College and Research Libraries


ians with some attention given to the rela-
tionship between professionalism and 
unionism. 

"Strategy, Structure, Style and Appraisal 
Applied to Libraries" by Paul J. Gordon is a 
critical examination of traditional assump-
tions and current thinking on organizational 
questions relating to behavior, design, and 
structure. He stresses there are no universal 
but only partial and conditional theories of 
management and also the need to consider 
varieties of organizations. 

"Economics in Library Management" by 
Nick Moore discusses the development of 
economics, applications to management, and 
contributions to the development of library 
management theories. Recent research 
studies on book selection, collection size, 
and collection effectiveness are used to illus-
trate the relevance of economics theory to 
practical library decision making. 

"Librarianship: Practice, Research and 
Theory" by Stephen A. Roberts, after dis-
cussing the concepts of science, research, 
theory, and practice, reviews several con-
temporary issues confronting research in li-
brarianship. His paper concludes with a dis-
cussion of criteria for the advancement of li-
brary research in Great Britain. 

The papers are not easy reading and re-
quire knowledge of the state of the library 
management art-in all its practical and 
theoretical aspects-for adequate com-
prehension of the topics discussed. How-
ever, those library managers and advanced 
students of library management who take 
the time to prod through this volume care-
fully will find food for thought and reflective 
action. The volume is not for those looking 
for quick answers to practical problems; 
rather, it raises numerous questions with 
possibilities of alternative strategies, tech-
niques, and structures grounded in present, 
future, or conjectured theories.-Michael B. 
Binder, Clinch Valley College of the Uni-
versity of Virginia, Wise. 

Marshall, Joan K., comp. On Equal Terms: 
A Thesaurus for Nonsexist Indexing and 
Cataloging. New York: Neal-Schuman 
Publishers, Inc., 1977. 152p. $14.95 
hardcover; $9.50 paperbound. LC 77-
8987. ISBN 0-918212-02-2 hardcover; 
0-918212-03-0 paper. (Distributed by 

Recent Publications I 233 

ABC-Clio, Inc., Box 4397, Santa Barbara, 
CA 93103.) 
This list, produced under the aegis of the 

Committee on Sexism in Subject Headings 
organized under the sponsorship of the 
American Library Association's SRRT (Social 
Responsibilities Round Table) Task Force on 
Women, contains descriptors/subject head-
ings for topics relating to people and 
peoples, particularly women. 

The intent of this thesaurus, as stated in 
the introduction, is "to provide both a list of 
descriptors suitable for indexing materials of 
concern to women and other classes of 
people who have not been well served by 
the LCSH and a critique of the LCSH and 
LC' s subject heading assignment policies." 

Three categories of terms are included: 
(1) additions to Library of Congress Subject 
Headings (LCSH) to cover areas of women's 
concerns that are not presently covered; (2) 
revisions of biased LCSH terms ; and (3) 
LCSH headings that have been include.d 
merely to expand the reference structure or 
to add subdivisions (p.12). In terms of 
scope, the list is not comprehensive or 
exhaustive, even for headings relating to 
women. LC headings that are considered 
adequate are generally not included in this 
list but are intended to be used along with 
those listed. In some areas, only a number 
of model headings are listed, according to 
which additional headings on similar sub-
jects may be developed. As a result, this 
thesaurus seems to have been designed to 
be used as a supplementary list to LCSH 
and cannot be used independently without 
further development and expansion. 

This list seeks mainly to improve on the 
terminology used in LCSH by using more 
current terms and by providing terms not 
yet present in .LCSH (including new head-
ings and narrower headings than those in 
LC SH) and additional cross-references. 
Existing LC headings that are considered to 
be biased or offensive are replaced by neu-
tral or "nonbiased" terms. 

