Introduction
The convenience of the public is always to be set before the ease of the cataloger. -- Charles Cutter, 1904
And cataloguers should recognize that they do what they do not to please bosses and not to mindlessly adhere to rules and protocols, but to serve their information desk colleagues and the public. That's whom they're working for. -- Sanford Berman, 2000
In many library catalogues access to works of fiction is provided only by author and by title. Such catalogues provide little information on the kinds of fiction in the library's collection, nor do they provide access to works of fiction dealing with particular themes or subject matter. This situation is in sharp contrast to access to non-fiction where classification and indexing systems are used to guide the reader to works on particular subjects. Subject access is one of the ways by which readers are empowered to make choices from the non-fiction collection.
There is plenty of evidence that the traditional access provided by the catalogue is failing to meet a need for subject-based access to fiction which public libraries are providing by other means. For example, the most popular genres of fiction are usually shelved separately from general fiction, with labels such as Romance or Thrillers providing a basic form of classification. Literature displays are also often subject oriented, with the librarian acting as an intermediary between the user and the collection by putting together special displays of literature on topical themes. In such methods of promotion there is a basic assumption that knowing what a work of fiction is about will provide a reason for choosing it to read. (MacEwan 1997, 61) It follows that for fiction, as for non-fiction, subject access through the catalogue has the potential to be a basic instrument for choice, yet no ideal standard has been established.
The purpose of this presentation is threefold: to provide an overview of the issues surrounding increased subject access to fiction; to inform the reader of current library practices through case studies; and, to address the feasibility of providing increased subject access to individual works of fiction.
Before beginning a discussion on the recent phenomenon of intense subject access for fiction and its overall necessity, it is integral to begin by questioning and answering one central question: why has the problem of subject access to fiction only been extensively dealt with in the recent decade? An answer to this question will not only illuminate our understanding of why a successful standard for subject access to fiction has not been established yet, but it will also reveal why it is essential for librarians to develop an ideal standard for cataloguers to follow; for without subject access to fiction, these works would be consistently underrepresented in a patronŐs search. After reviewing a wealth of literature on the topic, we deduced that there are two main reasons for the lack of standardization to date: philosophical objections and practical objections have obstructed a successful standard for subject access to fiction.