Some of Our Fifty Are Missing: Library of Congress Subject Headings for Southwestern Cultures and History

The Library of Congress Subject Headings has flaws in the logic and structure of its headings relating to the Southwest. Examples demonstrate aspects of the regional biases that make it frustrating to use LCSH for cataloging Southwest collections. The frustrations experienced by students, researchers, and library patrons trying to find detailed information on the Southwest have significant social consequences, especially for Hispanics and Native Americans. Antonio Gramsci’s concepts provide a framework to present the implications of these consequences and the need to correct them. LCSH is a major cataloging and research resource both nationally and internationally. Successfully changing biased and inaccurate LCSH subject headings will exhibit social and political leadership while LCSH is providing technological leadership as a key source for developing cooperative online international authority files for subject headings