Public Services staff reported difficulty finding relevant items in the catalog for their Heritage Month programs and displays. For example, there isn’t a Library of Congress subject heading for Black History Month. The only subject heading is African American History. When you type Black History Month into the catalog, your results will only include those items with words used as keywords from the title or the synopsis of an item, which reduced access to the information available. We analyzed data on keywords patrons used to search the catalog for topics related to Focus Areas. We found searches for phrases such as “The History of Juneteeth,” “Basic Spanish,” LGBTQIA+ Books for Children and Teens,” “Native Americans in Sports,” and “Asian Authors,” among others. We needed to increase the likelihood of staff and patrons finding heritage month-related materials, improve findability of diverse display materials, and improve statistical data on heritage month material circulation.

We talked with Public Service staff and used the LCSH to search the catalog. We then created our own local subject headings that would allow people to use updated terms for searching. For example, for Pride Month, we searched for transgender, asexuality, coming out (sexual orientation), queer, gender nonconformity, etc. and used that list to add a 690 field of Pride Month.
To accomplish this work, we:

• Consulted with staff to determine what kind of materials they use for display
• Discerned how broad the content subject headings should be or how narrow the parameters for inclusion
• Identified current subject headings used
• Pulled data from website analytics to determine what patrons are searching for
• Consulted with staff to determine what search terms they use
• Implemented new ILS subject headings via Create List and Global Update

For Native American Heritage Month, we included many tribes in our search but also added not to include sports team or East Indian Americans.

Staff have shared feedback including, "The work done with subject headings has been incredibly helpful when creating displays and compiling Heritage Month Resource Sheets! The search terms have streamlined the process and made it so much easier to find related items in the catalog to recommend to patrons. Additionally, it is wonderful to have more inclusive/respectful terms to use when giving search suggestions to patrons who want to browse our catalog themselves."

Circulation from select displays increased compared to 2023, most notably for Black History Month (113%), Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month (43%), and Native American Heritage Month (64%).

Total items changed to include the new 690 field are: Black History (9,265), Women’s History (9,998), Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage (1,873), PRIDE (5,242), Hispanic Heritage (4,354), and Native American Heritage (2,748). We will continue to update search terms and apply them to items added to the collection.