CYAC cataloging varies
from standard LC subject cataloging in ways that make it more appropriate for online
catalogs used by children and young adults. The most obvious differences are
the provision of a summary and the use of Children’s Subject Headings. Yet, CYAC
cataloging remains firmly rooted in standard LC cataloging practices and
procedures. Library of Congress standards are used for descriptive
and subject cataloging: AACR2, Library of Congress Rule Interpretations (LCRIs), the Subjects Headings Manual (SHM), the Classification and Shelflisting
Manual (CSM), and MARC 21 Format for Bibliographic Data - all
available in print and through Cataloger’s Desktop.
Summaries
Summaries
are prepared for most items cataloged in the CYAC program. These notes provide
a brief, non-critical summary of the content of the work and are tagged as a
520 field in accordance with the MARC 21 bibliographic format. Some more recent CYAC
records also have summaries that are provided by the publisher. More information is in the document Writing Summaries.
List of Children’s Subject
Headings
The subject analysis in CYAC records
represents a combination of standard LC subject cataloging practices and
procedures and those policies that have been modified specifically for CYAC
purposes. Heading variations from standard LC are explained in the document
entitled Children’s Subject Headings (CSH).
Library of Congress Subject
Headings Manual
CYAC subject analysis starts with the
extensive list of authorized Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH). It is
used with the supplemental list of Children’s Subject Headings (CSH), which
includes all subject headings especially created for the cataloging of
children’s material, including headings which vary in form or application from
standard LC headings. This supplemental list to the LCSH has approximately 1,000
subject headings created to adequately express topics or topical relationships
in the fields of children’s and young adult literature. In certain topic areas there may be no
suitable heading available in LCSH or the Children’s Subject Headings, and
those headings must be established for the CYAC program to better serve young readers.
When headings in earlier editions of Children's
Subject Headings are incorporated into standard LCSH and the CYAC and LC
interpretations are identical, they are removed from the Children's Subject
Headings list. For example, AIDS (Disease) was initially established for Children’s
Subject Headings and was removed when the heading was incorporated into
LCSH.
MARC 21 Coding
All Children’s Subject Headings assigned as part of CYAC cataloging are identified in
online records by the second indicator of 1 in the 6XX fields (MARC 21 subject
tags), e.g.,
650 #1 $a Horror stories.
651 #1 $a New York (State) $x History $y 19th century $v Fiction.
