How to Catalogue a Library Part 3

Another advantage of this plan is that a practically new library catalogue may be made up from old printed catalogues. Some five-and-twenty years ago, the Athenaeum Club possessed a worn-out catalogue of its library. Supplements were printed, and I laid down in one alphabet a catalogue of the whole, which has lasted to the present time, although I believe it is pretty well worn out now. There were certain difficulties to be overcome, for the catalogue and its supplements were not made on the same system.

Card catalogues have been strongly advocated by some, and they present many advantages if used while the catalogue is growing in completeness; but for use when the catalogue is completed they cannot compete in convenience with the plan just described. It takes much longer to look through a series of cards representing the works of a given author than it does to run the eye down a page of t.i.tles.[19]

Professor Otis Robinson, in his article on "College Library Administration" (_United States Report on Public Libraries_, p. 512), writes thus on the adoption of card catalogues in the United States:--

"In some of the largest libraries of the country the card system has been exclusively adopted. Several of them have no intention of printing any more catalogues in book form. In others cards are adopted for current accessions, with the expectation of printing supplements from them from time to time. I think the tendency of the smaller libraries is to adopt the former plan, keeping a ma.n.u.script card catalogue of books as they are added, without a thought of printing."

This system of cataloguing has not taken hold of the English mind, although it has been adopted at the Bodleian Library by Mr. Nicholson, and at the Guildhall Library. The growth of this fashion appears to me as something almost incomprehensible, and one can only ask why such a primitive mode of arrangement should be preferred to a book catalogue. I can scarcely imagine anything more maddening than a frequent reference to cards in a drawer; and my objection is not theoretical, but formed on a long course of fingering slips or cards. If the arrangement of the catalogue is constantly being altered, it may be convenient to have cards; but when a proper system has been settled at the beginning, this cannot be necessary. When additions only have to be considered, these can be inserted into the book catalogue, so that the catalogue may last for many years. The use of a duplicate set of t.i.tles on cards for use in arrangement, which can be arranged and rearranged as often as required, is quite another matter. This plan is adopted at the Bodleian.

Varieties of type help the eye to choose out what it requires, and there is much saving of time in consulting a good printed catalogue instead of a good ma.n.u.script one. This is not a matter of opinion merely, but can be proved at once by consulting the printed volumes of the British Museum Catalogue against the volumes still in ma.n.u.script.

Before the details of printing are finally settled it is well to pay particular attention to the typographical arrangement, as a catalogue will be all the more useful as it is well set out.

A very ingenious scheme for the stereotyping of catalogue t.i.tles was published by Mr. C. C. Jewett, Librarian of the Smithsonian Inst.i.tution, in 1850.[20]

The mode of carrying out the plan is explained as follows:--

"1. The Smithsonian Inst.i.tution to publish rules for the preparation of catalogues.

"2. To request other inst.i.tutions intending to publish catalogues of their books to prepare them according to these rules, with a view to their being stereotyped under the direction of the Smithsonian Inst.i.tution.

"3. The Smithsonian Inst.i.tution to pay the whole _extra_ expense of stereotyping, or such part thereof as may be agreed on.

"4. The stereotyped t.i.tles to remain the property of the Smithsonian Inst.i.tution.

"5. Every library uniting in this plan to have the right of using all the t.i.tles in the possession of the Smithsonian Inst.i.tution, as often as desired for the printing of its own catalogue by the Inst.i.tution; paying only the expense of making up the pages, of the press work, and of distributing the t.i.tles to their proper places.

"6. The Smithsonian Inst.i.tution to publish as soon as possible, and at stated intervals, general catalogues of all libraries coming into this system."

It is not necessary here to explain how the stereotyped slips were to be manufactured, as the explanation will be found in the original paper.

A scheme of an allied character was propounded by the late Mr. Henry Stevens, who read a very interesting and amusing paper before the Conference of Librarians in 1877 on "Photo-Bibliography; or, A Central Bibliographical Clearing House" (_Transactions_, pp. 70-81). Mr. Stevens wrote:--

"My notion is that every book, big and little, that is published, like every child, big and little, that is born, should be registered, without inquiry into its merits or character.... I ask the attention of this Conference of Librarians to a word on the necessity of cataloguing every book printed; the importance of printed card catalogues of old, rare, beautiful, and costly books, and how to make them on a co-operative or universal system, which, for lack of a better term, I shall for the present call 'photo-bibliography.' For carrying out this project a Central Bibliographical Bureau or Clearing House for Librarians is suggested."

