Simplified Subject Element Help

Definition

Subject terms or phrases representing the primary topic(s) on which a work is focused.¹

Subject added entries are assigned to a bibliographic record to provide access according to generally accepted thesaurus-building rules (e.g., Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH), Medical Subject Headings (MeSH)).²

The topic of the content of the resource. Subject will be expressed as keywords, key phrases or classification codes that describe a topic of the resource. Recommended best practice is to select a value from a controlled vocabulary or formal classification scheme.

Subjects are complex elements and include the following subelements:

• Topical subject terms which consist of general subject terms, including names of events or objects²
• Chronological subject terms
• Geographic subject terms which consist of jurisdiction names and subject subdivisions²
• Form/Genre subject terms indicating the genre, form, and/or physical characteristics of the materials being described. A genre term designates the style or technique of the intellectual content of textual materials or, for graphic materials, aspects such as vantage point, intended purpose, characteristics of the creator, publication status, or method of representation. A form term designates historically and functionally specific kinds of materials distinguished by their physical character, the subject of their intellectual content, or the order of information within them. Physical characteristic terms designate historically and functionally specific kinds of materials as distinguished by an examination of their physical character, subject of their intellectual content, or the order of information with them. ²
• Occupational subject terms
• Name of the Authority the term comes from. A list of authority sources is maintained here.
• The Language of the term may also be included

Form Element

The online form element appears as below:

This form element allows the user to just enter a subject phrase and the scheme (or authority) if this is from a controlled vocabulary.

An alternate form of this element appears below and excludes the option to include the scheme/authority:

Besides these standard subject keyword type subjects, subjects can also be created from Titles or Names. (i.e., Title as subject, or Name as subject) Mapping and encoding for these are provided below, although these cannot yet be added through the online metadata template.

Hierarchical geographic terms are also included in the subject element in the MODS schema, but these are entered through the Simplified Spatial and Hierarchical Spatial elements. Their mapping and encoding is included under those form elements.

Other form elements for entering these subject information includes Full Subject and Subject / Scheme Metadata Entry.

Best Practices

The best practice for entering ...

Examples

The following are examples of well formatted :...

Sources

1. MODS User Guidelines Version 3, Detailed Description of MODS Elements
2. MARC 21 Format for Bibliographic Data