College and Research Libraries


Subject Headings for N a v a l Libraries 

Subject Heading List for Naval Research 
Libraries. 2d ed. Planning Division, Of-
fice of Research and Inventions. Edited 
by Jerrold Orne and Grace Swift. [On 
cover: Executive Office of the Secretary. 
Navy Department, Washington] January 
1946. v, 499p. (Photoprinted) 
According to the introduction, the headings 

in this list are "derived from the analysis of 
. . . research reports issued by the Navy, W a r 
Department, and the Office of Scientific Re-
search and Development." Additional state-
ments in the introduction are as follows: "It 
is not intended to be a complete list in any 
one field. . . . It . . . is probably the most 
complete available list . . . verified by spe-
cialists, in the fields of Electronics, Explosives, 
Ordnance, Tropicalization, Aeronautics, Pho-
tography, Metallurgy, Chemical Warfare, and 
other fields relating to naval science. . . . 
This is a specialized list. . . . For a general 
library this list would have to be used in 
conjunction with a more general list such as 
the Subject Headings Used in the . . . Cata-
logs of the Library of Congress, 4th ed. T h i s 
edition . . . bears the stamp of authenticity 
by virtue of the painstaking efforts of many 
distinguished scientists." 

From the introduction also it appears that 
this list is to be the basic authority for the 
analytical cataloging of "an estimated 200,000 
reports." The introduction uses the word 
"indexing" throughout, but it is clear the 
process meant is listing the entries on cards 
which are to be distributed to "each cooperat-
ing agency." These agencies, presumably, 
will arrange the entries as in a dictionary 
catalog. 

The editors are to be praised for their 
venture, however tentative, in a field of tech-
nological terminology restricted to new and 
rapidly changing inventions, processes, and 
concepts, in which arise problems more diffi-
cult and baffling perhaps than any other 
confronting professional classifiers and cata-
logers. 

The list contains approximately 7500 head-
ings and reference entries; none of the head-
ings are defined except occasional headings 
followed by limiting words enclosed in curves. 
The great majority of the headings are special 
to an extreme degree, although numerous 

terms found in the Library of Congress sub-
ject heading list, 4th ed., are included. There 
are 193 subject headings beginning at the first 
entry under "Rocket" and running through 
"Rockets, Window," which is the last of the 
inverted entries beginning with the word 
"Rockets." This does not include 102 cross 
references to headings alphabeted elsewhere 
such as "Ballistics, Rocket," etc. Incidentally, 
the coordination of the various "Rocket" en-
tries is better than any developed heading 
found elsewhere in the list. 

For the purpose of this evaluation, a test 
of the list was made under several subjects 
to determine the extent of coordination given 
to the numerous entries which were con-
tributed by scientists and others. In this 
short search many headings were found en-
tirely without coordination; many headings 
which should have been listed, if only to refer 
from, are entirely wanting. "Ordnance," 
one of the special fields, is not listed in the 
alphabet; its absence is conspicuous as it 
would carry references to its principal branches 
and to allied entries which are listed, such as 
"Artillery," "Bombs," "Fuses," "Guns," 
"Projectiles," etc. 

Numerous instances are found where 
synonymous or practically synonymous terms 
are used as headings without connecting cross 
references. The following headings and 
references dealing with the various kinds of 
radio interference, man-made, atmospheric, 
or due to functional defects of apparatus, are 
reproduced here from the list with all ac-
companying cross references: 

A n t i - j a m m i n g . 
A t m o s p h e r e — D i s t u r b a n c e s . 
E l e c t r i c i t y , Static. 
H i g h - f r e q u e n c y noise see Sound, H i g h f r e -

quency. 
H u m — S u p p r e s s i o n . 
I n t e r f e r e n c e see also J a m m i n g ; Noise. 
I n t e r f e r e n c e , R a d i o see R a d i o i n t e r f e r e n c e . 
J a m m i n g see also C o u n t e r m e a s u r e s . 
J a m m i n g , R a d i o f u z e . 
J a m m i n g transmitters. 
Noise see also S o u n d ; Sound-proofing. 
Noise, R a d i o see R a d i o i n t e r f e r e n c e . 
R a d a r — I n t e r f e r e n c e . 
R a d a r — J a m m i n g . 
R a d i o — A t m o s p h e r i c s . 
R a d i o — C o u n t e r m e a s u r e s . 

