Subject Heading Update: World Trade CenterAttacks
Posted March 5, 2003

Below are examples for the attacks on the World Trade Center that show how the Library of Congress (LC) comes up with headings for current events. A subject heading is not generated until a book is published to justify the heading. Once this happens, LC looks for the most common usage of the term. In the 1993 heading, the authority record references the book that generated the subject heading and the two popular publications from which the most common usage of the term was taken.

Make sure to use the correct subject heading for the different World Trade Center (WTC) events. The 1993 bombing has the WTC in the heading, but the 2001 events do not, as there were multiple locations involved.

Heading for materials about the 1993 World Trade Center Bombing:
650  0 $aWorld Trade Center Bombing, New York, N.Y., 1993

Do not use: Bombing of the World Trade Center, New York, N.Y., 1993
Do not use: World Trade Center (New York, N.Y.)$xBombing, 1993

Broader terms:
650  0 $aBombings$zNew York (State)
650  0 $aTerrorism$zNew York (State)

Work cataloged: Kerson, Adrian. Terror in the towers : amazing stories from the World Trade Center disaster, 1993.

Info about term:
Wash. Post, Apr. 5, 1993$b(World Trade Center bombing)
N.Y. Times, Apr. 6, 2993$b(World Trade Center bombing)

Heading for materials about the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks:
650  1 September 11 Terrorist Attacks, 2001

Do not use: 9/11 Terrorist Attacks, 2001
Do not use: American Airlines Flight 77 Hijacking Incident, 2001
Do not use: World Trade Center (New York, N.Y.)$xTerrorist Attack, 2001
Do not use: World Trade Center-Pentagon Terrorist Attacks, 2001
Do not use: United Airlines Flight 175 Hijacking Incident, 2001
Do not use: United Airlines Flight 93 Hijacking Incident, 2001
Do not use: Terrorist Attacks, September 11, 2001
Do not use: September 11 Terrorism, 2001
Do not use: September 11 Terror Attacks, 2001
Do not use: Sept. 11 Terrorist Attacks, 2001
Do not use: Pentagon-World Trade Center Terrorist Attacks, 2001
Do not use: Pentagon (Va.)$xTerrorist Attack, 2001
Do not use: Attack on America, 2001 (September 11 Terrorist Attacks)
Do not use: American Airlines Flight 11 Hijacking Incident, 2001
Do not use: 911 Terrorist Attacks, 2001

Broader terms:
650  0 $aHijacking of aircraft$zUnited States
650  0 $aTerrorism$zUnited States

Info about term: Here are entered works on the attacks by terrorists on the World Trade Center in New York City and the Pentagon outside Washington, D.C., using three hijacked commercial jetliners, and on the crash of a fourth hijacked jetliner in a rural area of Pennsylvania on September 11, 2001.