MANUAL
OF
LIBRARY CATALOGUING
BY
J. HENRY QUINN,
LIBRARIAN, CHELSEA PUBLIC LIBRARIES, LONDON.
(_Formerly Principal Cataloguing Assistant, Liverpool Free Libraries._)
LONDON.
LIBRARY SUPPLY COMPANY,
4, AVE MARIA LANE, E.C.
1899
Printed by Marlborough, Pewtress & Co., London, E. C.
PREFACE
This little book does not claim to be a comprehensive treatise on the
art of cataloguing books, nor is it intended for the use of the expert
in bibliography. The rules embodied are those generally recognized as
necessary for the proper cataloguing of a collection of books. By simple
illustrations the author has endeavoured to deal with those difficulties
which he has found most frequently arise and call for careful
consideration. Information concerning the printing of catalogues has been
added in order to make the book more complete.
If this Manual should prove a help to the better understanding of
the true principles of cataloguing, and is found to be of practical
assistance to those engaged in library work, the object of its
compilation will have been attained.
J. H. Q.
_March, 1899._
CONTENTS.
CHAP.
I.--INTRODUCTORY.
II.--THE DICTIONARY CATALOGUE.
III.--THE PRINCIPAL ENTRY: THE AUTHOR-ENTRY, 1.
IV.--THE PRINCIPAL ENTRY: THE AUTHOR-ENTRY, 2.
V.--THE PRINCIPAL ENTRY: THE AUTHOR-ENTRY, 3.
VI.--THE PRINCIPAL ENTRY: THE AUTHOR-ENTRY, 4.
VII.--THE PRINCIPAL ENTRY: CORPORATE AND OTHER FORMS, EDITORS
AND TRANSLATORS.
VIII.--SUBJECT. TITLE, AND SERIES ENTRIES.
IX.--SUBJECT, TITLE, AND SERIES ENTRIES (continued).
X.--TITLE-ENTRIES AND REPETITION DASHES.
XI.--INDEXING CONTENTS.
XII.--THE CLASSIFIED CATALOGUE.
XIII.--ALPHABETIZATION AND ARRANGEMENT.
XIV.--PRINTING.
Appendix A.--LIST OF WORDS OR PHRASES OCCURRING IN CONNECTION
WITH BOOKS WITH ABBREVIATIONS.
” B.--TABLE OF SIZES OF BOOKS.
” C.--SOME MODERN PSEUDONYMS WITH THE REAL NAMES, INCLUDING
LADIES WITH NAMES CHANGED BY MARRIAGE.
” D.--METHOD OF CORRECTING PRINTER’S PROOF.
” E.--LIST OF SUBJECT-HEADINGS FOR A DICTIONARY CATALOGUE.
INDEX.
MANUAL OF LIBRARY CATALOGUING.
CHAPTER I.
INTRODUCTORY.
=1.=--Most people are satisfied to believe that there is no department of
a librarian’s work so easily managed as that of compiling catalogues. The
catalogue of a library is often regarded as a mere list of books, calling
for no more mental effort in its production than is required in that of
a furniture auctioneer, or similar trade list. Professor John Fiske, in
his essay on “A Librarian’s Work,”[1] says “Generally I find a library
catalogue is assumed to be a thing that is somehow ‘made’ at a single
stroke, as Aladdin’s palace was built, at intervals of ten or a dozen
years, or whenever a ‘new catalogue’ is thought to be needed,” instead
of, as he proceeds to show, being a never-ending work calling for the
exercise of all the power and knowledge at the command of the cataloguer.
=2.=--There are varieties of library catalogues, from the simple
inventories made by private persons for their own collection of books, to
the mammoth “Catalogue of Printed Books in the British Museum,” so great
in its size and extensive in the field it covers that its entries have
to be almost exclusively limited to a single item for each book.
The catalogues to be compiled upon the lines laid down in this work come
between these two extremes, and are intended to serve as a key to the
treasure-house of knowledge and disclose its contents in a ready, but
orderly, manner to all inquirers. Carlyle says, “a big collection of
books, without a good catalogue, is a Polyphemus with no eye in his head.”
