Subject Headings

Presents suggested headings appropriate for use in the catalogs of small and medium-sized libraries, and provides patterns and instructions for adding new headings as they are required. The seventeenth edition features a revision of headings for the native peoples of the Western Hemisphere, as well as many new subdivisions.

This book is a companion to the 19th edition of the Sears List and a complete course in the theory and practice of the List for practitioners, teachers, and learners. The object of this small, practical introduction is to be simple, clear, and illustrative, assuming the reader has little prior knowledge either of the Sears List or of subject headings work in general.

The first comprehensive theoretical treatise on Library of Congress subject headings, this important book provides an analysis of the Library of Congress subject heading system and its application. Library of Congress Subject Headings aims to help improve the clarity of the system, increase consistency and arrangement, increase the number of effective access points, facilitate the interaction of the system with the computer, and generally to make the Library of Congress subject heading system and its application of even greater value to the cataloger and the user. Practicing catalogers, library school personnel, advanced students, and any professional who is very knowledgeable about and seriously interested in Library of Congress subject headings will want to read this highly acclaimed volume. Author William Studwell includes theoretical, conceptual, and philosophical considerations based on 25 years of everyday practical cataloging and indexing work and the knowledge gained from theoretical research for the more than two dozen articles on subject cataloging that he has written in the last decade. He presents thought-provoking, often controversial material in three parts. The first section, "The System," deals with the basic philosophical foundations of LC subject headings. Thirty-two "principles"--guidelines and suggestions are offered along with detailed explanations, examples, and their relationships to other principles. The second section, "Application," focuses on the matters of subject cataloging practice, or interpretation and application of LC subject headings. The third section, "The Future," looks ahead to future issues relating to subject cataloging, such as the development of a theoretical subject heading code, the interface of LC subject headings with the computer, and some speculation as to the role and nature of LC subject headings in the years to come.