This subject headings is one of those gems that enamor me when I discover them–hardly believing they exist sometimes. There are days in which the best course of action is the take the best stab at a topic then scroll through the subject authority file, carefully looking for something pertaining to what’s in hand. “Architecture and …” is a very fruitful and interesting area of SAF. But the best one by far is:

“Architecture and cosmology”

See!? How cool is that? Do I know what it means–no. Does the SAF tell me anything further, such as in a scope note–apparently we aren’t that lucky. I thought that scope notes were abundant and the norm; guess I just happened to find sub. head. with lots of them, which makes sense since I did catalog legal material for a while and that stuff is confusing no matter who you are and what degrees you have.

Where to now? The LC Online Catalog, of course! Let’s dive in and see what we find. Since it didn’t fit my item, I am just now searching for this as I write the post. I sure hope something turns up! Subject Browse rocks. Oooo, 12 hits and additional ones divided geographically. It always makes me sad to find a sub. head. that has only one or two uses.

Ah, ha! Now we have some answers. Yes, if you guessed that this sub. head. got at the symbolism of architecture for religious meaning and buildings then you are right! Who knew this niche existed? Now we do, and so can your users now too if you so choose to spread this knowledge! While there aren’t many titles, and some are in other languages, it still looks like an interesting topic.

It’s too nice a day to complain about bad subject headings today, although I did fill in a co-worker on the topic of “computer drawing” vs. “computer graphics”–maybe in another post of you all are dying to know my thoughts. Besides, since I don’t do authority work right now, I figure it’s best not to complain about something that I’m not working to change. Same with voting, right? If you don’t vote, don’t complain!

Enjoy your afternoon! I’m camped out on the porch for Camp today, and working on finishing this time!