College and Research Libraries 168 I College & Research Libraries • March 1979 library science students" a book that brings together in one place the principles and prac- tices of the Library of Congress in regard to subject headings as they have evolved over the years. Charles A. Cutter's Rules (1904), David J. Haykin's Subject Headings (1951), and pro- nouncements in Cataloging Service Bulletin (1945-1978) provide the basic documentation for the underlying principles examined. Other principles were determined from interviews with Library of Congress personnel and from the examination of Library of Congress catalogs. The book attempts to "re-examine the un- derlying principles of Library of Congress Subject Headings in light of recent develop- ments and some of the recent theories and to describe current subject cataloging practice as carried out by the Library of Congress." Ac- cording to the author, "no attempt was made in this book to formulate any rules. It is an analysis of the principles and a description of current practice." The book is divided into two major parts, with part 1 dealing with principles, form, and structure and part 2 with application. The principles cover uniform headings, terminol- ogy, and specificity. The chapter on forms of headings covers single noun headings, adjec- tival headings, conjunctive and prepositional phrase headings, headings with qualifiers, and inverted headings. In regard to structure, there is a chapter on subdivisions, one on cross-references, and another on proper names in subject headings. Regarding practical aspects, the book covers the application of principles to special types of materials, such as serials, nonbook materials, and biography. Also included is the applica- tion of principles to certain subject areas, such as literature, music, and art. The work ends with eighty-one pages of appendixes, which include varied lists of cumulated free-floating subdivisions and rules for abbreviations, capitalization, punctuation, and filing. The book is not easy reading, but it is im- pressive. The dissertationlike style of presen- tation of part 1, with its numerous direct quo- tations and exposition, may dissuade even some serious readers; however, the simple sentence structure facilitates the progression through the analysis. To fully understand the work, one must have not only a thorough knowledge of Library of Congress subject headings but a~p an understanding of the Anglo-American Cataloging Rules and the works of Cutter and Haykin. The reader may become perplexed by the lack of coordination or the collocation of some topics and the resulting redundancy. There- petition is more distracting than reinforcing. Also, in the relative index, one is hard pressed to pre<4,ct the placement of a topic. For exam- ple, data on see references are indexed under "Cross references" and under "See refer- ences." Following a questionable principle of