vers:Subject

The subject or topic of a record that concisely and accurately describes the record’s content.

The subject acts as a resource discovery access point at a finer level of detail than that provided by the element M32 TITLE. Some users may require searching capability at individual keyword level, rather than just by the title as a whole.

Conditional. (This element must be used if M33 SCHEME TYPE has been set to ‘Subject-based’.)

Yes

Yes

Some subject-based schemes are hierarchical; others allow the use of a number of equally weighted keywords.

If the scheme allows for equally weighted keywords, multiple M39 Keyword subelements should be used. The M38 Keyword Level should not be present.

For a Version 1 VEO only: If the scheme is hierarchical, multiple M37 SUBJECT elements will be present, one element for each level. The M38 Keyword Level subelement will indicate the level of the keywords in this element, and Keywords will contain the list of keywords.

Note: The definition of this element has been changed from that given in NAA to simplify implementation and to improve the ability to transfer records between systems. To map from an NAA metadata element, create an instance of M37 SUBJECT element with the appropriate M38 Keyword Level subelement set and the keyword(s) in the M39 Keyword subelement. For example, mapping from the NAA metadata Subject/Second Level Keyword = ‘Ministerial’ would give Subject {Keyword Level = 2, Keyword = ‘Ministerial’}. To map from a VERS metadata element to the equivalent NAA metadata element creates an instance of the appropriate subelement for that level. Note that this may require the definition of new subelements if it is a 4^th or greater level keyword.

For a Version 2 VEO only: If the scheme is hierarchical, a M37 Subject element will contain the following subelements:

• An optional M38 Keyword Level subelement which will indicate the level of the keywords in this element.
• At least one M39 Keyword subelement. Normally, we would expect only one keyword element.
• Zero or more M37 Subject subelements. Each subject subelement contains the subordinate keyword terms.

Note that the mechanism in Version 2 allows a record to contain multiple hierarchical subject classifications with the finer-grained keywords correctly associated.