The Passionate Cataloger

What's wrong with LC subject headings?
For nearly 35 years, through letters, petitions, articles, books and speeches, Sanford Berman has crusaded against "archaic, foolish, clumsy, inauthentic and biased subject terms" (Berman, 1981, p. 4) that misrepresent peoples and topics and render materials invisible to the library user by assigning inappropriate or no subject headings.

"Bibliocide by cataloging"
Berman argues that the failure of the Library of Congress to

• Promptly create and use subject headings for topics appearing in media,
• Employ adequate cross-references and subheadings,
• Revise inaccurate, biased and defamatory headings, and
• Assign sufficient available headings to fully reflect content

makes items inaccessible to users and perpetuates misinformation and prejudice. Speaking at LC in 1992, Berman said that librarians cataloging under the current system are committing "bibliocide by cataloging" (Moss, 1997, p. 12).

Intelligibility, Findability, Fairness
Three principles drive Berman's approach to cataloging:

• Intelligibility: the format and content of information in the catalog should be helpful and comprehensible to users
• Findability: the language used in the catalog should be contemporary and familiar, and useful and extensive cross-references should be added in anticipation of where people are likely to look
• Fairness: cataloging should fairly reflect the actual content of the work; terms used to describe age, sex, or ethnic groups should be the groups' own preferred names

People-related terms
In his 1971 book Prejudices and Antipathies: A Tract on the LC Subject Heads Concerning People Berman identifies unacceptable LC terms and gaps in terminology to do with ethnicity, religion, gender, sex, age, sexual orientation, labour, and developing countries, among others, and suggests replacements. Many headings that Berman created for "new concepts" and used in cataloging at the Hennepin County Library, such as "GAY RIGHTS", "ACID RAIN", and "PUNK ROCK MUSIC", were later added to the LCSH. Thirty years later, some of his other suggested replacements have been implemented:

while some suggested additions, like "CLASSISM", "FEMINIST COLLECTIVES", "VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN", and "CONSUMER ADVOCACY", have not.

People-friendly searching
Not only does Berman advocate the use of unbiased language for people-related terms, but also encourages the use of direct, contemporary language ("TRUCKING", not "TRANSPORTATION, AUTOMOTIVE-FREIGHT), the use of common rather than scientific terms ("DNA", not "DEOXYRIBONUCLEIC ACID"), the creation of headings for well-known fictional or folkloric characters ("HOLMES, SHERLOCK", "COYOTE THE TRICKSTER"), and cross-referencing from common misspellings to preferred terms (COLUMBIA. see COLOMBIA; ROGERS, MARY. see RODGERS, MARY).

Hennepin County Library Subject Headings
Unwilling to wait for the massive bureaucracy of the Library of Congress to update descriptors, Berman, as principal cataloger at the Hennepin County Library, created and assigned subject headings, some of which were later (…much…later….) implemented by LC:

Descriptive cataloging
Sanford Berman's passionate advocacy for access to information through changes to standard cataloging practices extends beyond his calls for reform and change to subject heading practices; he targets descriptive cataloging practices as well.

"I firmly believe it's time to finally and objectively evaluate fundamental aspects of descriptive cataloging: Do they make sense to the catalog users? Do they help or confuse? And if … the answers are that they don't make sense and do confuse, professional integrity dictates reform. There is simply no excuse for continuing practices that demonstrably damage rather than enhance catalog intelligibility and effectiveness." (Berman, 1981, p. 24)

No detail of the cataloging record was too small to escape Berman's attentions. He advocated that catalogers:

• Do away with the meaningless punctuation in catalog records such as slashes, brackets, equal signs, and ellipses.
• Avoid the use of abbreviations and Latinisms. They "could well make the uninducted feel like stupid jerks." (Berman, 1981, p. 3)
• Eliminate completely the use of the cryptic and useless reference to spine length and prefatory page numbers expressed in roman numerals.
• Add meaningful notes to the record to increase access to the information.

  "The one over-riding omission in descriptive cataloging is notes. The value of 'full' or partial contents notes is twofold. They clarify for catalog users what's really in a work, and perhaps convey something of its tone, making it easier to decide whether to examine the item or not; and they facilitate online keyword searching." (Berman, Good luck, 2000, p. 51)

Dewey Decimal Classification
Dewey Decimal Classification has not escaped Berman's attentions. He advocates strongly for improvements to the DDC, arguing that a classification scheme must be 'logical, comprehensive, and contemporary" (Berman, 1981, p. 177) and that class numbers should be constant in meaning, and moderate in length.

From his earliest days at Hennepin County Library, Berman was leading the way in creating classifications for topics that had achieved literary warrant. Here are but a few of the class notations created in the 1970s.

Although Berman and his staff created these classes based on literary warrant in the 1970s, as of 2003 some of these topics still do not have a specific Dewey notation.

Original cataloging
Berman speaks eloquently about the need for original in-house cataloging in his recent writings in the U*N*A*B*A*S*H*E*D Librarian.

"Why catalog in-house? Why catalog locally? And why not outsource the whole operation? Because critical, creative catalogers within individual systems are the last and only bulwarks against the often error-laden, access-limiting, and alienating records produced by giant, distant, and essentially unaccountable networks and vendors." (Berman, Why Catalog?, 2000, p. 11)

(Berman, 1981, p. 9)

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