Subject Access

For the Series of Unfortunate Events books, the access terms will be Brothers and Sisters-Fiction and Humorous Stories-Fiction (Snicket, A Series of Unfortunate Events, Book the First: The Bad Beginning, 1999). For the movie version, they will be Comedy-Fiction and Kids and Family-Fiction (amazon.com). For the Harry Potter books and movies, the access terms will be Witches-Fiction, Wizards-Fiction and Schools-Fiction. For the Chronicles of Narnia books and movies, the access terms will be Fantasy-Fiction, Adventure-Fiction, and Religious Philosophy-Fiction.

The Series of Unfortunate Events summary will be as follows: After a devastating fire destroys their house and kills their parents, the Baudelaire siblings must escape the clutches of greedy Count Olaf, who is out to steal their fortune. The Harry Potter summary will be as follows: Upon learning he is a wizard, Harry Potter leaves his dreary aunt and uncle’s house to enroll in Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, where adventure awaits. The Chronicles of Narnia summary will be as follows: A mystical land called Narnia is visited by four siblings, where they encounter new friends, the cruel White Witch and the mysterious Aslan the Lion.

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The items are catalogued the way they are using a combination of Library of Congress access terms, those found on Amazon.com, those found in the original books themselves, and our own creative thinking.  We are using LC and simplified LC because it is an established standard in libraries and its terms are easy to understand by our intended users (primarily children and young adults).  They are concise and enable uncomplicated, straightforward access to our collection items.

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Sources:

• Snicket, Lemony. A Series of Unfortunate Events, Book the First: The Bad Beginning. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 1999.
• Rowling, J.K. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. London: Bloomsbury, 1997 (as Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. American edition is New York: Scholastic, Inc., 1998).
• Lewis, C.S. The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe. United Kingdom: Geoffrey Bles, 1950.
• http://www.amazon.com/
• http://www.loc.gov/