Sears List of Subject Headings

Sears Subject Headings can be purchased in print or it may be available thru your catalog vendor.  Our access is through Abridged WebDewey from OCLC.  This electronic tool combines Sears with Dewey Decimal Classification.

Go to Abrided WebDewey link on Cataloger's Tools and login.  1st image.  Click on Browse to begin searching for a term.  2nd image.   For our example we will pretend that we have a book about human evolution.  Notice in the 3rd image how the term is entered; Sears Subject Headings is checked; then click Browse.  In the 4th image we find human evolution is not a correct term.  The cataloger must then choose synonyms or look up terms in an authoritative source or dictionary to determined what other terms to search for.   These terms cannot be modified and capitalization and punctuation must be used exactly as shown.

The 5th image shows a change in search terms.  The 6th image shows the results of a search on evolution.  Notice that the Dewey classification numbers are on the right.  In the7th image the results of clicking on the Dewey # is shown.  Notice that the table at the bottom shows various subject headings.  SSH stands for Sears Subject Headings.  If that is what our library is using, we should click on the terms that have a mark in the SSH column.  This will give us a definition of the term.  Be careful not to get Evolution (biology) an LCSH term mixed up with Sears. See last image.

Be sure to Log Off when you are done so that other students can use this tool.

The printed book of Sears Subject Headings is easier to use than the electronic version.  If you can find a print copy, you can use it for the assignment below.

Assignment: Choose the appropriate subject headings and subdivisions for the following two items.  Use Sears from WebDewey.  Remember - to assign a subject heading a topic should be a significant portion of the item. If you don't know what something means, look up the term in a dictionary or encyclopedia.
1) Create a Word document,
2) list the number of the item (from below)
3) list the headings as if it was in MARC format.
Create the MARC tags for each heading - include indicators, delimiters as well as heading and subheadings.
Items that need headings:
1) from Table of Contents (TOC)- MDMA drug, risks of MDMA, MDMA assisted psychotherapy, clinical uses of MDMA, MDMA and society
    from front cover - Ecstacy
    from back cover - Current Events/Psychology by pub, drug phenomenon, unbiased look at risks and benefits of Ecstasy and real drug behind it, MDMA, health risks, promise as a treatment for depression & chronic pain.

2) from Table of Contents (TOC) - frontier thesis, significance of frontier in American history, frontier and the Native American, wilderness versus the pioneer, gender and race on the frontier, creation of frontier mythic heroes, frontier and today's popular culture from front cover - American History series

Example of completed assignment

3) from title page  Cataloging and Classification for Library Technicians; from TOC Library catalogs, tools used for cataloging, descriptive cataloging, subject headings, classification)

3.  650  1 0  [a]Cataloging[z]United States.
     650  1 0  [a]Classification[z]United States.