The author goes on to say:--

"From the days of Hipparchus to the present time, the stars have been catalogued; and to-day every bird, beast, fish, sh.e.l.l, insect, and living thing, yea every tree, shrub, flower, rock, and gem, as they become known are scientifically, systematically, and intelligently named, described, and catalogued. In all these departments of human knowledge there is a well-ascertained and generally acknowledged system, which is dignified as a science."

But no such system of registering books has ever been attempted. The cure for this negligence is then suggested:--

"This isolation and waste of vain repet.i.tion, it is believed, is wholly unnecessary. There is no royal road, it has been said, to knowledge. He who would attain the goal must learn to labour and to wait, for knowledge is locked up mainly in books, appropriately termed works. There is, however, a short cut with a pa.s.s-key in universal or co-operative bibliography, a simple system of arrangement by which may be economized the labours of hundreds who are cataloguing over and over the same books."

Mr. Stevens's special contribution to this great object was the use of reduced photographs of the t.i.tle-pages of rare and curious books. The adoption of this plan would help on vastly the study of bibliography.

The strong feeling as to the waste of time occupied in the constant repet.i.tion going on in cataloguing the same book in different libraries crops up again and again, and surely we shall in the end be able to elaborate some scheme which will meet such a universally felt want.

Professor Robinson was one of the earliest to protest against this waste, and his attention was called to it when inspecting various card catalogues. He found similar cards being repeatedly reproduced, and he suggested that by some system of cooperation this waste of labour might be reduced (_United States Report on Public Libraries_, pp. 512-14).

Two practical suggestions have been made. One is that every publisher should place in each copy of each book issued by him a catalogue slip made upon a proper system which has been settled by competent authorities, so that there may be a satisfactory uniformity; and the other that each government should catalogue every work published in its country. The former plan is scarcely likely to be undertaken systematically by all publishers, but the latter one might be carried out in connection with the ratification of copyright privileges. Every publication should be registered, and a copy submitted at the registration office. A part of the business of this office should be to issue periodically proper catalogue slips of every work registered, on a settled plan that had been well thought out by experts. The authorities of Stationers' Hall ought long ago to have been instructed to issue lists of all the books registered there; and if they were not prepared to undertake the duties indicated by the new Registration Law, the office might possibly be transferred to the British Museum with advantage. If England initiated such a scheme, other nations would probably follow its lead. At present the Catalogue of the British Museum, as now published, to some extent fulfils the required conditions; but much that is published in Great Britain even escapes through the meshes of the Museum's widespread net.

However much printed catalogues may be superior to ma.n.u.script ones, the latter must always be used in a large number of cases, especially for private libraries; and therefore it may be well to say a few words here respecting the preparation and keeping up of a ma.n.u.script catalogue.

There are two ways of making and keeping up a new catalogue. The one is that adopted at the British Museum, which was suggested simultaneously by the Right Hon. J. Wilson Croker, and by Mr. Roy, one of the a.s.sistant Librarians in the Printed Book Department. The catalogue slips are lightly pasted down into guarded volumes, the ends being left unpasted, so that the slips can easily be detached with the help of a paper-knife if it be needful at any time to change their position.

The other plan is to copy out fairly the t.i.tles on one side of sheets of paper, proper s.p.a.ces being left, as well as the whole of the opposite page for additions. These sheets are afterwards bound into a volume or volumes. The former plan is the best for a large and a constantly increasing catalogue; but the latter plan is more satisfactory for an ordinary private library, as it forms a more shapable and better-looking volume. From experience it may be said that a catalogue of this kind, in which proper s.p.a.ces have been left, will last for many years; and should it become congested in any one portion, it is quite easy to rewrite those pages on a larger scale, and have the volume rebound.

