[Hitch]

Originally Posted by st_albert

[PEDANT]
Well, you don't search by BISAC code directly, but at Amazon, for example, when you browse by category, you're browsing by BISAC category. You don't see the code, you see the human-readable discription of the category. Similarly at Sony, B&N, etc. I assume.

So from the reader's point of view, you're absolutely correct. However from the authors POV, s/he'd better supply some well chosen BISAC categories if s/he wants the right eyeballs to find the book. It's important for more than just libraries. I think KDP has you choose the categories from a drop-down list of BISAC descriptions, so you still don't need to know the actual code. Sony, Kobo, and some others, not so much.
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Albert

Albert:

[PEDANT]

OP's questions, both of them, were explicitly about READERS finding it, e.g.:

how subject entries are entered correctly (for maximum success/viewing online by ebook buyers)

and

what if I simply put in the word "pirate", to help readers locate my book if the book was about, for example, antique coins recovered from buried pirate treasure?

I read the original questions twice to ensure I understood the intent. I would be the first to agree with you that if the OP is uploading via FTP to iBooks, or Amazon,etc., then, yes, s/he better get those BISAC codes ready; but in Nook, Amazon, iBooks and, AFAIK, Kobo's direct uploads, the category selections are all text, not BISAC. I've filled out many an ONIX sheet myself, but my comprehension of the question was that the OP wanted to know if using the BISAC codes, in the meta, would somehow make his/her book "findable" to buyers. I still say what I said.

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Hitch