Most of the headings for the new A. L. A. list were decided upon before the Library of Congress began to issue its printed lists. On comparing the lists first received, I found cases where the Library of Congress had changed its practice, and as each instalment was issued I made changes in the manuscript already prepared, in order to bring the two lists into closer agreement. Doubtless in the Library of Congress lists yet to be issued there will be many headings different from those in use five years ago, at the time the list which was my guide was copied from the Library of Congress catalog.
Conformity in general to the Library of Congress headings was my aim, and in most cases of doubt the usage of the Library of Congress, if known, was the determining factor in the decision. But when, fortified by the approval of such advisers as were available, including in important cases the member of the Publishing Board who is now president of the American Library Association, I was convinced that some other form of entry would be more helpful to the users of a public library, I adopted that form, even though inconsistent—as in the treatment of English language,—or not altogether accurate—as in the substitution of Corn and Rubber for Maize and India-rubber. I may add that in no case did I decide in opposition to the majority of the members of the advisory committee, though only a few specific headings were submitted to them.
The list, being prepared for moderately large libraries, contains many headings that may well be ignored by the smaller libraries. Not only are most of the subdivisions unnecessary, but so also are many distinctions which would result in separation of material that might better be kept together if the entries are few, such as Charity organization, Infants (Children being a sufficient entry), Soil absorption, Soil moisture.
The list is not intended as a guide to be followed blindly, but to be adapted to individual needs, by the exercise of common sense—perhaps the most necessary part of a cataloger's equipment.
Consideration of cost and weight of the book necessitated limitation of the scope. There was a strong plea for the inclusion of geographical terms, at least in cases of disputed spelling. A list of such names was prepared by Miss Crawford, with full references and definitions. It was estimated that this list would add perhaps one hundred pages to the book, and the Publishing Board did not feel that it was advisable to include them. Very many headings that might be considered as falling within the scope of the book were omitted because their use would be infrequent, and it was thought better that the occasional cataloger should write these headings on the blank pages, rather than that all should be required to pay for an unnecessarily long and correspondingly heavy list.
Just a word in regard to the actual amount of material in the book. The statement of the Publishing Board that the third edition contains about three times the material in the second edition has been questioned on the score that the new edition is printed on one side of the leaf only. It should be remembered, however, that only the printed pages are numbered, so that the list of headings in the third edition occupies 397 pages, double column, while the second edition contained but 193 half pages and 12 full pages. That is, the printed matter in the third edition occupies nearly four times the space filled in the second edition. Moreover, the type is smaller, so that the new page contains twelve lines more than the old one. Therefore, allowing for the blank space occasioned by the disparity of the lists of "See also" and "Refer from" references, it is believed that the estimate of three times the material of the second edition is conservative.
The subject was continued in a paper by Miss MARY W. MACNAIR, of the Library of Congress on
THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS LIST OF SUBJECT HEADINGS
The list of subject headings issued by the Library of Congress is used also, for reference and comparison, by many other libraries throughout the country. It has been suggested that a statement in regard to the purpose, scope, and manner of printing of the list, might be useful to the librarians receiving it, and possibly valuable as well to others who are interested in the undertaking, and who may be, to some extent, unfamiliar with the Library of Congress catalog.
The printing of the list of subject headings was begun in the summer of 1909. Up to that time, the second edition of the A. L. A. subject headings had been used as a basis for the subjects assigned in the Library of Congress catalog. But so many additions and alterations had been made in our interleaved copies of the A. L. A. list, that the need of an entirely new list of headings began to be urgently felt, although the difficulty had been partially obviated by the printing of lists of additions to the old A. L. A. list, for distribution to the catalogers at the Library of Congress. At this date the third edition of the A. L. A. list was already in preparation, yet it was considered wiser to print a list of the Library of Congress headings, rather than to co-operate in the A. L. A. undertaking, as the headings needed in our catalog differed to such an extent from those required for the average public library.