Subject Indexing in Sweden - the creating of a national system based on international standards in a country that often wanted to go its own way.

This presentation will provide an overview of how a subject heading language has been implemented in a Swedish context. Swedish libraries used to create their own approaches to subject access - if at all. With the help of IFLA's principles, LCSH and Rameau, a Swedish Subject Heading Language has been created. It was developed in close contact with the National Bibliographic Agency. It has been applied since 2002 and is used by most libraries attached to the Swedish union catalogue LIBRIS. This paper will examine our experiences with regard to both initiating a new system based on internationally accepted rules as well as taking into account the particular circumstances associated with a small country with its own history and experiences. In many ways Sweden has regarded itself as unique in terms of cataloguing and subject access. For instance, Sweden has a classification system of its own. But concerning subject access we are today part of a global context. Our presentation will show how contacts within the IFLA community have been used to bring about a system where the sharing of intellectual efforts benefits the user and how the venture has been accepted by other libraries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]