Sears List Of Subject Headings 21st Edition

Created by Minnie Earl Sears in 1923 as a more accessible version of the Library of Congress Subject Headings, the Sears List of Subject Headings has been providing a guide to subject access for small libraries ever since. It was first published by H.W. Wilson, and EBSCO took over editorial duties in 2011. Today, EBSCO publishes Sears both in print (via a partnership with Grey House Publishing) and as a searchable online database. The print editions are an invaluable resource that have the added advantage of being browseable and portable. The online database is updated once a year, and stays slightly more current than the print editions, which are published every four years.

The latest print edition, Sears’ 21st, was published in 2014 and has been well-received within the library community. Jean Weihs, a retired library science professor, writes in Technicalities (a journal pertaining to all things technical services), “I have written many times about the excellence of the ‘Principles of the Sears List of Subject Headings’. . . It is one of the reasons why all institutions that teach subject analysis and all libraries with untrained technical services staff should buy Sears 21, even if the library assigns Library of Congress subject headings.”

The subject headings within Sears are meant to correlate to the classification scheme used within the well-known Dewey Decimal System. This makes it easier for libraries to find the subject headings they can use to further classify their collection. Writer Tom Adamich says in Library Media Connection, “The combination of Sears and Dewey provides good contextual grouping for web-savvy users who are looking for a logical approach to putting similar materials together in a structured framework.”