OCTOBER, 1946 363 



R a d i o — I n t e r f e r e n c e see R a d i o i n t e r f e r e n c e . 
R a d i o — J a m m i n g . 
R a d i o — N o i s e s . 
R a d i o — S t a t i c see also A t m o s p h e r e — D i s t u r b -

ances. 
R a d i o i n t e r f e r e n c e . 
R a d i o r e c e i v e r s — N o i s e s . 
Static. 
Static electricity see E l e c t r i c i t y . 
V a c u u m t u b e s — N o i s e s . 

T h e above, which is typical, is not itself 

complete but is complete enough to show how 

material may be scattered among several 

practically synonymous headings. It also 

shows strikingly that coordination of related 

headings has been very sparingly done. T h e 

reference from "Static electricity" to "Elec-

tricity," which should be to "Electricity, 

Static," is one of numerous similar refer-

ences to a general subject when a specific 

subject is intended. Other examples include 

cases where both the heading in use and the 

one referred from are general terms used in 

this list to cover a specific application or mean-

ing. Cases in point are "Success see Proba-

bility," "Chaff W i n d o w , " " W o r m s see 

also Gears." 

Another example showing failure to use 

cross references and the need for revising 

and defining terms is the following (headings 

and references are reproduced as listed) : 

L i g h t s , Pistol. 
L i g h t s , V e r y s i g n a l see F l a r e s , S i g n a l . 
Pistols, S i g n a l . 
Pistols, V e r y s i g n a l see Pistols, S i g n a l . 
S i g n a l pistols see Pistols, S i g n a l . 
[ " S i g n a l s , P i s t o l " does not s h o w . ] 
Signals, Pistol rocket. 
V e r y pistol see Pistols, S i g n a l . 

N o listing is found under " M a r i n e en-

gines," although the headings "Engines, M a -

rine" and "Ships—Engines" are used. Such 

cases are numerous. 

In some cases an abbreviation is used for 

an explosive or chemical; in other cases the 

full name is used, which results in listings 

such as: "Hexogen *** R D X , " but " H N D 

see Hexanitrodiphenylamine," etc. A " f o r -

mula index" is given on page 489 "for use in 

the indexing of organic compounds," which 

recommends the use of chemical formulas for 

organic compounds and carries instructions 

for arranging them. Groups of letters used 

as headings or references to other headings 

are frequent, e.g., " A S W see Anti-submarine 

warfare," etc. These headings are printed 

without periods and are arranged as true 

words, without references from their alterna-

tive positions. Incidentally, U E P is the pre-

ferred heading for "Underwater electrical 

potential" but no reference from "Under-

water electrical potential" is found among 

the 23 listings beginning with the compound 

word "Underwater." 

From the beginnings of language, semantic 

difficulties have plagued mankind, often con-

fusing our most profound philosophers. C a t a -

logers and classifiers of printed material have 

especially felt the need of limiting in some 

way the coverage of terms used professionally, 

catalogers doing so for the most part by 

referring in their subject catalogs to the term 

chosen for a particular concept or thing from 

all possible alternatives. In addition, many 

subject heading lists contain some definitions 

and "scope" entries. A l l the resources sug-

gested by knowledge, skill, and experience are 

constantly called upon to avoid scattering 

material under various synonymous or prac-

tically synonymous headings and to direct 

even the expert searcher to closely allied head-

ings which he may have confused with the 

heading he is examining. 

If, in the compilation of a subject heading 

list, this is only partially done, the list is 

reduced proportionally to an alphabetized but 

indiscriminate mass of suggested terms. 

Terminology in technical fields, even in the 

older and long-established branches, is often 

confused even in the usage of experts. T h e 

writer of these observations has known more 

than one ordnance expert to call his masterly 

treatise on ordnance " A Text-book of G u n -

nery" or " A Treatise on A r t i l l e r y ; " more 

than one has called his essay on ballistics, 

" A n Essay on Gunnery." "Navigation" has 

been used by many authorities when " C o m -

merce" was meant, by others when "Shipping" 

would have been better, and still others have 

confused "Navigation" with "Seamanship." 

