Page 39 - Cataloging and Classification for Library Technicians, 2nd Edition

Tools Used for Cataloging 23

sion of this pub lication can be found on a CD-ROM ti tled Clas si fi ca -
tion Plus. Clas si fi ca tion Plus is a full-text, Win dows-based CD-ROM
product that contains the Li brary of Con gress Clas si fi ca tion Sched-
ules and the Li brary of Con gress Sub ject Head ings. This ver sion is
updated quar terly as well.
LC Sub ject Head ings Weekly Lists is now avail able only electroni-
cally on the Web page <www.lcweb.loc.gov/catdir/cpso/wls.html>.
This weekly com pilation lists headings that Library of Con gress cat a-
logers have cre ated, changed, or deleted.
Details of the LCSH and its use are dis cussed in Chap ter 5 of this
text.

SEARS LIST OF SUBJECT HEADINGS

Small pub lic libraries and school me dia cen ters usu ally choose to
use the Sears List of Sub ject Head ings as a hand book to com plete the
func tion of as sign ing sub ject head ings to ma te ri als. Sears is adopted
in most cases to avoid the com plexity of the Library of Con gress Sub -
ject Head ings. Sears lists fewer terms than the LCSH, but those listed
are ba si cally the same, with sim pli fi ca tion and mod i fi ca tion more ap-
propriate to the needs of smaller libraries. As the col lection be comes
larger and Sears proves to be in adequate, li braries may de cide to
switch to the LCSH. Be cause of au to ma tion and shared cat a log ing,
most net works re quire their members to use LCSH, and as a re sult, the
use of Sears has de creased.
A new edi tion of Sears is pub lished as deemed nec essary by the
publisher. The latest one, the sixteenth edi tion, was pub lished in
1997. More on Sears and its us age appears in Chap ter 5 of this text.

DEWEY DECIMAL CLASSIFICATION
AND RELATIVE INDEX

After as signing sub ject headings, the next step in cat aloging is to
as sign clas si fi ca tion num bers so that ma te ri als per tain ing to the same
subject are put side by side on the shelves, mak ing it more con venient
for li brary us ers to find related ma terials when brows ing the stacks.
Though some lo cal clas sification systems are in use, the two most im -