Differentiate between ‘subject cataloguing’ and ‘subject indexing’. Describe the process of subject indexing.

 The wide variety of formats which encompass digital works makes it difficult to apply cataloging controls developed in the context of print-based collections to cataloging in digital libraries. This is also reflected in traditional library descriptive cataloging practices by the vast number of resources devoted to helping catalogers determine how to catalog an electronic resource. In digital libraries, although the digital works included may not have been born digital (i.e., they are digitized versions of a traditional print book or other analog work), cataloging a digital work within a digital environment can be difficult. Determining the subject of a digital work would appear to perhaps be simpler than full descriptive cataloging; if one interacts with a digital work, one should be able to obtain a sense of the about-ness and of-ness of the work. However, there is currently no one standardized way for subjects to be recorded in a digital library. This is not to say that there are no standards in use. Traditional library standards for recording subjects such as the Library of Congress Subject Headings are available for use but unless the digital library is directly associated with a traditional library.

Subject indexing is the act of describing or classifying a document by index terms or other symbols in order to indicate what the document is about, to summarize its content or to increase its findability. In other words, it is about identifying and describing the subject of documents. Indexes are constructed, separately, on three distinct levels: terms in a document such as a book; objects in a collection such as a library; and documents (such as books and articles) within a field of knowledge.

Subject indexing is used in information retrieval especially to create bibliographic indexes to retrieve documents on a particular subject. Examples of academic indexing services are Zentralblatt MATH, Chemical Abstracts and PubMed. The index terms were mostly assigned by experts but author keywords are also common.

The process of indexing begins with any analysis of the subject of the document. The indexer must then identify terms which appropriately identify the subject either by extracting words directly from the document or assigning words from a controlled vocabulary. The terms in the index are then presented in a systematic order.

Indexers must decide how many terms to include and how specific the terms should be. Together this gives a depth of indexing.

In library and information science, cataloging (or cataloguing) is the process of creating metadata representing information resources, such as books, sound recordings, moving images, etc. Cataloging provides information such as creator names, titles, and subject terms that describe resources, typically through the creation of bibliographic records. The records serve as surrogates for the stored information resources. Since the 1970s these metadata are in machine-readable form and are indexed by information retrieval tools, such as bibliographic databases or search engines. While typically the cataloging process results in the production of library catalogs, it also produces other types of discovery tools for documents and collections.

Bibliographic control provides the philosophical basis of cataloging, defining the rules for sufficiently describing information resources to enable users to find and select the most appropriate resource. A cataloger is an individual responsible for the processes of description, subject analysis, classification, and authority control of library materials. Catalogers serve as the "foundation of all library service, as they are the ones who organize information in such a way as to make it easily accessible".

Subject indexing is the process used for describing the subject matter of documents. Subject indexing involves assigning terms to represent what the document is about. 

Subject indexing is a crucial operation in the creation and maintenance of index file, as retrieval of information depends to a large extent on the quality of indexing. The process of subject indexing involves basically three steps.:

Familiarization => Analysis => Representation 

The first step towards a successful index is familiarization. The indexer must become conversant with the subject content of the document. The most reliable way to determine the subject content is to read or examine the work in detail. It is always wise to look beyond the title for ascertaining the subject content of the document, e.g. table of contents, chapter headings, preface, introduction, opening phases of chapters and paragraphs, book  jacket, etc. Reference sources may also be consulted and occasionally, subject specialists may have to be consulted, particularly when the subject matter in unfamiliar to the indexer. 

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