====================================================== |Case.|Shelf.| |Size.|Date.| |-----+------+---------------------------+-----+-----| | 10 | B | HAYDN (Joseph). Haydn's |_8vo_|1878 | | | | Dictionary of Dates and | | | | | | Universal Information, | | | | | | relating to all ages and | | | | | | nations; 16th edition, | | | | | | containing the History of | | | | | | the World to the autumn | | | | | | of 1878, by Benjamin | | | | | | Vincent. _London_. | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |

A specimen of how paper should be ruled for a ma.n.u.script catalogue made on the latter plan is given on page 72. The columns at the right-hand side of the paper, for size and date, add to the clearness of the catalogue, as well as making the page look neater. The most useful size is about 1 ft. 5 in. high by 11-1/2 in. wide--the size of Whatman's best drawing paper, which can be used with advantage.

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FOOTNOTES:

[16] It must be thoroughly understood that this catalogue of letter A is in itself an excellent piece of work. Its shortcomings are entirely due to incompleteness caused by premature printing.

[17] _Transactions_ of the Fourth and Fifth Annual Meetings of the Library a.s.sociation, 1884, pp. 122-23. In the discussion which followed the reading of this paper, I ventured to speak of the British Museum having been converted to the advantages of printing. Mr. Bullen in his speech said: "There were those in the Museum, Mr. Garnett and himself among them, who, long before the present time, advocated printed, in contradistinction to ma.n.u.script, catalogues. As a ma.n.u.script catalogue was one of the greatest advantages to a library, so a printed catalogue must of course be of a hundred times greater advantage" (p. 207).

[18] I find that the merits of this plan are not so self-evident as I thought, for my friend, Mr. J. B. Bailey, Librarian of the Royal College of Surgeons, who has had experience of a double columned catalogue, prefers a single column with the _verso_ of each page left for additions. I allow that there may be advantages in the latter, but as an octavo page of print is very narrow it is wasteful of s.p.a.ce to have only one column. Where it is no disadvantage to have a catalogue in several volumes, this question of s.p.a.ce need not be considered.

[19] Mr. Cutter gives some useful information respecting card catalogues and the drawers used for keeping the cards, in his article on "Library Catalogues" (_United States Report on Public Libraries_, pp. 555-60).

[20] "A Plan for Stereotyping Catalogues by Separate t.i.tles, and for forming a General Stereotyped Catalogue of Public Libraries in the United States." _Proceedings of the Fourth Meeting of the American a.s.sociation for the Advancement of Science, held at New Haven, Conn., August 1850_ (8vo, Washington, 1851).

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CHAPTER IV.

HOW TO TREAT A t.i.tLE-PAGE.

In this chapter we shall discuss the various points that arise in connection with the transference of the t.i.tle of a book to the catalogue slip, and for convenience we shall treat the subject under the following main divisions: 1. Author; 2. Headings other than Author Headings; 3.

The t.i.tle; 4. Place of Publication; 5. Date; 6. Size Notation; 7.

Collation.

Before dealing with these points it is necessary to give the cataloguer a warning not to take his t.i.tle from the outer wrapper. The t.i.tle-page only must be used, but in cases where there is no t.i.tle-page, and it becomes necessary to copy from the wrapper, this must be clearly stated.

Wrappers and t.i.tle-pages of the same book often differ, and a neglect of the above rule has sometimes caused a confusion in bibliographies by the conversion of one book into two.

AUTHOR.

With the t.i.tle-page of the book to be catalogued before us, our first care is to find the author's name. If there is no author's name, we must put the book aside for consideration later on. First of all, therefore, it is necessary to answer the question, What is an author?

Mr. Cutter's definition is as follows: "Author, in the narrower sense, is the person who writes a book; in a wider sense, it may be applied to him who is the cause of the book's existence, by putting together the writings of several authors (usually called _the editor_, more properly to be called _the collector_). Bodies of men (societies, cities, legislative bodies, countries) are to be considered the authors of their memoirs, transactions, journals, debates, reports, etc." This is a fair definition, about which there can be no dispute, down to the word _collector_; but the latter portion requires much consideration, and we shall have to deal with it further on.