b'Some Difficult Areas of Application / Literature2) Use only terms that are specific enough to limit retrieval in a meaningful way. Headings suchas Family lifeFiction or Popular cultureFiction are dubiously useful, since they wouldapply equally to innumerable novels.3) Use only discrete terms, not terms that combine two or more concepts. Use two headings,such as Hispanic AmericansFiction and NursesFiction instead of Hispanic AmericannursesFiction.4) Apply headings for categories of persons only when the main character or several principalcharacters are representative of that category in a more than incidental way.5) Use geographic headings only when the setting of a novel is prominent and central to thework. All novels are set somewhere, but many novels have very little in the way of local color.6) In applying geographic headings, use only place names of intermediate specificity. Headingsfor countries are usually too broad for purposes of setting or local color. Only a few novels ofepic scope ever deal with the history and geography of an entire country, and the concept of lo-cal color implies something more limited than a country. On the other hand the names of mosttowns and villages are unknown outside their own region. For most novels the most useful geo-graphic headings will be the names of states or regions and certain large cities.7) If both a topical subject and a geographic location are central to a work, they should be ex-pressed separately rather than as a subject string.8) Historical novels should be given headings only for the broadest historical periods under aplace name, usually a century. The only exception to this rule would be for a few distinct peri-ods or events that have stimulated a great number of literary works, such as United States History1861-1865, Civil WarFiction.9) Do not hesitate to catalog an individual work of fiction, drama, or poetry without topical orgeographic headings. Many literary works do not lend themselves to this kind of treatment, andto go beyond the obvious will only lead users to items that do not satisfy their needs.In applying topical and geographic headings to individual works of fiction, drama, and poetry, themost important rule is to remember or imagine the needs of the users in a particular library setting,either readers who want novels, plays, etc., with a particular theme or setting, or teachers who needfictional materials on curriculum topics.Themes in LiteratureSome libraries have a significant amount of material about topics, locales, or themes in imaginativeliterature. The appropriate headings for such material is simply Topic in literature, according tothe pattern found in the Sears List under LiteratureThemes, such as Dogs in literature, Ohioin literature, etc. Headings of this type are for critical discussions only, not for literary works.A-39'