According to the Subject Cataloging Manual produced and distributed through the Library of Congress, Cataloging Distribution Service: "The term free-floating refers to a form or topical subdivision that may be used under designated subjects without the usage being established editorially and, as a consequence, without an authority record being created for each main heading/subdivision combination that might be needed."

The Library of Congress has created stand-alone authority records for the free-floating subdivisions that are used in the LC subject headings system. The Structured free-floating subdivision field allows you to search these authority records using the same approach that is used with the Structured subject heading field.

In this simulation, we have entered the terms "women authors" in the Structured free-floating subdivision box. Select the Search button to see the authorized heading. Next select the Browse button below to see the list sorted by structured subdivision. Finally, select the Reset button to try an Unstructured free-floating subdivision search.