Philosophy: Books

Improve your results by taking just a few minutes to understand Library of Congress Subject Headings or LCSH. Subject headings are terms assigned by professional cataloging librarians (or catalogers) to the records (i.e., descriptions) of books held by the library. LCSH communicate to researchers what a source is about (i.e., its subject); what it is (e.g., a primary source); and in some cases even its genre (e.g., short stories).

Catalogers never invent headings "on the fly" but rather draw from a list of terms already in use and approved by other librarians. The easiest way to leverage LCSH for your own research is to perform a simple keyword search (e.g., <Aztec philosophy>). Once a relevant book has been found (e.g., Aztec Philosophy: Understanding the World in Motion), examine the assigned subject headings. Click on the most relevant heading(s) to find other library-held books about that subject. In this example, the most useful subject heading happens to be the same phrase, Aztec philosophy. That will not always be the case.

Even when you have discovered what appears to be the most relevant LCSH, you might wish to keep looking for others. Again using Aztec (Mexica) philosophy as an example, it turns out that a broader but equally important heading exists: Indians of Mexico — Philosophy, which leads to arguably the most important book ever published on the topic: Aztec Thought and Culture: A Study of the Ancient Nahuatl Mind (c. 1963).

The main takeaway? Even with the savvy use of keyword searches, LCSH, and other techniques, researchers might not find all relevant sources held by our library. Remember, therefore, to conduct multiple searches using synonyms for the same or similar concepts (e.g., Aztec, Mexica, Mesoamerica) to ensure that you have found as many relevant sources as possible about your topic. Sophisticated researchers employ both keyword and subject (LCSH) searches.