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Critical Views of LCSH--The Library of Congress Subject Headings; A

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Critical Views of LCSH--The Library of Congress Subject Headings; A ' DOCUMENT RESUME ED 208 900 IR 909 867 AUTHOR Cochrane, Pauline A.': Kirtland', Iladika - TITLE 'Critical Views of LCSH--the Library of Congress Subject Headings: A Bibliographic and Bibliometric Essay. and An Analysis of Vocabularf.Control in the Library of"Congress List of Subject Headings *(LCSH). 4 INSTITUTION tRIC Clearinghouse on Information,Resources, . Syracuse, N.Y., SPONS AGENCY National Inst.'bf Education (ED) , Washington, PUB DATE 91 CONTRACT 400-77-0015 "INOTE 112p. AVAILABLE FROM Syracuse University Printing SerOices, 125 College , Place, Syracdse, NY 13210 AIR-53; $12.00). 4 EDRS PRICE MF01/PC05 Plus Postage.. DESCRIPTORS Annotated Bibliographies; *Indexes; Indexing; *Informati e r elal; *Library Catalogs4.*Subject Index T ms IDENTIFIERS Bibl etrics;*Libraof Congress Subject Hea ings ABSTRACT4 A comprehensive guide to the literature published ,40 between World War -II and 1979 which critically evaluates the Library of Congtess'list of Subject Headings (LCSH) , this bibliography ,has been prepared fOr information personnel involved with subject authority files,, thesauri, or vocabulary control. A brief bibliometric analysis of the literature precedes the bilallography, Which contains sections devoted to general principles for the analysis of subject headings, rationalisations of'the LCSH system, and criticism of LCSH with reSpeqtto specificity-ofinaexing . language, consistency` of syndetitructure,OL§ the'formation of, headings, spareness of he 'dings,, Wease of use. Each section of the bibliography is accompanied by a descriptive summary of the items, contained therein. Also included fs in essai, on,vocabulity control in LCSH in which the introductions to the, first eight editions of LCSH 2 are Compared. A bibliography, footnq es,two tables (a catalog of -N.iCSm weaknesses and a.chronological-and topical. overview of literature on LCSH)_, and three appendices (d#e MPauthor index) are piovided. Footnotes, a table comparing the introductions over the years, and reproductions of the introductifts to editions 2-3 ofthe A List of Subject Headings_and editions 2-7 and'9 of LCSHacto4any he essay. (3L), 0*******************+*******************#******************************. * Reproductions supplied by EDRS are'tile best that can be made * * fro: the original document. * *************4!**4****************************4*********************** 4 4 ) * Nit ;. U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF EDUCATION EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES Itif ORMATION CENTER (ERIC, 75 This document has been reproduced as recervedi from the person or organuatmi CD onginatwv rt Minor changes have been made to improve CN reproduction Q5 points of view or oprnions stated4n thrs (loci) Priem do not necessarily represent officet NIE CD Position or policy NJ AN ERIC INFOP.MATION ANALYSISPRODUCT 1:=3 vo In Two Parts I. Critical Views of LCSHthe Library of CongressSubject Head- ings; a.. Bibliographic and Bibliometric Essay. II. An Analysis of Vocabulary Control inlite Library of Congress List of Subject Headings (LCSH). Qa by. Pauline A. Cochrane with special assistance from Monika Kirtland ERICClearinghouse on Information Resourc'es Syracuse University 1981. a _dr Jr N 1, \41 - Pauline. ochrane is a Professor in the School of Inforenation Studies at Syracuse iniversity and Assdciate Dit'ector of the ERIC Clearinghouse on Information' Re, sources. The fbcus of her Workas ,Visiting Scholar for 1981 with the Research Department of OCLC, Inc., is user oriented public access online catalogs. Monika Kirtland is currently working_ in the InArmation Systems Division of Texaco Oil Company at the corporate headquarters in Harrison, New Work. ti t This publication was prepared with funding fionio'the National Institute of Education, U.S. Department, o`f Edul cation under contract noNIE-400-77-00154 The opinions expressed in report do not necessarily reflect the positions or policies of NIE or ED. 4 16, I. TABLE OF CONTENTS. 1. Introduction .... 1.1 Objectives of Bibliography 1.2 Airangement of Bibliography 1. General Bibliothetric Remarks 2. General Principles for Headings 8 2.1 LCSH: Genert-,Rationzation 9 2.2 LCSH: General -g emiewsand Revisions la 2.3 LCSH: GeneralCriticism 3. J.ICSH:, LanguageLGeneral 14 3.1'LCSH: ,LanguageSpecificity 14 4. LCSH: Syndetic Structure .4, 17 5. LCSH: Subdivision General 18 5.1 LCSH: SubdivisionPeriod ; .18 5.2 LCSH:SubdivisionGeographical 18 6.1 LCSH: Form ofHeadingsDiredt vs. Indirect 20 6.2 LCSH: Form of HeadingsVariantSpelling 26 6.3 LCSH: Form offileadingsR/anization 20 7. LCSH: 'Currency andPrijudic4s 21- 8. LCSH: Sparseness of Headings .. 