Wizard Rock is many things: music about Harry Potter, a source of unbridled happiness, the most amazing community I’ve ever been a part of, and a Library of Congress subject heading. That last one might sound pretty lackluster after the other three, but being an official subject heading is quite awesome. 

Back in 2008, librarians Joy E. Lambert and Annette Anderson-Ma submitted a new subject heading to the Library of Congress: Wizard Rock Music. The Library of Congress is the largest library in the world. It holds millions of books, recordings, photos, periodicals, and more. The Library collects, preserves, and provides access to these collections whether you are an experienced researcher or a newbie.

But the Library of Congress is so much more than just a big library. Its cataloging system and subject headings are used by many institutions worldwide. Library of Congress Subject Headings have been actively maintained since 1898 and proposals for additions and changes to the subject headings are reviewed regularly at staff meetings. As Lambert states in her 2008 presentation “Wizard Rocking the Library of Congress”:

“As new areas of study emerge, so do Library of Congress Subject Headings to help organize new information and research. When catalogers cannot find a subject heading that is specific enough to describe an item they are cataloging, they have an opportunity to submit new subject headings for approval.”

When searching for a resource, subject headings are important. When searching for an item, one might search by title or author if they know exactly what they’re looking for. If they’re not sure of the exact title, but have a general idea of what they want, they could try a basic search, usually by keyword.

Unfortunately, keyword searching can result in a ton of superfluous options. Before “wizard rock” became a subject heading, I might have run a keyword search for “wizard rock” bringing up results that have the words “wizard” and “rock” somewhere in the record. I would probably find what I was looking for, but would also have to sift through a lot of irrelevant results. Now that a dedicated subject heading exists, I was able to run an advanced search for the subject heading “wizard rock”.

Although the list was small, 100% of the results were relevant, and exactly what I was looking for:

1. a sound recording of a Harry and the Potters album
2. a book by our very own Paul Thomas

Thomas’s 2018 book I Wanna Rock: The World of Harry Potter-Inspired “Wizard Rock” and Its Fandom is available for request in the Performing Arts Reading Room in the Madison Building!

While the Potter Fandom contributed a lot to the world: fan art, fanfic, wizard rock, and more, a lot of it tends to be contained within our own fannish universe. Expanding into the muggle world can be hard for us. The official recognition of Wizard Rock as a Library of Congress subject heading is proof that we are so much more than a group of fans. We are the Harry Potter Fandom. We are wizard rock. We are a subject heading.

 

For more information visit:

Wizard Rocking the Library of Congress

Library of Congress Subject Headings