SUBJECT HEADINGS LIST 

Subject heading has been defined as a word or group of words indicating a subject under which all  materials dealing with same theme is  entered  in a catalogue or bibliography, or is arranged in a file. Credit should go to Crestadoro who, for the first time in his book The Art of Making Catalogues' published in 1856, could realize that the cataloguer should provide a standardized guide to the subject content of a book by giving it a heading. In 1895, the first standard list of subject headings appeared. The 'List of Subject Headings for Use in Dictionary Catalogues', produced by a committee of the American Library Association (ALA) of which C.A. Cutter was a prominent member, was based on Cutter's principles. It went through three editions (1895, 1898, 1911). In 1910-1914, when Library of Congress (LC) began publishing its list under the title "Subject Headings Used in the Dictionary Catalogs of the Library of Congress", it was found   unnecessary to continue the ALA list. A printed list of subject headings incorporates the thought and experience of many librarians of various types of libraries.