Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH) are the official subject terms prescribed by the Library of Congress for the cataloging of books and are in use in essentially all academic libraries. To find works pertaining to Latina narratives and related subjects, it may be useful to use some of the subject terms, or combinations of terms, listed below when searching the online catalogs of libraries at Teachers College, Columbia University, and other institutions.
The image below provides a good example of the structure of an LCSH entry, in this case for the official subject heading "Early childhood education." The term is followed by the Library of Congress classification range for the subject, indicated where generally speaking books on the subject would be found in the physical book stacks. The abbreviations and initialized have the following functions:
- "May Subd Geog" indicates that the term may be followed by the name of a country, state, city, etc.
- BT = broader term
- SA = see also
- NT = narrower term
- BT = broader term
- UF = use for ["USE references are made from an unauthorized or nonpreferred term to an authorized or preferred heading. Under the heading referred to, the code UF (Used For) precedes the term not used. The codes USE and UF function as reciprocals."]
