Semantic Relationships Between Title Phrases and LCSH
Cheryl Wise Fernandez · Cataloging & Classification Quarterly · 1991
Successful subject searching depends upon the terminology of the search query. This paper compares the terminology of book titles with that of Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH) 1 on a semantic level. Methods of ananlyzing titles into title phrases that serve as matching units are described. Guidelines used to choose LCSHs with the closest semantic matches to title phrases are set forth. The pairing of title phrases with semantically related LCSHs constitutes the data of the study. Categories representing the types of semantic relationships holding between pairs of terms are defined. Results of the study show that the most common semantic relationship holding between title phrases and LCSH is a hierarchical one where title phrases are more specific than LCSHs.