Chronological Terms and Period Subdivisions in LCSH, RAMEAU, and RSWK

Abstract

After a fundamental examination of the phenomenon of time, this paper presents the history, authority, and structure of period subdivisions and chronological terms in the three subject heading languages LCSH, RAMEAU, and RSWK. Their usefulness in online searching is demonstrated using the online catalogs of the Library of Congress, the Bibliothèque nationale de France, and the Deutsche Bibliothek and is compared to the search options in selected digital encyclopedias (Encyclopaedia Britannica, Encarta, Brockhaus-Enzyklopädie). The author develops a model for common time retrieval across all three online catalogs, outlines the conditions for that model (time period code, chronological code, and chronology authority file), and proposes a search interface.