Knowing Nearby Others: Approaches to Precise Terminology in New Slavic Vocabularies

Abstract

Library of Congress Subject Headings for Slavic works on the folklore and social customs of former Soviet states are undergoing a new consciousness-raising. In spite of the notorious slowness of that institution’s working through anachronistic subject headings, there have been efforts by the Slavic cataloging community to increase the specificity, and thus the understanding of non-Russian Slavic cultures and their folk ways. This paper aims to show what progress has been made in the past quarter century in subject heading creation and application, and discusses some of the practical and ethical issues that arise in creating and changing Slavic folklore subject headings.