Music and indexing in public libraries

This paper follows an analytical and critical line of reasoning concerningindexing and retrieval of music in Swedish public libraries. The focus ofthe discussion is based on the terms included in the subject heading list ofthe Swedish Classification System. The empirical study is performed inthe context of online catalogues in the public libraries of Örebro andGävle. The theoretical background relies on the indexing theory ofProfessor Frederick W. Lancaster. An issue being discussed is in whatextent the subject headings represent the music recordings in a pertinentway. One of the conclusions are that due to the lack of practicing theprinciple of specificity there are terms that have not been used inindexing. As a result of this and other problems I belive that thecontrolled vocabulary is in need of an update, which according to myopinion should include adding new terms as well as term deletion.Uppsatsnivå: