Free Cataloging Resources: Subject Headings

This page provides print-ready PDF files for the 46th Edition of the Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH). Data for the 46th edition was selected in April 2025.

The Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) thesaurus is a controlled and hierarchically-organized vocabulary produced by the National Library of Medicine. It is used for indexing, cataloging, and searching of biomedical and health-related information. MeSH includes the subject headings appearing in MEDLINE/PubMed, the NLM Catalog, and other NLM databases.

Use the MeSH database to find MeSH terms, including Subheadings, Publication Types, Supplementary Concepts and Pharmacological Actions, and then build a PubMed search. The MeSH database can be searched by MeSH term, MeSH Entry Term, Subheading, Publication Type, Supplementary Concept, or MeSH Scope Note.

Maintained by the Getty Research Institute, the Art & Architecture Thesaurus Online (AAT) provides preferred names/terms and synonyms for people, places, and things. They also provide structure and classification schemes that can aid in documentation.

This online training on Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH) is freely available as a service to the library community. The modules are no longer being updated but the fundamental principles of LCSH in the training are unchanged.

This page provides print-ready PDF files for the the Library of Congress Genre/Form Terms for Library and Archival Materials (LCGFT).