[CATALOG SECTION]
FIRST SESSION
(Thursday, June 27, 8:15 p. m.)
The first session of the Catalog section was held Thursday evening, June 27, the chairman, Miss Laura A. Thompson, of the Library of Congress, presiding. The reading of the minutes of the last meeting was dispensed with and they stand approved as printed.
The topic of the evening, "Subject headings," was introduced in a paper by Miss MARY JOSEPHINE BRIGGS, cataloger of the Buffalo public library, and editor of the "A. L. A. list of subject headings." In the absence of Miss Briggs, this paper was read by Miss Sula Wagner, of the St. Louis public library.
THE A. L. A. LIST OF SUBJECT HEADINGS
Every cataloger, at least at the beginning of her career, has an ideal of the catalog which she would like to make: a catalog conforming to the most approved rules, accurate in bibliographical detail; consistent in form, in method of entry and in arrangement.
She realizes from the first that the task of achieving this ideal will be difficult; she soon begins to fear that it will be impossible. After perhaps years of endeavor, she questions if it is even desirable.
Absolute consistency in the matter of author entry may be attained by strict adherence to the A. L. A. rules, and the divergences from these rules necessary to adapt them to the varying conditions of public circulating, reference and university libraries are slight and unimportant. But who can frame a code of rules or formulate principles through which consistency in subject headings may be attained? And is consistency so absolutely necessary or desirable? Is not the ideal catalog the one which is best adapted to the needs of the majority of its users; which is so arranged that the reader can find what he wants in the shortest possible time, even at the sacrifice of absolute consistency?
When the work of revising the Subject headings was begun, an effort was made to learn the wishes of all interested in regard to the principles upon which the new edition should be based.