Names in Space and Time: The Indexing Vocabulary of the Humanities

This article explores differences in precision of terms used in subject access in the humanities. It differentiates terms on the basis of the exactness with which the phenomena that they designate can be located in space and time. The better a phenomenon can be so located, the more precise is the term that designates it. This article proposes five categories of terms, differentiated by precision. It classifies, according to the five categories, samples of 200 entry terms from the indexes to volumes or issues of seven secondary access services in the humanities. The article analyzes the numbers of items indexed by entry terms and the numbers of referenced terms from sampled entry terms to other entry terms. This analysis corroborates some, but not all, of the theoretical distinctions between the different categories of terms. Implications of these findings for (1) differentiation among humanities disciplines, (2) expansion and narrowing of the search for information, and (3) levels of effort in cataloging, are discussed.