A HISTORY OF SEARS LIST

Minnie Earl sears prepared the first edition of this work in response to demand for a list of subject headings that was better suited to the needs of small library than the existing “American library association” and library of congress lists published in 1923 the list of subject headings for small libraries was based on the headings used by nine small libraries that were known to be well cataloged Minnie sears used only see and “refer form” references in the first edition in the second edition(1926) she added see also reference at the request of teachers of catalogue who were using the list as a text book to make the list more usefull for that purpose she wrote a chapter on “practical suggestion for the beginner in subject heading work” for the third edition (1933)

Isabel sternson monro edited the fourth (1939) and fifth (1944) editions a new feature of the fourth edition was the inclusion of Dewey Decimal Classification numbers as applied in the standard catalog for public libraries the new subject added to the list were based on those used in the standard catalog series and on the catalog cards issued by the H.W.company consequently the original subtitle “complied from lists used in nine representive small libraries” was dropped

The sixth (1950) seventh (1954) and eighth (1959) editions were prepared by Bertha M.Frick in recognition of the pioneering and fundamentals contribution made by Minniue sears list of subject headings with the sixth edition since the list was being used by medium sized libraries as well as small once the phrase “for small libraries "was deleted from the title the symbol X and XX were substituted for the “Refer from “(see ref) and “refer from “(see also ref)phrases to conform to the format adopted by the library of congress.

The 9th edition (1965) the first of four to be prepared by Barbara M.westby continued to policies of the earlier editions with the 11th edition the “practical suggestions for the beginner in subject headings work” was retiled “principles of the sears list of subject heading “ to emphasize “principles” and section dealing with non book materials was added .

The 13th edition (1986) prepared by carmen Rovira and coralline Ryes was the first to take advantage of computer validation capabilities it also responded to the changing theory in subject analysis occasioned by the development of online public access catalog this effort was taken further in the 14th edition (1991) under the editorship of Martha T.mooney who reduced the number of compound terms simplified many subdivisions and advanced the work of uninviting inverted headings.

In the 15th edition (1994) the first edited by Joseph miller the inverter between publication of editions was shortened to provide a more timely updating of subject headings all remaining inverted headings were cancelled in favor of the univertated from likewise , the display of the list on the page was changed to conform to the NISO standards for thesauri approved in 1993 it users the tables BT, NT, RT, SA and UF, a list of cancelled and replacement headings was added to facilitate the updating of cataloged and legend “[Former heading]” was introduced within the list to identity earlier forms of headings

In the 16th edition (1997) the suggested classification numbers were revised to conform to the 13th edition of the abridged DDC further instructions were added for the application of subdivisions and the headings in the field of religion were extensively christen application and make them more use full for catalog materials on other religion

The major feature of the 17th edition (2000) was the revision of headings for the native people of the western hemisphere the headings indians,indians of north America Indians of Mexico etc… were cancelled in favor of “Native Americans “ which may be subdivided geographically by continent region country state or city subdivisions formerly used under “Indians of north America “ for classes of persons such as women or children and for things distinctly ethnic such as medicine or music were cancelled in favor of phrase heading such as “Native American, Native American Children, Native American medicine and Native American music” subdivisions for things not of an ethic nature such as housing or social conditions remain subdivisions under native Americans the heading native Americans is now the pattern heading for all ethnic groups

The 18th edition of the sears list (2004) and the 19th edition 2007 saw the inclusion of many hundreds of new subject heading, the 18th edition included significant addition to a principals of the sears list regarding the treatment of individual work of fiction, drama, and poetry. The 19th edition features a major development of new headings in the areas of Islam and graphic novels

THE SCOPE OF THE SEARS LIST No list can possibly a heading for every idea object process Or relationship especially not within the scope of a single volume what

sears hopes to offer instead is basic list that include many of the headings likely to be needed in small libraries together with patterns and examples that will guide the cataloguer in creating additional headings as needed new topics appear every day and books on those topics require new subject headings ,Headings for new topics can be developed from the sears list in two ways by establishing new terms as needed and by subdividing the headings already in the list instruction for creating new headings based on the pattern in sears and sources for establishing the wording of new heading are given in the principles of the sears list the various kinds of subdivisions and the rules for their application are also discussed in the principles of the sears list.

