History Librarians spend a lot of time selecting fictional materials but they rarely make them as readily available to patrons as non-fiction materials. That myth is more potent than history. That dreams are more powerful than facts.
Fictional works contain facts about real life.
Some authors do a great deal of research and those facts are woven into the story. Imaginative literature may be the only way some users may come to understand concepts, history, ways of life, etc. Subject headings should be assigned to collocate fiction and non-fiction in the catalog. In the dial-in environment that many users and libraries work in today or where reference librarians are unavailable to help, we can no longer rely on someone's memory or reading habits. Service is part of the responsibility of the bibliographic control provider.