Analyzing and comparing syntactic and relational structures of Persian Subject Headings with Library of Congress Subject Headings

Persian Subject Headings (PSH) is a standard national tool for subject cataloguing of Persian. This research aims to identify and analyze the PSH characteristics including syntactic and relational structures. Coding agenda was developed according to the research questions and framework, and theoretical basis, especially theories of language and semantics. It is also revised by experts to fulfill the reliability. PSH (3ed edition) and two supplements (including 11233 records) and shared subject headings in the Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH) and PSH (including 9519 records) were defined as the research population. Random sample was selected to answer some sub-questions. Findings show that %86.17 of the subject headings are in natural language and %79.87 of them are both natural and pre-coordinated. Syntactic analysis of PSH indicates that nouns (%96.1) and noun phrases (%87) are dominant. There is a significant difference between two catalogs (LCSH and PSH) in terms of language (natural or artificial), use of scope notes and Library of Congress classification number. Also a significant difference was observed between the relational structures of these two catalogs. In conclusion, it is recommended that the errors need correction and the relational structures of PSH need to be enriched.