In the most basic sense, subject headings are used to help the researcher more easily find materials on the same subject matter. Library of Congress Subject Headings are assigned to all, or almost all, books published after 1989 (think of this as library "tagging" but using the same terms so that everyone knows which terminology to use). For example, if I wanted to see what books my library might have with personal reflections from British citizens about World War II, I might search for the following subject heading:
- World War, 1939-1945 - Personal Narratives, British
That subject heading would show me a list of books in Sterne Library written by or including personal stories from British citizens either written during or discussing their experiences in World War II. These include diaries, memoires, etc, and we currently have 226 of these gems in our collection.
The design of this page was partly adapted from Research: By Course, Subject, or Topic, by University of Arizona Libraries, © 2020 The Arizona Board of Regents on behalf of The University of Arizona, licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.