• Journal of the Korean Society for Library and Information Science
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• v.44 no.2
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• pp.51-72
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• 2010

The purpose of this study is to explore usefulness of the Library of Congress Subject Headings(LCSH)for librarians as an information access point. Sixty four librarians at the University of Washington(UW)and 67 librarians from the Council on East Asian Libraries(CEAL) participated through web surveys about LCSH and 9 librarians from UW and 10 librarians from CEAL joined in-depth interviews and e-mail correspondences. It was concluded that LCSH was very useful for finding other related materials as a subject access point. However, there were two necessary improvements recommended for the LCSH. First of all, in aspect of terminology, subject headings should be more familiar to the public with currency and show clear definitions and relationships. Second, with regard to the structure of LCSH, it should have simplicity, ease of use, and consistency when using combinations of subject headings. Since many other countries are using or adapting LCSH, its effect can be very strong. Therefore, the meaning of "Tok Island (Korea)" as well as diplomatic and scholarly efforts with sensing movements of other countries.