END-USER UNDERSTANDING OF SUBDIVIDED SUBJECT-HEADINGS

The purpose of the study described in this paper is to investigate end -user understanding of subdivided subject headings in their current fo rm and in the form proposed by the first recommendation of the Library of Congress (LC) Subject Subdivisions Conference. The impetus for thi s study was a charge to the Subcommittee on the Order of LCSH Subdivis ions by the Subject Analysis Committee of the American Library Associa tion to respond to the first recommendation of the LC Subject Subdivis ions Conference that proposed standardizing the order of subject subdi visions. The authors composed self-administered questionnaires bearing subdivided subject headings in the ''current'' form and in the form p roposed in the first recommendation of the LC conference. The authors recruited end users and professional catalogers to complete questionna ires that asked for the meaning of individual headings. The authors th en compared end users' responses to catalogers' responses to determine end users' level of understanding of subdivided subject headings. An analysis of end-user interpretations demonstrated that end users inter preted the meaning of subject headings in the same manner as cataloger s about 40% of the time for ''current'' forms of subject headings and about 32% of the time for ''proposed'' forms of subject headings. The paper concludes with specific recommendations about the first recommen dation of the LC Subject Subdivisions Conference and general recommend ations about increasing end-user understanding of subdivided subject h eadings.