Hidden Voices: A Case Study Analysis of Subject Headings for Book Titles on Women in Science

ABSTRACT

History is dominated by men; therefore, most of recorded history has been dominated by men, and the history of women has been ignored. The history of women in science and technology fields is particularly difficult to trace and fewer books have been written on the topic in relationship to the number of books on male scientists. Despite rising academic and public interest in the history of women in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM), libraries continue to face the lack of books for purchase as well as online catalogs that are inadequate in capturing the breadth of works on women in STEM. When people try to locate library books about women in STEM, they may run into barriers with subject headings and author-assigned keywords, making accessing these stories difficult without knowing specific titles. This study aims to determine the relationship between author-supplied keywords and Library of Congress Subject Headings on books about women in science. The ramifications for STEM librarians and collection development are discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Libraries
• Matilda effect
• science
• subject headings
• women

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability

The data that support the findings of this study are openly available in GitHub at 10.5281/zenodo.5847103.