The most superficial examination of a library, bookshop or other collections of documents will reveal that the idea of place is a very common element in the subjects of books. Titles abound such as:

It is therefore vital that any system of subject cataloguing enables us to express these geographic aspects. LCSH does this through the medium of geographic subdivisions.

When to use geographic subdivisions

The great majority of headings are accompanied by the legend (May Subd Geog), standing for ‘May Subdivide Geographically’, which tells the cataloguer that the name of a place can be added to the heading.

Where there is no such instruction, you should assume that geographic sub-division is not permitted, and sometimes, in case you were in doubt, there is a specific injunction not to subdivide.

Example

This is usually because such subdivision would be unnecessary, the topic being already limited geographically, as with names of places, or because alternative headings make provision for local specification, as in Prisoners’ writings, Bulgarian or Prisoners’ writings, Chinese. That is not always the case, however, and in some cases it is very hard to see why geographic subdivision is forbidden. Some general types of headings seem always to be debarred from geographic subdivision: for example, names of families, names of fictitious and legendary characters, and headings of the type Brooms and brushes in art, Bureaucracy in motion pictures or other similar combinations.