23 9. LCSH: 'Ease of Use 25 Conclusion 26 ' Footnotes Appendix I: Author Index 28 Appendix II: Publishers of Information and CritiCism on LCSH 32 . Appendix I11:Subject Analysis: Summary Report of 'the Raciern SexismSe i sm in Subject Analysis Subcomfnittee-to the. RTSWCCS Subject Analysis ComMittee 34 Selective Catalog of 20 LCSH Weaknesses or,Defectswith' Suggested Improvements, 1898-1979 2 Table 2. Chronological and TopicalAnalysis pftiterature oneSH (post World War II) 6 Q. -1- INTRODUCTION 1.1.Objectives of-Biblioy_ )4 Prepared for the student of subject analysisand information personnel involved in subject authority files, thesauri,and vocabulary control, this bibliogaphy'confines itself to the literature which criticallyevaluates the .Library of 'Congress List of Subject Headings (LCSH). However, it has some usebeyond that system, as it includes studies of library catalogs with those subjectheadings.The literature search was Ihriited to--a-period from post-World War 'Ito 1979, so thereferences found cover a span of more than 35 yers.Journals, books, and conference papers areincluded. Every attempt has been made to be comprehensive,but omissions are a definite possibility.The authors welcome suggestions for additions tothe bibliography, and contributions wiftiCh came from W. Mischo and K.Markey while want to acknowledge NIP the manuscript was in final preparation. AlthoUgh the Library of Congress_ adopted its firstdictionary catalog in 1898, it was the ALA List of Headings for Use in Dictionary Catalogs, publishedin-' 1895, which was usedUsed as the basis .fordeveloping the Library of Congress subject headings list. First published in 1914, ,this list wasconceived without any structure or code and hats grown along with thecollection of the national library.Although Cutter's Rules for a Dictionary Catalogue haveclearly guided its development, these rules have never been officially acknowledgedas guiding principles.!* But, as Angell points out, the officers at the time of thecreation of LCSH,... ...while in accordance in rejecting theclassified or alphabetko-classed catalog in favor of tie dictionary catalog,...wereunwilling to contemplate, the dispersion of headings that could followfrom full adherence to Cutter's rule of specific entry, at least -in itsapplication to compound headings. They Rreferred to combine efelents of adictionarycatalog and a classified arrangement.The fact that the ,Library of Congresssubject headings began as a mixed system opened the door toinconsistent decisions as the cataloggrew.2 There does not, and never did, existia"laboratory condition" in the development of LCSH, because this "would demandstringent requirements to conduct experiments and their analysis."3 tCriticismof LCSH has increased over the years,' and has become even sharper since the publicationof the subject catalog and domputerized'informa- tion retrieval have exposed its weaknesses on agrander scale.In Table 1 we have developed a catalog of LCSH weaknesseswhich authors have pointed out and occasional suggestions for improvement. A few words should be said about thevalidity Of evaluations straddling almost 40 years. The Library of Congresshas incorporated many changes inheadings during this time, although- ithas never undertaken basic alterationsIn structure, vocabulary *S4Footnotes Section at end of bibliography. Table 1 Selective Catalog of 20 LCSH Weliknesses or Defects with Suggested Improvements, 1898-1979 LCSH Weaknesses or Defects Suggested Improvements Critic and/or Suggestor/Date (1) No code for application Attempt at "code" of practice Cuter -1898; Haykin-1951; L.C.-1.975; Chan-1978 (2) No rules for grammaticid forms 15 rules Daily-1957 ,(3} Inconsistent form of headings Noun rule Prevost-1946; Reich-1949 (4) No structure specified Leave as mixed system L.C. Staff-1890s (5) Restructuring needed None Angell-1971 46). "1940 standards of 'definition" not None Frarey-1954 maintained (7) Need for more scope notes Provide* more scope notes Kanwischer-1975 (8) Need connective references for Make more references Coates-1960; Kanwischer-1975 compound subjects (9) Lack of references from geographic Create references from geographic , Hardy-1952 subdivisions to subject headings subdivisions and variant forms . (10) Subject-place ordering fs confusing, Use direct subdivision for all Wellisch-1978 topical headings (11) Loose, inconsistent syndetic-structure .(a)Chain-indexing of LC class and (a)Immroth-1970 -Thesaurus as one vocabulary system ,Adopt classification principles (WI., Richmond-1959; Mosteckey- for s.a. references (3 1956; Wepsiec-1978 (continued) Selective Catalog of 20 LCSH Weaknesses or Defects with Suggested Improvements, 1898-1979 (continued) LCSHrWealmesses or Defects Suggested Improvements Critic and/or Suggestor/Date ..(12), Lack of currency Discontinue subject added entries McClure-1976 and replace with machine produced subject catalogs -U3)_Prejudicial
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