These suggestions will explain how certain indexing terms are intended to be applied in the THOMAS Bill Summary & Status files and in the LOCIS federal legislation files. The suggestions will also help guide other LIV users in their searching operations.

ALPHABETIZATION

Alphabetization of indexing terms is word by word, and the words are displayed letter by letter in alphabetical order. Each complete word is displayed in turn. All terms beginning with a given combination of letters as the first complete word in a term precede any term beginning with the same combination of letters as only part of the first word. Nonalphanumeric characters, e.g., hyphens, are usually treated as spaces. Representative sequences of terms displayed according to the described method follow:

          Navigation
          Navigation (Aeronautics)
          Navigation satellites
          Navigational aids
          Navigational aids (Aeronautics)

                    - - -

          President and foreign policy
          Presidential aides
          Presidential-Congressional relations
          Presidential election statistics
          Presidents

DIRECT ENTRY

Indexing terms consisting of two or more words are listed in their natural word order, i.e., the order normally used in English sentences: Absentee voting rather than Voting, Absentee; Child welfare rather than Welfare, Child.

SPECIFICITY OF INDEXING

SCOPE NOTES

Scope notes are used to indicate how the indexing term is to be applied within the legislative and public policy environment. Often they will distinguish between the indexing term they are meant to define and a second, or even third, indexing term that might be more appropriate to the item to be indexed. (See also Term Definitions. In a few cases, the scope note will indicate when the term became postable, e.g., Election districts. Scope notes also identify all of the CRS Top Terms, e.g., Elementary and secondary education.

Examples:

Presidents

[Use only for works related to the U.S. presidency. For foreign presidents, use Politics and government, geographically subdivided; for foreign presidential powers, use Executive power, geographically subdivided; for foreign presidential elections, use Elections, geographically subdivided, etc.]

West (U.S.)

[This term is to be used only as a geographic descriptor and may not be subdivided. It may, however, be used to subdivide topical indexing terms. The area comprises that part of the United States situated west of the Mississippi River.]

Election districts

[This term used beginning September 1984. Earlier materials can be found under the term Political representation.]

Elementary and secondary education

[This is a CRS Top Term. For a list of relevant LIV terms, see the section on Top Term Clusters.]

CORPORATE ENTRIES - EXCEPTIONS

A certain number of corporate entries that ordinarily would be entered in Library of Congress (LC) cataloging under "U.S." may in the LIV be entered in different form:

Air force--U.S.     House of Representatives     Senate
Army--U.S.          Navy--U.S.                   Supreme Court
Congress            Presidents                   Vice Presidents

These exceptions are to be made only when these corporate entries are indexed as the subject matter of documents. When any of the above are entered as authors, the appropriate LC corporate entry form should be used.

SUBDIVISIONS OF GENERAL APPLICATION

Effective use of 59 subdivisions of general application enhances indexing and searching. For example, medical care of the poor is indexed as Poor--Medical care. The future of space programs is indexed as Space programs--Future. Legal cases on campaign funds in the U.S. is indexed as Campaign funds--U.S.--Legal cases.

While such subdivisions as Law and legislation, Research,Statistics, etc. are permissible they are not applied when such aspects of a topic have already been combined in the LIV with the topic proper into an authorized indexing term. Examples of such combinations are Civil rights legislation, Astronautical research, and Educational statistics. These combinations replace Civil rights--Law and legislation, Astronautics--Research, and Education--Statistics.

Corporate entries may be subdivided by many of the 59 subdivisions of general application in the same manner as regular indexing terms, e.g., Senate--History; Congress--Public opinion; U.S. Dept. of Defense--Bibliography; United Nations-- Chronology,etc. Personal name entries may also be subdivided by some of the subdivisions of general application, e.g., Carter, Jimmy--Public opinion; Kennedy, John F.--Bibliography; King, Martin Luther--Addresses, statements, etc. Several of the subdivisions of general application may also be used with the names of U.S. public laws, e.g., Flood Control Act--Legislative histories.

