Subject Headings for School and Public Libraries an LCSH/Sears Companion
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Subject Headings for School and Public Libraries Subject Headings for School and Public Libraries An LCSH/Sears Companion Third Edition Joanna F. Fountain 2001 LIBRARIES UNLIMITED, INC. Englewood, Colorado Copyright © 2001 Joanna F. Fountain All Rights Reserved Printed in the United States of America No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photo- copying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. Libraries Unlimited, Inc. P.O. Box 6633 Englewood, CO 80155-6633 1-800-237-6124 www.lu.com Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Fountain, Joanna F. Subject headings for school and public libraries : an LCSH/Sears companion / Joanna F. Fountain.--3rd ed. p. cm. ISBN 1-56308-853-3 1. Subject headings, Library of Congress. 2. Sears, Minnie Earl, 1873-1933. Sears list of subject headings. 3. Subject headings--Children’s literature. 4. School libraries--United States. 5. Public libraries--United States. I. Title. Z695.Z8 L5235 2001 025.4’68088’99282--dc21 00-066307 This Page Intentionally Left Blank This work is dedicated to my parents, Thomas E. Fountain and Iona F. Fountain, who taught me to love words and books! v This Page Intentionally Left Blank CONTENTS Foreword . ix Preface. xi Background . xi Acknowledgments. xi Introduction . xiii The Library of Congress’s Annotated Card Program . xiii Format of the Subject Heading List . xiii Using the Subject Heading List . xiv Using Free-floating Phrase Headings. xv No Longer Free-floating . .xv Using Free-floating Subdivisions. xv Types of Subdivisions . xv Pattern Headings . xvi Categories with No Pattern Headings . xvi Table of Pattern Headings. xvii A Few Caveats . xviii Format of the Free-floating Subdivision List. xviii Key to Free-floating Subdivisions . xix Free-floating Subdivisions . xx Subject Headings Key to Subject Headings. 2 Subject Headings List . 3 vii This Page Intentionally Left Blank FOREWORD While the reference librarian serves as a guide to a library’s what you see in the bibliographic record when you are helping a resources, a cataloging librarian is responsible for organizing patron. Most importantly, you may at some point need to create those resources. Unless it is accessible to patrons by some predict- some original cataloging and you must be able to integrate that able scheme, the time and money spent developing a collection original record into your existing catalog. has been wasted. It is far too costly to have carefully selected The USMARC (now MARC 21) format and the rules for books and other material merely sitting on the shelves, unused. standard description as outlined in AACR2 are very specific and Cataloging is not only for the librarian serving the public prescriptive. Most cataloging now found in libraries is based on but over time, it helps patrons become more self-sufficient in the this format and these rules. However, the classification arrange- library setting and beyond in areas such as the Internet. This is ments and subject heading lists used are a matter of institutional particularly important when dealing with children. Anyone who choice or tradition. The Dewey Decimal Classification scheme helps children understand how information is organized provides and the Library of Congress Classification scheme are probably a lifelong service. This knowledge can eventually turn young the most widely used in the United States. For subject analysis the patrons into savvy searchers who can successfully satisfy their choice is usually the Sears List of Subject Headings or the Library own information needs. of Congress Subject Headings. Like the standardized format and Once a time-consuming task done locally, cataloging now descriptive rules, these classification schemes and controlled benefits from the widespread use of a versatile standardized format, vocabularies are dynamic entities that continue to evolve to keep the availability of several well-developed cataloging tools, and pace with the information in our changing world. the increased ability to share bibliographic information. Since If your library purchases catalog records, you may discover its inception, the USMARC format has provided a predictable that they have actually been created by the catalogers at the Library arrangement of useful information in a bibliographic citation of Congress. Furthermore, these records may be part of LC’s that can be customized for specific needs. The availability of the Annotated Card program, which creates child-oriented cataloging Anglo-American Cataloging Rules (AACR2) and several well- for material likely to be acquired by school libraries and children’s known controlled vocabularies such as the Library of Congress collections in public libraries. Subject Headings and the Sears List of Subject Headings also If you do need to create original records, you now know enable cataloging records to display useful information about