(Parenthetically, the list being reviewed con-

tains the reference, "Avigation see N a v i g a -

tion," the intent being to refer to " N a v i g a -

tion, Aerial.") 

In the newer technical fields such as "Elec-

tronics," etc., not only is the confusion multi-

plied many times, but terms employed by the 

inventors of various devices are quickly re-

364 COLLEGE AND RESEARCLI LIBRARIES 



placed by different terms used for improved 
or altered types, alternative terms and nick-
names spring up on every side literally by 
the dozen. Anyone attempting to compile an 
authoritative list of such terms for use by 
independent groups of indexers or catalogers 
must accept the necessity of very nearly com-
plete coordination as a minimum requirement. 

The individual headings listed in the work 
under discussion are, beyond question, accept-
able to the various individual scientists or 
agencies who contributed them, but as their 
contributions are in similar or related fields 
they duplicate and contradict each other in 
many instances. 

This list may become a basic authority in 
the fields covered after duplications under 
varying terms have been eliminated, closely 
related concepts connected with references, 
terminology as used in headings clarified by 
expansion, limitation, definition, or by refer-
ence to a standard technical dictionary (at-
tention being paid meanwhile to the commonly 

accepted meanings of the terms, especially the 
broader terms). As it stands, the list seems 
to be merely an alphabetization of headings 
and references submitted by various contribu-
tors, with very little coordination. This is a 
great disappointment, as something authori-
tative is needed in these fields. The Engineer-
ing Index, Industrial Arts Index, Voigt's 
Subject Headings in Physics, and the L.C. 
Subject Headings for the Aeronautical Index 
( 1 9 4 0 ) , all well done, remain our best sources 
of special headings, although they do not have 
the coverage in detail of the newer concepts 
which the list under review attempts. 

Even so limited, the list will be of value 
to the careful cataloger who understands its 
limitations and characteristics, and it may 
even become, eventually, the forerunner of an 
authoritative cataloging tool for libraries 
specializing intensively in the fields covered 
and a reference work of considerable value to 
catalogers in more general libraries.—James 
M. Saunders. 

T h e V a l u e of Library Surveys 

Report of a Survey of the University of South 
Carolina Library for the University of 
South Carolina, February-May 1946. By 
Louis R. Wilson and Maurice F. Tauber. 
Columbia, University of South Carolina, 
1946. 134P. (Mimeographed) 
The criticism has been advanced that the 

literature of library surveys, relatively new 
as it is, has already fallen into a r u t ; that 
each new survey merely repeats the same old 
patterns; and that if you have read one, you 
have read all. There is some justification for 
this attitude since many of the institutions 
surveyed do have similar organization, simi-
lar inadequacies, and therefore similar prob-
lems, which in many instances call for similar 
recommendations regarding correction or im-
provement. Another criticism which has been 
directed toward library surveys is that, in the 
final analysis, all of them resolve themselves 
into a plea (variously supported) for in-
creased financial support. This criticism, 
also, is not without substance. 

It might, however, be a healthful under-
taking for us to view critically these criti-
cisms for a moment: Actually, the strongest 

proponents of the survey as a scientific study 
of a library situation have consistently pro-
claimed it to be primarily an effective instru-
ment for increasing support. And to quarrel 
with either the instruments of measurement 
or the basis of recommended correctives is 
to refute library economy, not library sur-
veys; for the good survey will employ as much 
as is pertinent of library economy per se, and 
in its judicious choice and expert application 
of proper selections from total library science 
to a particular library situation a survey 
may be best evaluated. It is the survey re-
view or criticism rather than the survey itself 
which has fallen into a rut. 

The individuality of a library survey is not 
readily apparent unless the reader is familiar 
with or interested in the library which has 
been surveyed. The reason for this is that 
the survey, being aimed at nonlibrarians for 
the most part, is of necessity a teaching and 
an implementing instrument as well as a 
measuring device. Much of its teaching must 
be quite elementary, resulting in a work which 
holds little interest for the librarian, unless 
the whole work should suddenly be brought 

OCTOBER, 1946 365