GEOGRAPHIC SUBDIVISIONS

While the Library of Congress Subject Headings permit geographic subdivision of subject headings as well as topical subdivision of geographic headings (depending upon the topic), the LIV directs that topics are to be subdivided geographically, e.g.,Education--France. In addition to subdividing a topic, geographic terms may also serve as indexing terms in their own right. In such cases, however, they may not be subdivided. A geographic term may be used as an indexing term when the document to be indexed deals with a geographic topic (say, a country) in such a way as to cover a large number of aspects of that geographic topic, which it is not advisable to index separately. Such unsubdivided geographic terms are to be entered in field 651.

Some LIV terms are limited in their application to the U.S. and may not be subdivided. Examples are: Presidential powers, Congress, and Pocket veto. A few others may only be subdivided by the name of states, cities, etc., e.g., Medicare, Presidential primaries. Other terms such as Congressional Medal of Honor and Universal language are by their very nature not susceptible of geographic subdivision.

The question that may present indexers with some difficulty in the beginning is whether or not to subdivide geographically. In general, indexers should be guided by the consideration that where a topic is treated in a document specifically from a geographic point of view, or where the public-policy research interest in that topic is geographically oriented, the topic should be subdivided geographically. If, however, the geographic aspect of a topic is merely incidental to an author's discussion, and the topic itself is one that is not important from a geographic point of view, omit the subdivision. In the final analysis, indexers should always keep the researchers' probable interest in mind.

To provide a consistent approach for indexing documents dealing with Washington, D.C. or the District of Columbia, use District of Columbia as the authorized geographic subdivision,e.g., Monuments and memorials--District of Columbia; Police--District of Columbia. Washington, D.C. may, however, appear as an integral part of an indexing term, such as in Capitol (Washington,D.C.) or White House (Washington, D.C.), this being brought out by the city's name being shown in parentheses.

AMERICAN STATES

Because of the special interest in U.S. public policy research in state history, state laws, state taxation, etc., special indexing terms have been provided reflecting this interest. Therefore, in such cases use State laws--Maryland, not Law--Maryland; State history--Iowa, not History--Iowa; State taxation--Alabama, not Taxation--Alabama. This will permit the grouping together of such entries for faster searching or display. There is also a subdivision of general application for discussions of the states collectively in relation to a specific topic, e.g., Civil service system--U.S.--States. (See the State subdivision).

ONLINE CONSULTATION AND RETRIEVAL IN THE LOCIS SYSTEM

Consult LIV online using the Library of Congress Information System (LOCIS) for the most current source of vocabulary information. LIV is not a separate online file but it is available in LOCIS Federal Legislation files. New terms or changes are reflected online within a day of their incorporation. Use the LIVT command for a display of the cross reference structure for a term.

Example:

Command: livt energy prices

Display:   

Energy prices

       Narrower terms:
   T01   COAL PRICES
   T02   NATURAL GAS PRICES
   T03   PETROLEUM PRICES
       Broader terms:
   T04   PRICES
       Related terms:
   T05   ELECTRIC UTILITY RATES
   T06   POWER RESOURCES

Note that retrieval of an indexing term in the online system will not automatically retrieve material with any of the associated narrower terms, broader terms or related terms unless those terms had also been assigned in indexing. For example, creating a set with the descriptor Energy prices will not automatically retrieve material on Coal prices, Natural gas prices, Petroleum prices, or other terms in the LIV term display.

For a list of new postable terms since the issuance of this edition, type help newlivt while in a LOCIS Federal Legislation file. For a list of the 81 CRS Top Terms referred to earlier, type help topterm.

When a term is entered that is a "see reference" in the controlled vocabulary, the authorized form of the term will be searched with the retrieve command. If Gun control is input,records with the authorized term Firearms control will be retrieved. If Trust funds is requested, then records with either Government trust funds or Trusts and trustees will be retrieved.

     Gun control
        USE  Firearms control

retr subj/gun control

     Trust funds
        USE  Government trust funds
             Trusts and trustees

retr subj/trust funds

Occasionally, two LIV terms should be combined for an aspect of a topic. For example, Promotions when combined with Federal employees retrieves materials about promotion among this group of workers while Promotions combined with Postal employees or Promotions with Women lawyers retrieves material about other aspects of the topic.

When new terms are approved, some material in a database may be re-indexed. However, workload restrictions make wholesale changes impractical. Users who need a comprehensive search in an area where new terms have been added may find that using the retrieve command without the qualifier subj may locate more material on the topic.

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Last Update May 15 1996