Cataloging is the process of preparing a bibliographic record by describing a work and assigning it subject headings, access points and a call number.
There are different types of cataloging, one of which being descriptive cataloging. This type has the coal of describing an item, identifying access points and formatting access points using cataloging rules and preferred forms of names from the name authority files.
Another type is subject cataloging. This type of cataloging is what adds subject terms to the items in a catalog record. They represent the work in words and phrases, using the Library of Congress Subject Headings, or other term thesaurus such as Sears, MeSH, or Art & Architecture Thesaurus.
Classification is also an important type of cataloging. Classification determines a subject number for an item using either the Dewey decimal classification system, the Library of Congress Classification System, or rarely some other type of classification system.