The importance of quality classification and subject indexing of health information in public libraries : A comparative analysis

• The general aim of this paper is to explore the practice of subject indexing and classification of health information in public libraries. The pilot study encompasses two public libraries, each from a different European country, Croatia and Sweden: Zadar Public Library, and Växjö Public Library. The research questions are: 1) how important is the terminology for subject headings; and, 2) how many subject terms are enough to describe an information resource in a catalog record? The research was done in two phases. First, an exploratory evaluation of subject searching in the catalogs was conducted. Second, after the analysis of the catalogs, questions for interviews were formed. Four semi-structured interviews were conducted, two per library, of which one interview with a subject librarian and one with a reference librarian. Finally, a comparative analysis between the two libraries from the two countries was con- ducted. Results imply that the subject headings and classification used were very generic and did not cater for specific, topically narrower queries. Also, subject indexing was considered important, especially to the librarians for searching purposes through ensuring consistency in the catalog, thereby making it easier to find resources on the same topics.

Subject headings

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Medie- och kommunikationsvetenskap -- Biblioteks- och informationsvetenskap (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Media and Communications -- Information Studies (hsv//eng)

Keyword

classification

subject indexing

health information

public library

Library and Information Science

Biblioteks- och informationsvetenskap

Publication and Content Type

vet (subject category)

kon (subject category)