SLSH (Sears list of subject Headings )

sears list for use information of subject headings was first printed in the year 1923.the list was initially prepared for using small libraries and later its scope was extended to small as well medium sized libraries .this list satisfies the requirements of small libraries improvement have been made in this list from time to time on the basis of the experience of the various libraries ,the latest edition of this list is 20th edition[2010].

The objective of this list is to keep the documents of a specific subject under a uniform subject headings, other than this those headings are also given this list after X and XX that are used for the formation of “See "and “See also "subject directions.

Formation of subject headings in SLSH

SLSH is an enumerated list of subject headings, in providing subject headings, the subject cataloguer has only to choose from SLSH the appropriate heading that matches the content of documents being indexed

The structure of the headings is on similar patterns of SLSH with some modifications to serve the needs of small public libraries and school libraries SLSH is guided by the general principles such as “specific and direct entry” “common usage” “uniformity “ in the formation of its subject headings subject headings are constructed in SLSH in s variety of ways ranging from lists of single word headings and descriptive phrases of single concept in two are more words to complex and compound subject.

Single word Heading

The simplest form of subject heading consists of a single noun which is the most ideal type when it is possible to represent the thought content of a document by a single term.

Examples : Art Agriculture Education Religion

Phrase Heading

A phrase heading consists of two or more words representing the subject of a document, the different type of phrase headings as recognized in SLSH are discussed below : a. Compound Heading

b. Objective Headings c. Prepositional phrase Heading

ENTRY FORMAT

With the 15th edition the SLSH has adopted the thesaurus format to help the cataloguer to distinguish relationship among terms and of establishing's appropriate references in the cataloged based upon these relationship. The SLSH has also adopted the e symbols generally used in most thesauri to label the terms associated with a headings subject entries in SLSH are printed in bold face and the cross reference terms appear in the light faces,in the list the right half each page is kept blank all entries references, and instruction are confined to the left columns and the blank space is provided for the local cataloguer to add any new heading and references made for the and these converting the volumes into an authority file the general format of entry in SLSH is as follows:

Subject entry in boldface followed by Dewey Decimal Classification no: card game 795.4

Scope note : In this entry there is no scope noteUSE reference :UF cards,playing,playing cardsGeneral reference : SA names of card games to be added

as needed Broader topic (BT) : BT GamesNarrower topic reference (NT) : Bridge (game),

canasta(game),card tricks, solitaire(game)torotRelated topic reference (RT): RT GamblingNOTE : SA – See also, BT – Broader topic NT – Narrow

topic, RT- Related topic

Examples : 1. Library science use for general materials on the knowledge and skill

necessary for the organization and administration of libraries materials on services offered by libraries to patrons are entered under library services

UF LibrarianshipBT Documentation information NT cataloguing library surveys library technical processesRT Bibliography Library surveys Library science study and teaching USE library education

Example : 2. Cataloging practice by S.R.Ranganathan UF cataloguing libraries-cataloging library –catalogingSA cataloging of particular subject e.g. cataloging of music (to be added as needed)BT Bibliographic control Documentation library technical processNT Automated cataloging cataloging of music international standard bibliographic description machine readable bibliographic data subject headingRT Bibliography Indexing Library catalogueCataloging data in machine readable formUSE machine readable bibliographic data

MERITS AND DEMERITS

SLSH is comparatively simpler to use, the rules and principles are fairly explicit in their directions containing scope notes and specific instructions for their use if followed consistently SLSH will provide useful reference guide for the user and also to the library reference staff.

Its disadvantage is that this is a American procedure,Hence,the words that are used in it are the words that are popular in American and which are not suitable to Indian conditions many discrepancies regarding the subject heading can also be seen in it.

The subject heading that are important and suitable to the needs or tastes of American conditions are elaborately covered in it, in this manner this list inadequate for Indian libraries form the point of subjects of specific interest.

THANK YOU

UNIVERSITY OF MYSORE Manasagangothri Mysore

Department of studies in library and information science Seminar 2012-13:Topic : SLSH (Sears List of Subject Heading) LCSH ( Library of Congress Subject Heading)Submitted to,Prof.Dr,Mallinath KumbarDOS in Library and inforamtion scienceUniversity of mysoreMysore. Submitted by, 1.Chaithanya.L 2. Jyothi. M.S