Subject Access to Archival and Manuscript Material

The numerous vocabulary lists that are available for use in cataloging often present difficulties when applied in the cataloging of archival and manuscript material, sometimes because archivists have had little to do with the creation, maintenance, and revision of the lists, and at times due to the lack of sufficient application guidelines for otherwise appropriate vocabularies. The author discusses these problems and proposes possible solutions by examining subject access tools used for USMARC fields 072 (subject category code), 600-654 (subject added entries), 655/755 (index term—genre/form and added entry—physical characteristics), and 656 (index term—occupations).