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Latin American Studies

UO LibrarySearch - Find articles, books, and more

LibrarySearch offers a streamlined interface for finding books and other media that combines the collections of UO Libraries and Summit libraries.

UO logo with "LibrarySearch" catalog name

Book and e-Book Databases

Using LC Subject Headings to Search

What are LCSH?

Books, videos, and other materials in library catalogs are assigned official subject headings by the Library of Congress (LCSH) by cataloging librarians. These subject headings describe an item's content and what it is about, and are useful for focusing research on broader, narrower, or related topics. Look for subject heading links in the library catalog to find more items on the same topic. Some subject headings are dated or even problematic, and they can be changed through a petition process.

For example, the book Dance and the Hollywood Latina: Race, Sex, and Stardom has LC subject headings to describe it like "Hispanic Americans in motion pictures" and "Race in motion pictures," but (as of 2022), "Latina" is not an official LCSH and "Latinos" is listed as a variant.

Catalog record for book "Dance and the Hollywood Latina: race, sex, and stardom" with Subject headings

Using LCSH in your LibrarySearch searches

If you know the subject headings that are likely to be tagged on the item you want to find, search by Subject. Eugene (Or.) -- History is an example of a Geographical Subject Heading.

LibrarySearch Subject search for Eugene (Or.) -- History

About LCSH Subdivisions

About Subject Heading Subdivisions

Subdivisions, or subheadings, are words or phrases which may be added to a subject heading to create a more effective search. They are hyperlinked in LibrarySearch so that you can use them to see all records they are connected with. 

Some standard subheadings are:

Type of Subdivision Examples Useful for:

Topical – What this item is about (content)

Museums

Aging

Statistical Methods
Narrowing a broader topic into subtopics

Form 

Dictionaries

Periodicals

Textbooks
Useful for locating specific types of materials

Chronological

21st century

Japanese Heian period, 794-1185

Middle Ages, 600-1500
Locating information about a particular era or time period 

Geographical (place)

England --London

Eugene (Or.)

Narnia (Imaginary place)
Finding information about a specific place or region
Other Common Subdivisions

Bibliography

Biography

Criticism and interpretation

Translations into [language]

Social life and customs

Fiction
Locating bibliographies, fiction, etc. 

Cataloging librarians follow specific rules for adding LC Subject Headings to an items record.