an that there are tools available to help you. What you have before item in a predictable and recognizable way. The format and the you is one of those tools. You can consult it for help when assign- tools work together to make it easy for the library community to ing the subject headings to a record you are creating. However, you share bibliographic citations. Many people feel that we have may find that you use this new edition of Subject Headings for reached a time when only a few people really need to know the School and Public Libraries merely to develop a better under- practices and procedures of cataloging. I, along with others, standing of the subject analysis of material found in your collec- don’t agree. To be a well-rounded effective librarian, you need tion. In either case, this is a good place to start. to develop an understanding of the peculiarities of the biblio- graphic record even if you don’t plan to be a full-time cataloger. Jane E. Gilchrist This understanding enables you to speak the common language Team Leader, Children’s Literature Team of libraries and facilitates your work with commercial companies History and Literature Cataloging Division that might provide your cataloging. It also helps you interpret Library of Congress ix This Page Intentionally Left Blank PREFACE Until recently, the subject headings in many school and school system recognized for its excellent educational program. public library catalogs were taken from the Sears List of Subject Their collection includes book and nonbook materials for all ar- Headings (H. W. Wilson), the most accessible and suitable list avail- eas of interest among children and young adult readers, as well able for this type of library. However, as school and public librarians as curriculum support areas for its elementary, middle, and high automate their catalogs, they often receive and incorporate in those schools. Their shared online catalog consists of records derived same catalogs an increasingly higher percentage of their cataloging largely from the Library of Congress and reflects many years of from MARC records. The majority of MARC (MAchine-Readable high-quality acquisitions by the librarians of that district. Cataloging) records and CIP (Cataloging-In-Publication) data The second edition of the compilation was retitled to reflect originate in the Library of Congress, which does not apply Sears the addition of all the headings used in the catalog of the Kemp headings to its records. Rather, it uses its own Library of Congress Public Library (Wichita Falls, TX), a large regional library serv- Subject Headings (LCSH). The result of mixing the two types of ing a general population, which generously offered its authority headings inevitably causes confusion and searching difficulties. file for the purpose of enhancing the list for more general use. The American Library Association (ALA) encourages li- Theirs was supplemented by additional headings supplied by braries to standardize subject access across types of libraries Marcive, Inc., a bibliographic services firm in San Antonio, (“Guidelines for Standardized Cataloging of Children’s Materi- Texas. This third edition adds several thousand more headings, als,” Top of the News [Fall 1983]: 49–55). To facilitate adoption many of which are names, from the Texas Library Connection and use of LCSH, the Library of Congress (LC) publishes a list database, a legislative initiative providing catalog records and of the headings used in its Annotated Card Program (AC list) in the resource-sharing opportunities for K–12 schools. first volume of each edition of LCSH, generally referred to as the Previously each of these libraries had used the headings “big red books.” The main list, however, provides no references to suggested by the Sears List of Subject Headings. However, when headings in the AC list. Catalogers who wish to convert to LC face they automated their catalogs, they implemented the recommen- a major task in checking and rechecking every heading, wonder- dations of the ALA and other library agencies to use the head- ing whether it is the same as the AC list heading, whether the ings provided by the Library of Congress in its Annotated Card guidelines for its usage are standard or specialized, and whether Program. Each entry has been reconciled with the AC list and Preface the headings in the local catalog will have to be changed. the full listing of headings in the current (23rd) edition of LCSH, Subject Headings for School and Public Libraries: An including changes published through the Fall 2000 issue of the LCSH/Sears Companion was created to assist in the conversion Cataloging Service Bulletin (Washington, DC: Library of Con- and standardization of headings for automated and card catalogs. gress, quarterly), as well as the Library’s Name Authority File. Its focus is slanted to the MARC environment by the addition of The manual processes involved in making a change of this information on field numbers (tags) and subfield codes.