T-minus 12 hours before I board my flight for ALA. Yes, it’s a bit late of a flight but I am there until mid-day Tuesday–that’s what happens when attending ALA Annual is a last minute decision. It’s a rather D.I.Y. trip that I got together a couple weeks ago myself; with my husband there leading a couple of sessions and library grad school friends wanting to meet up, despite my panel speaking falling through in the end, I decided to head out to Anaheim and make the best of it anyway. I’m going on my own from PQ as no fellow co-workers are headed out this year and the sales reps and trainers have plans. That means flying out tonight, which is fine because tomorrow is when all the fun starts, anyway–and I have that all day session! In the end, degrees (Forbes, 60-second survey brief and full reports), jobs (Annoyed Librarian), and conferences are what you make of them.

With Steve making me on-the-fly free business cards–woot!–I’m absolutely ready for this conference. Now, I just have to wait all day and a four hour flight. My scheduled is planned and online through the ALA Scheduler if you are curious where I’ll be and when. Please, tweet me up or hunt me down at a session–I’m always looking to meet other passionate catalogers. Don’t let my working for ProQuest fool you, I’m a true cataloger through and through. If you read this blog regularly or have perused it at all, that should be quite evident. At the conference, I’ll post about the session, likely in an evening recap once back at the hotel or during down time (if any) between sessions themselves. There is a lot going on and I’m trying to hit as much big stuff as possible, i.e. Linked Data and RDA and FRBR especially. Plus we’ll go see George R. R. Martin for fun.

Before heading off to work and trying to keep myself as busy as possible all day so that I’m not thinking about the flight and how Steve’s already in the air and will be in Anaheim soon with some of our grad school friends that got in last night (lucky duckies!), there’s a matter of a super cool subject heading. Did you think I’d leave you, dear reader, longing for another sub. head. to mull over while I’m away having fun at ALA?

BONUS: There’s a Subject Heading for that!?: Crime prevention, and its narrower terms

“Crime prevention” isn’t the sub. head. that I want to talk about but it is the umbrella term for a lot of cool, odd narrower terms nested in it. The one that got me started, and pertained to my item in hand, was “private security services”. Since this was the first time that I saw it, I chased it down a bit because my curiosity needed feeding; lately it’s been a diet of business management and techie books–nothing wrong with that but I know those sub. head. down pat. Things didn’t get interesting until I looked at the broader term “crime prevention”.

All look pretty run-of-the-mill and typically what you’d think it’d have for narrower terms, except “surety of the peace”. I’m sure that I can figure that one out but what an odd phrases, even for a sub. head. Seriously, who is going to type that in? Perhaps it’s another “Easter egg” sub. head. that when you find it, your reward is great because now you know this specific term that leads to a very specific topic. Score!

Even better, though, is its narrower term:

“Good behavior (Law)” as opposed to unlawful good behavior? Bad joke. I guess this would get at maybe a person’s behavior as it affects their legal status, such as being in prison or on parole. Yet when I saw this for the first time, it hit me as useful only if you knew the topic already. For lawyers and law student, legal researchers and maybe judges, it’s a great fit; law librarians, rejoice!

Popping over to the LC Online Catalog, “surety of the peace” has 4 basic LCSH and the remaining dozen or so are subdivided by place. For “good behavior (law)”, the pickings are even more slim with only 10 totally hits and all are subdivided geographically. Alright, so you’ll find something if you use these sub. heads. but you won’t find much–which makes it a perfect topic for a thesis, right? Have at it! Just try to remain peaceful and on your best behavior as you duke it out over this amazing thesis topic–you’re welcome!

Better get to work so I can catch that flight tonight! See you in Anaheim, or follow me on Twitter @ReadWriteLib or stay tuned here for more posts!