Re: Non-rotated subject index

[Janette Garcia <jgarcia@xxxxxxxxxx>]

In Sheffield Hallam University's catalog, http://catalogue.shu.ac.uk/  the 
subject headings are displayed as they are intended, with the "grammar" 
intact (capitalization, commas, and '--' to indicate subfields).

I did a search in both their catalog and 
ours  http://lance.missouri.edu/search~S6/  for "Education" which can be 
both a main and a subheading.  Both are essentially sorted the same, so the 
subjects came up in the same order.  This is a sampling from both searches.

I think it is much easier for a user to understand:

Education -- Abbreviations.
Abused children -- Education -- Case studies
Education -- Accounting.
African Americans -- Education.
Aged -- Education.
Attention-deficit-disordered children -- Education -- Handbooks, Manuals, 
etc.
Children with disabilities -- Education -- Law and legislation
Minority women -- Education (Higher)


than:

Education Abbreviations
Education Abused Children Case Studies
Education Accounting
Education African Americans
Education Aged
Education Attention Deficit Disordered Children United States Handbooks 
Manuals Etc
Education Children With Disabilities Law And Legislation
Education Higher Minority Women

In addition, you can end up with some weird looking subjects, such as
Education Higher Men

is this about educating tall men?

Janette

At 09:47 AM 1/8/2003 -0500, you wrote:
>I guess I may be a Luddite, but I have yet to hear a user focussed answer 
>as to why not to rotate the subject headings.
>
>And on a somewhat unrelated topic, I just went to the III web site to find 
>the link to Mieko's catalog and discovered that there are no longer the 
>links to all the customer web sites.  Please, Innovative, bring this 
>back.  The best way to design or redesign the webpac or to check on 
>features is to browse the sites of other users.  Without the III links, 
>this is next to impossible.  -- Howard
>
>At 06:42 PM 1/7/2003 +0000, you wrote:
>>Since no one has responded to these questions I will try and offer some
>>explanation.
>>
>>In the old days circa. 1994 when we implemented the system Innovative was
>>very eager to persuade libraries to rotate subject subdivisions in the
>>subject index.  I seem to remember that we had a choice of rotating
>>subject subdivisions or including subject headings in the keyword index.
>>If we wanted both it would have cost us extra.  We opted to index subject
>>headings in the keyword index but not to rotate subject subdivisions.
>>
>>I don't know what the current policy is but presumably new libraries may
>>opt not to rotate subject subdivisions.
>>
>>Mieko
>>
>>On Thu, 2 Jan 2003, Janette Garcia wrote:
>>
>> > I never saw any responses to your e-mail.  I too am interested in this,
>> > especially since one of my main tasks is authority control, it would very
>> > much help in weeding out the true problems.  Would you be willing to share
>> > any helpful information you received?
>> >
>> > Thank you!
>> >
>> > Janette
>> >
>> > Janette Garcia
>> > Catalog Maintenance Librarian
>> > Pickler Memorial Library
>> > Truman State University
>> > Kirksville, MO  63501
>> >
>> > ph:  660-785-7545
>> > fax: 660-785-4538
>> >
>> >
>> > At 11:00 AM 12/5/2002 -0500, you wrote:
>> > >Anne,
>> > >         I see a subject search in your catalog returns a non-rotated 
>> subject
>> > >heading list. Did the help desk do that for you also? Do you prefer the
>> > >non-rotated display? Anyone else out there doing this also? It seems more
>> > >true to the spirit of a subject search to me with clearer results 
>> than the
>> > >distortion of displaying the searched term first regardless of its actual
>> > >position in the MARC record.
>> > >
>> > >Michael Mitchell
>> > >Systems Librarian
>> > >Lithgow Public Library
>> > >Augusta, ME
>> > >mitchmd@xxxxxxxxxx
>>
>>
>>
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