College and Research Libraries l Recent Publications BOOK REVIEWS Miksa, Francis L. The Subject in the Dictio- nary Catalog from Cutter to the Present. Chicago: American Library Assn., 1983. 496p. $55. LC 83-2556 ISBN 0-8389- 0367-3. Francis Miksa has given us a truly major historical study of the role of subject head- ings in the dictionary catalog. The study confirms what we have always feared: the system of subject headings we use today is filled with contradictions. The character of these contradictions is identified through an analysis of the writings of many subject specialists-especially those of Charles Cutter, J.C.M. Hanson, and David Hay- kin. . The analysis shows that the work of these specialists often derived from con- tradictory assumptions. As a consequence the present system represents . a meld of headings and practices that were adopted at different times for different and often contradictory reasons. Accordingly, the user often cannot predict the most likely heading for the material he seeks. Not sur- prisingly, Miksa concludes that a subject catalog built upon a single system would be better, but the real value of this study is the way in which he identifies the major schools of thought that have gone into the present system. For many readers, the most surprising part of Miksa' s study is his interpretation of Cutter's subject rules as an internally consistent and logical system. The system fits well with the tenets of a single philo- sophical school, Scottish common sense realism. This philosophy was widely stud- ied until well after the middle of the nine- teenth century but, by the end of the cen- tury, it was no longer so widely accepted. Two of the more important differences between Cutter and Hanson were their criteria for the choice of a subject and sub- ject name and their characterization of the catalog user. Both men required that the choice of subject be the most specific subject but 'specific' is an ambiguous term. For Cut- ter, a subject was part of a recognized sys- tem of knowledge, and this fact was re- flected in the fact that the subject had either a conventional or an individual name. If the topic of the book was not gen- erally known by either a conventional or an individual name, then the terms de- scribing the topic should be reviewed in order to determine which of these terms were conventional or individual names. The subject heading was then the most significant of these names. Thus, a book on the 'Ornithology of New England' was entered under 'New England' because an individual name had greater significance than a general name. Miksa's explication of Cutter's significance formula helps to clarify many of the puzzles which we find in Cutter's Rules for a Dictionary Catalog. For Hanson, 'specific subject' meant a term or phrase that just exactly matched the topic of the work. If there were no con- ventional name for this topic, Hanson would introduce a new heading for the topic. Thus, Hanson introduced a great many new headings into the catalog. Hanson also believed that the chief user of the catalog, at least for Library of Con- gress, was a scholar. Such a user would want to have an overview of books on re- lated topics as well as a list of works on the 409 410 College & Research Libraries specific topic of inquiry. Accordingly, Hanson preferred to develop classed se- quences in the catalog. This was often done by introducing subdivisions to al- ready existing headings, and, perhaps not surprisingly, the public catalog often re- flected the sequence of classes found in the library's classification schedules. Charles Cutter, on the other hand, be- lieved that the casual reader was the most constant user of the dictionary catalog. As a consequence, he believed that headings should be entered directly and, certainly, without topical subdivisions. The catalog included "see-also" references to assist the occasional scholar as well as to educate the casual reader by providing a means for learning of other related topics. While Haykin did not necessarily do away with the existing classed headings, he did prefer phrases in direct form over inverted headings or headings with subdi- visions. As a consequence, even though classed sequences remained in the cata- log, the newer headings were in direct form, and many related topics were scat- tered throughout the alphabet. In addi- tion, under Haykin, Library of Congress frequently assigned a set of subject head- ings to a single work. The set of headings was defined so as to match the subject of the work, but the individual headings were often broader than the work. For many readers the most rewarding part of Miksa' s study will be his rediscov- ery of the meaning of Cutter's subject rules. For when these rules are reinter- preted, it not only clarifies Cutter's words and restores our respect for the intellec- tual incisiveness of one of the founders of modern library science but also makes clear the inappropriateness of these rules for modern subject analysis. But Miksa's study goes further. He ex- plains the fact that our existing system is contradictory because it includes layers defined in terms of conflicting assump- tions about the nature of a subject heading and the nature of the catalog user. Thus, Miksa not only helps us to understand our past but frees us from it by clarifying the basic contradictions of our present practices.-D. Kathryn Weintraub, Univer- sity of California, Irvine. September 1984 World Librarianship: A Comparative Study. Ed. by Richard Krzys and Gas- ton Litton with the assistance of Ann Hewitt. New York: Dekker, 1983. 239p. $38.50. LC 82-22213. ISBN 0-8247-1731- 7. This work is an addition to the literature focusing on comparative librarianship in the international perspective. The work is divided into three sections, "Philosophy and Theory," "The Study," and "Con- clusions." The first is a detailed method- ological statement outlining the editors' approach to comparative study in interna- tionallibrarianship, including a good deal of the historical background in the evolu- tion of the methodology they have devel- oped. The editors outline eight major ob- jectives and attempt to reach their goals by analyzing nine geographic regions of the world, investigating eleven aspects of li- brarianship in each of these nine regions. The second section contains the results of their analysis followed by a brief conclu- sion. The work itself is set into the context of no fewer than four key evolutionary terms introduced by the editors: metalibrarian- ship, world study in librarianship, global librarianship, and extraterrestrial librar- ianship. Since the definitions of these terms will most probably be unknown to many readers, it would be best to briefly note that metalibrarianship is defined as "the philosophy and theory underlying the practice of librarianship throughout the world'' (p.3). Worldstudyinlibrarian- ship is defined as the process of compara- tive study itself (p.3-4). Global librarian- ship is library development "char- acterized by decision-making for the pur- pose of satisfying humanity's information needs rather than purely regional or na- tional needs" (p.201). Extraterrestrial li- brarianship (p.203) will, it is expected, be a logical outgrowth of successful globalli- brarianship. The methodological framework for anal- ysis in this study developed in the first section (p.3-53) is not well complemented by the second section (p.57-198) in which uneven area studies are put forth as a means for developing world study in li- brarianship. By uneven, it is meant that