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Home » Collections » YUL Metadata Policies » OCULCF/YUL Cataloguing Policies/Best Practices » Metadata Policy: Acceptable Subject Thesauri

Metadata Policy: Acceptable Subject Thesauri

Policy Area:    

Metadata/Cataloguing 

Background/ Rationale:    

  • This policy describes the subject controlled vocabulary that is used in the York University Libraries Institutional Zone. 

Exceptions to this Policy:  

  • Works that do not normally require subject headings, such as fiction 
  • Theses and dissertations; it is acceptable to have only uncontrolled index terms in MARC 653 fields for these record 
  • Brief order records or brief records for special projects that do not having subject headings or only have uncontrolled index terms in MARC 653 
  • Vendor records for electronic resources 
  • Vendor records for shelf ready material 

Policy Statement  

  • Copy cataloguing:  Keep the following subject thesauri in copy cataloguing 
    • Library of Congress Subject (LCSH) 
    • LC subject headings for children's literature 
    • Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) 
    • Canadian Subject Headings (CSH) 
    • Répertoire de vedettes-matière (RVM) 
    • Faceted Application of Subject Terminology (FAST) 
  •  Original cataloguing:  Assign subject headings using the following subject thesaurus 
    • Library of Congress Subject (LCSH) 
    • LC subject headings for children's literature (for Children’s literature collections only) 
    • RBMS Controlled Vocabularies (for rare books only) 

Anticipated Impacts:  

Effective discovery of items in OMNI  

 Policy Review Information 

First Draft of Policy Created: October 24, 2021  
Second Draft of Policy Created:  October 29, 2021 
Revised: Feb. 18, 2022
Responsibility: Metadata Policy Working Group