The following item is another one from Futility Closet (http://www.futilitycloset.com/). It is re-posted here with the permission of Greg Ross, who maintains the site. You can have daily updates delivered to your e-mail each morning.
*************************
When PLAFSEP magazine asked its readers to nominate the silliest library subject heading, the hands-down winner was “Buttocks (In Religion, Folk-Lore, Etc.).”
Other highlights, gathered by columnist John R. Likins:
That’s from Likins’ article “Subject Headings, Silly, American–20th Century–Complications and Sequelae–Addresses, Essays, Lectures,” in Technical Services Quarterly, vol. 2, no. 1/2, Fall/Winter 1984, using data from the Library of Congress and Cataloging in Publication.
American Giant Checkered Rabbit
Bankruptcy–Popular Works
Catastrophical, The, See Also Comic, The
Child Abuse–Study And Teaching
Contango and Backwardation
Dentists In Art
Fantastic Television Programs
Food, Junk
Ghosts–Pictorial Works
God–Addresses, Essays, Lectures
Hemorrhoids–Popular Works
Jesus Christ–Person And Offices
Laboratory Animals–Congresses
Love Nests–Directories
Manure Handling
Mud Lumps
Odors in the Bible
Prayers for Animals
Sick–Family Relationships
Urinary Diversions, See Also Urine Dance
Wasps (Persons)
In The Library at Night (2006), Alberto Manguel provides these headings:
Banana Research
Bat Binding
Boots and Shoes in Art
Chickens in Religion and Folklore
Sewage: Collected Works
Sex: Cause and Determination
Tic: See Also Toc
And the Whole Library Handbook (1991) offers these, collected by the Library of Congress Professional Association:
Adult Children
Beehives; see Bee–Housing
Diving for Men
Drug Abuse — Programmed Instruction
Feet in the Bible
Hand — Surgery — Juvenile Literature
Lord’s Supper — Reservation
Low German Wit and Humor
Monotone Operators
Running Races in Rabbinical Literature
Standing on One Foot; see One-Leg Resting Position
Stupidity; see Inefficiency, Intellectual
I think some of these may now be out of date, but there’s certainly no shortage of curious headings — in doing research for this site I recently ran across “Raccoon — Biography.”
Pingback: Dissertation with Titles That Warrant a Double-Take | Academe Blog
Pingback: A Significant Portion of Someone’s Life Was Devoted to Writing Each of These Books | Academe Blog
Pingback: How It Is That What Now Seems Hyper-Patriotic Can, in Retrospect, Look like a Mockery of Patriotism | Academe Blog
Pingback: Parsing the Paradoxical Nature of Politics | Academe Blog
Pingback: The Pyramid Cemetery: A Historical Anecdote with the Resonance of a Parable | Academe Blog
Pingback: How to Make the Case for an Article’s Publication | Academe Blog
Pingback: Plagiarism and Cryptomnesia | Academe Blog
Pingback: Political Parties That Are Aware That They Are a Joke | Academe Blog
Pingback: Taking Literary Minimalism to Its Endpoint | Academe Blog
Pingback: A Postscript to One-Word Poems: A Poem without Words—from the Academe Archives No Less | Academe Blog
Pingback: It Was Never an Either/Or Choice, but Was the Mutilation of the Stacks Worse than the Abandonment of the Stacks? | Academe Blog
Pingback: Bad Writing as a Momentary Source of Joy, Rather Than a Reason for Prolonged Disdain, Disgust, or Despair | Academe Blog
Reblogged this on Stuff for a Slow Day.