may think.

Classic example:
I'm one of the few people I know who routinely refer to the Tidewater 
incident in 1831 as "Southampton Insurrection, 1831" because that was the accepted 
LCSH.  Everyone else called it Nat Turner's Rebellion.  I always used the phrase 
in the scope note so researchers would find it.  Most wouldn't think to look 
under "Southampton Insurrection, 1831."

I'm curious as to how many other such oddities researchers out in VA-HISTland 
have encountered, and what they are.

Just wondering,

Holly Wilhelm/Hodges/Mills
currently in Amherst, VA


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