Offensive or controversial terms , such as 
"Infanticide" and "Female offenders," are 
not only replaced by other terms but also 
dropped as referred-from references. It may 
be questioned whether eliminating these 
terms as referred-from references is desir-
able in terms of retrieval effectiveness. It is 



234 I College & Research Libraries • May 1978 

possible that some users might seek mate-
rial on certain subjects under the "offen-
sive" terms because these are often terms 
with which these users have become famil-
iar either through their previous experience 
with the catalog or through literature. The 
reason for not using these terms as headings 
is obvious, but dropping them as references 
is limiting access points to desired informa-
tion or material. 

Including a biased term, particularly as a 
referred-from reference, in a thesaurus does 
not necessarily constitute an endorsement of 
a particular viewpoint. This also brings to 
mind a question that has been raised many 
times in literature but lacks an answer 
based on consensus: Should descriptors or 
subject headings represent the objective · 
facts only? Or should they not reflect the 
way these facts have been and are recorded 
as well? 

The list includes many terms narrower 
than those in LCSH, but whether these are 
necessarily "specific" terms must be viewed 
in the context of application. A broad term 
may be a specific term, when applied to a 
work on a broad topic; and a narrow term is 
not necessarily specific, if the topic of the 
work being analyzed is even narrower than 
the term. 

In a few exceptional cases, broader terms 
are used to replace existing LC headings, 
e.g., Nuns-Employment in public schools 
replacing the LC heading Nuns as public 
school teachers. 

Regarding form of headings, this 
thesaurus conforms largely to LCSH, with 
perhaps a stronger tendency towards class-
entry forms (i.e., headings that contain 
hierarchically related terms and are not 
characteristic of entries in a dictionary 
catalog based on the principle of specific en-
try) even more so than LCSH. For example, 
headings subdivided indirectly sometimes 
contain three geographic subdivisions, e .g., 
Women-Employment-Canada-Manito-
ba-Winnipeg, as opposed to LC practice, 
which allows no more than two geographic 
subdivisions in a heading. 

In spite of a stated preference for the in-
verted form of headings because of its 
"consciousness-raising value" (p.ll), some 
direct headings are included, resulting in 
inconsistent forms for headings of a similiar 

type, e.g., Woman's films but Mass media, 
Women's; Prisons for women but Women's 
health centers and clinics. Furthermore, the 
distinction between the phrase form and the 
subdivided form is not always clear, e.g., 
Women-Prayer books and devotions but 
Comic books, strips, etc., Women's. Al-
though most of these problems regarding 
form of headings are inherited from LCSH, 
this thesaurus fails to address them satisfac-
torily. 

LCSH has often been criticized for con-
taining obsolete and biased terms. Many of 
them reflect the biases of the literature or of 
society, and some of them are the result of 
changing usage. Out of practical considera-
tion, particularly the cost of change, the Li-
brary of Congress admittedly has not kept 
up with the changes. This thesaurus aims at 
this particular problem by providing a list of 
terms relating to women and, to a limited 
extent, other minority groups that are in 
curreni use and are acceptable to the 
groups concerned. In addition, a set of 
"principles for establishing subject headings 
relating to people and peoples" was de-
veloped to ensure nonbiased and unpreju-
diced terminology. 

In recent years, the women's movement 
h.as generated tremendous interest in wo-
men's studies, and there is an enormous 
proliferation of literature in this area. 
LCSH, based primarily on literary warrant, 
is only slowly catching up in providing 
adequate headings for new topics related to 
women. This thesaurus fills this gap and will 
no doubt prove to be useful in analyzing 
book and periodical collections, particularly 
in indexing the contents of books and 
periodicals .-Lois M. Chan, University of 
Kentucky, Lexington. 

Library and Media: Marriage or Divorce. 
Dwight F. Burlingame, editor. Evans-
ville, Ind.: University of Evansville Press, 
1977. 78p. $4.95. LC 77-91273. ISBN 
0-930982-00-2. 
This slim paperback volume is a collection 

of papers given at a University of Evansville 
seminar in November 1976. The seminar 
topic was "Critical Issues in Higher Educa-
tion: Library and Media." 

There are seven papers in the collection, 
and their authors include some big names in