Investigating subject access : content analysis study on subject enhancement in library catalogue records

Abstract

Organised records in library catalogues provide subject access points that enable information retrieval by users. Enhancement of the subject information in records can greatly improve possibilities for retrieval, and can also help catalogue users to assess potential relevance of the resources themselves. This research project took a snapshot of one section in the catalogue of a major New Zealand library, and measured levels of subject enhancement in randomly sampled records. Using a content analysis methodology, with publication date as the independent variable, it was shown that subject enhancement had increased throughout a period of fourteen years. While the average number of controlled subject headings remained constant during that time, summary / subject notes tended to increase. A trend for increasing proportions of records to include contents information was also demonstrated, particularly after 1999, and 51.7% of sampled records for 2003 contained this feature. Digital links to other electronic documents were provided in over 10% of records for the most recent two years covered by the study. The project concluded, because of differing levels of subject provision corresponding to the age of a resource, that records for more recently published monographs had a greater likelihood of being retrieved in catalogue searches.