Review from: Technicalities, Vol. 24, #6, November/December 2004

When the new 18th edition of Sears List of Subject Headings is laid flat on a table beside the 17th edition, the 18th edition appears to be slightly smaller. In fact, the 18th edition is larger with five more pages of preliminary text and 34 additional pages devoted to the main subject heading list. The reason for this phenomenon is that the 17th edition was printed on thicker paper stock. Catalogers need not be alarmed that the thinner paper in Sears 18 will not stand up to daily use; the paper seems quite sturdy.

For many years, one of the major attractions of Sears has been the preliminary text in which the function and use of subject headings are described in clear understandable English. I started at the 9th edition (1965) looking at the evolution of this preliminary text (then titled "Suggestions for Beginners in Subject Work") in the 9th and each subsequent edition and noted the steady improvement in the text's content over almost four decades. Sears 18 has added to this development by expanding the discussion of subject analysis for literary works to include directions for libraries that want to assign subject headings to works of fiction. These are very useful instructions for cataloguers new to the assignment of such headings.

I have only one caveat about the excellent "Principles of the Sears List." In the section on nonbook materials, the Guidelines for the Bibliographic Description of Interactive Multimedia (American Library Association, 1994) is material designations. The Joint Steering Committee for Revision of AACR did not accept these guidelines and the general material designation "interactive multimedia" has not been and will not be, an officially accepted general material designation. Such a reputable and standard tool as Sears should not encourage its use in library catalogues and its continued use in the many libraries that adopted this term when the guidelines were first published.

The editors claim that 500 new subject headings have been added to the list, (I did not count them) which they describe as "a major enhancement." The new terms reflect developments in many different areas, especially computers, personal relations, politics, and popular culture. In many cases, the new headings conform to the usage of the Library of Congress Subject Headings, while in other cases, such as Tattling for Talebearing, or Mountain biking for all terrain cycling, the Sears form varies from the form found in LCSH. In other cases, such as Hearing in animals and Fractured fairy tales, the concept is not represented in LCSH. There is a short list of canceled and replacement headings—a much smaller list than the five-page list in Sears 17. This shorter list means that there are fewer headings for cataloging department heads to make decisions about changes (decisions that are easier to make global changes) On the other hand, Sears 18 pays much more attention to subdivisions. Sears 17 had a one-page "Commonly Used Subdivisions." Sears 18 has retitled that page "The Use of Subdivisions in the Sears List" and followed it with more than five pages of "List of Subdivisions Provided for in the Sears List," an improvement that will ease the work of assigning appropriate subject headings.

Sears has also updated the Dewey decimal classification numbers associated with the subject headings to conform to the usage in the 14th edition of the Abridged Dewey Decimal Classification and Relative Index, a very useful part of the Sears list.

The next paragraph is directed to Canadian libraries and those U.S. libraries that are part of institutions with a Canadian studies program. Sears 18 provides a one-page list of "Revisions of Specifically Canadian Interest" that were found in the 6th edition of Sears List of Subject Headings: Canadian Companion (edited by Lynne Lighthall, H.W.

Wilson, 2001) (CC6).This page has been added because a new edition of the Canadian Companion has not been planned at this time. Lynne Lighthall, the Companion's editor, believes that there is not enough new material to warrant publication. Libraries with significant collections of Canadian materials should continue to use CC6 as well as Sears 18 because some of the subject headings in Sears 18 have a U.S. orientation not suited to Canadian catalogues. Sears 18 uses the term "Native Americans—Canada" with a USE reference from "First Nations," the term Canadian Indians have chosen for their name.

Those libraries that wish to be politically correct should switch this reference and assign the subject heading "First Nations" and the qualifier "First Nations people," e.g., "Haida (First Nations people)." Examples of other differences that reflect Canadian usage are "French-speaking Canadians" (CC6) rather than "French Canadians" (Sears 18) and

"Quebec (Province)—Separatist movements" (CC6) rather than "Quebec (Province)—History-Autonomy and independence movements" (Sears 18). I wish that the Sears 18 heading for Quebec separatist movements, which indicates that they were problems of the past, reflected the Canadian situation. Unfortunately, Quebec separatist movements are not "history" but something that simmers beneath the fabric of Canadian society and flares up from time to time. And, of course, we always have the cross border difference in attitude toward the War of 1812, which each side claims that they won. The Sears 18's UT and BT references ignore Canada’s role in the war despite the fact that there were battles on Canadian soil. A different Dewey number would be assigned in Canadian libraries (971.03) rather than the one in Sears 18 that applies to U.S. history (973.5).

It is obvious that every library that uses the Sears list as part of the subject analysis of its collection should purchase Sears 18. I also recommend it as a teaching tool for the excellent description of the function and construction of subject headings Libraries that assign Library of Congress subject headings can easily adapt the "Principles of the Sears List" to refer to the LC subject list; the fundamental principles of subject analysis are the same.

Reviewed by Jean Weihs. Principal consultant, Technical Services Group

Reviewed by: Library Media Connection, August/September 2004

Eighty years old, the Sears list has undergone a facelift in recent editions. Moving from a one column per page format to a denser two column per page arrangement in the16th edition, the 18th continues that tradition. Also continued is the inclusion of commonly used subdivisions within the list itself, rather than just as an addendum. However, edition 18 revives the "List of Subdivisions Provided for in the Sears List," which was omitted in the last edition. It continues the convention, borrowed from Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH) of using the acronyms UF, RT, BT, NT, and SA to describe relationships between headings rather than the older x and xx.

The 18th Sears retains its scope of not providing an exhaustive list of headings, but rather a framework and patterns through which you can add additional headings as needed. Over 500 new terms have been added, though nowhere are they listed as a group. A significant number of new headings deal with technology, including such terms as Digital cameras, Digital libraries, MP3 players, and V-chips. Lifestyle and popular culture generate additional new headings such as Cheating (Education), Word problems (Mathematics), Pilates method, and Fanzines. Continuing a trend toward making Sears almost an "abridged LCSH," some of the updated terms in this edition match terms used in LCSH. Sears surpasses LCSH in a few areas, since, for example, Talebearing (LCSH) isn’t nearly as recognizable to young people as Tattling (Sears). In addition, some subdivisions were revised to march LCSH, including Description and travel for geographic headings to replace the heading Description, which emerged in the 17th edition. Sears 18 also includes some headings unique to this list, such Fractured fairy tales. The list of canceled headings is mercifully short, mostly involving the change,

Description and travel

The "Principles of the Sears List" has changed in the area of literary works. Catalogers are now discouraged from adding the term juvenile to genre headings, especially in areas where the collection is either primarily materials for children or where the call number indicates the material is for youth. They are also cautioned not to create new genre terms.

However, a significant section of the Principles has been added to address those who want to provide micro-subject access to works of fiction such as Nurses—Fiction. Appropriate cautions are added to allow genre access, but at the same time not mislead those who expect a work to have a significant amount of that topic included.

Into the Jungle

No matter what we may think of these changes, the fact remains that much work awaits us. Your next book order will arrive with materials classified under this new scheme, and with subject headings that differ from the ones in your catalog. Some retrospective work is ahead of you if you are to keep all the books on the same topic together on the shelf and in the catalog. As abstract as cataloging seemed when you were in school, this is "where the rubber meets the road"—our pledge to make is easy for students to locate information. Being prepared to tackle the project is the first step into the jungle of cataloging.

Reviewed by Carol Simpson, Ed.D., Associate Professor, School of Library & Information Science, University of North Texas