=3.=--A good library is virtually useless without an adequate and
properly compiled catalogue, but even an indifferent collection of books
can be made to render good service by means of a good catalogue. In order
to compile such a catalogue it is necessary that certain particulars be
given descriptive of the books, but in such a way that, while the entries
afford all needful information to the person well-versed in books, they
shall at the same time be so simple in character as to be understood with
very little effort by anyone of average intelligence. At the same time
the particulars given should be so comprehensive that a searcher in the
catalogue may be able to obtain a clear idea of the nature and scope of
the book described without actually examining it, though the descriptions
in this respect are not expected to be of the very full order looked for
in special bibliographies intended only for the use of experts.
The value of a good catalogue does not depend upon its extent or size
any more than does a good book, but rather upon the exactness of the
method by which the information given is digested and concentrated.
There are library catalogues so elaborately compiled that they are most
imposing in appearance, and very often, as a consequence, are considered
to be most erudite productions by those who do not understand the art of
cataloguing, whereas the persons who have to use them too often find out
that they are so ill-arranged as to be little better than a hotch-potch
of book titles--pedantic without being learned. “Infinite riches in a
little room” might, on the other hand, be often adopted as the motto for
many an insignificant-looking catalogue.
=4.=--It is a common occurrence to find a small library with quite a big
catalogue. This does not always arise from the wish to make the most
of the library, but often from the fact that the compilation has been
undertaken by some over-zealous member of a committee who fancied he had
a _penchant_ for such work, or that it has been compiled by an amateur
with no experience, whose friends have secured him his appointment as
librarian. Such people do not know that it is as easy, if not easier,
to over-catalogue a library as to do it judiciously, and a fearful and
wonderful work is often the result. There would not be much trouble in
giving illustrative examples of this, but that catalogue may be cited
where Green’s “Short History of the English People” obtained five
entries, viz., under Green, Short, History, English History, and People
(English), instead of the two entries that would have sufficed. Many of
the first catalogues of the smaller free libraries are of this order.
This, however, is not always the result of the above-named causes, but as
often as not is brought about by committees of new libraries postponing
the appointment of a librarian, to save his salary, until a few weeks
before the library is announced to be opened, and then expecting him to
purchase the books and produce a printed catalogue in the meantime. The
conception of the matter is, far too often, that books can be selected,
arranged, and listed in bulk, as groceries are bought, displayed, and
ticketed, and in as short a time. The result, of course, is that the
librarian, being rushed, must select and buy the books as quickly as he
can, and relegate the work of cataloguing them to an assistant, who most
likely has no training, and the best has to be made of a bad job. In very
few instances can it be considered that the first catalogue of a new
library fairly represents the ability of the librarian as a cataloguer.
=5.=--With the rapid rise of the standard of education more exact and
better work is at present demanded in libraries than was the case during
the first quarter of a century after the Public Libraries’ Act came into
operation. The slipshod rule-of-thumb cataloguing at one time in vogue
does not pass muster unnoticed now, as it did then, and consequently
there is less use than ever before for the bald lists of books, compiled
upon no principle in particular, sent forth to bewilder and hinder
rather than help an inquiring public. The student, and that interesting
personage, “the general reader,” are each year coming to a better
understanding of the uses and peculiarities of books, and so look for
more precise information concerning them. No better evidence is needed of
the manner in which the demand for information about books has grown than
is found in the large place which the reviewing of them now takes in the
columns of the newspaper press, so that even minor journals cannot afford
to ignore it. The dictum that a cataloguer has no right to go behind
the information contained on the title-page of a book does not now find
acceptance, as it did in the past.
Those persons who are possessed of even a little experience in the
matter know that it is impossible to compile a catalogue in a hap-hazard
fashion, and that clear and definite rules must be laid down before any
part of the work is attempted, otherwise confusion and want of proportion
will result. Happily of late years the rules governing the proper
compilation of catalogues have been codified, particularly those for the
form at present in most general use, known as the “dictionary catalogue.”