CHAPTER III._How to Catalogue a Library

PRINT _V._ MANUSCRIPT.

There has been much discussion on the relative advantages of Print and

Manuscript. Panizzi's objection to print was a sound one, as he

considered that no titles should be printed until the catalogue of the

whole library was completed. When this time came the objection was no

longer valid, and arrangements were made in due course for printing the

catalogue by instalments. Before this was decided upon there were some

who insisted upon the actual superiority of manuscript over print; but

this was really absurd, because, if the extra cost of printing can be

defrayed, there must be great advantage in the clearness and legibility

of print, as well as in the saving of space caused by its use.

Mr. Parry, with his strong common sense, advocated, in 1849, the use of

the printing-press. He said in his evidence: "I think the Catalogue

ought to be printed; not merely for the purposes of the library, and of

reference out of the library, but also because I think the Catalogue of

this library is a work that ought to be in every public institution

where men of letters resort, either here, on the Continent, in America,

or in any other part of the civilized world; still, it ought not to be

printed until the whole of the books are catalogued up to a certain

time. I say 'up to a certain time' because the whole of the books never

can be catalogued in a library where there are constant accessions. But

a limit may be fixed, and when that limit is reached and the whole of

the books within that limit are catalogued I would then print the

Catalogue, and not before. I have said before that the volume of letter

A must be cancelled; that is inevitable. Nobody after this Catalogue is

completed, no librarian, no man of the most ordinary literary

acquirements, would presume to print the Catalogue without cancelling

this volume: that arises from the circumstance that, as the cataloguing

goes on, thousands of works will turn up as necessary to be inserted in

letter A."[16]

Mr. Parry added, that in ordering this partial printing the trustees

gave way to pressure from without, which he defined very justly as "a

sort of ignorant impatience for a catalogue by persons who do not really

understand what a catalogue is or what a catalogue should be."

Dr. Garnett read a very interesting paper on "The Printing of the

British Museum Catalogue," before the Library Association, at the

Cambridge meeting, in 1882, in which he tells how the present system of

printing came about.

Mr. Rye, when Keeper of the Printed Books, strongly urged the adoption

of print; but Dr. Garnett adds, "Other views, however, prevailed for the

time; and when, in October 1875, the subject was again brought forward

by the Treasury it fell to my lot to treat it from a new point of view,

suggested by my observations in my capacity as superintendent of the

reading-room. I saw that, waiving the question as to the advantage or

disadvantage of print in the abstract, it would soon be necessary to

resort to it for the sake of economy of space. There were by this time

two thousand volumes of manuscript catalogue in the reading-room,

exclusive of the catalogues of maps and music. There would be three

thousand by the time that the incorporation of the general and

supplementary catalogues was complete. Hundreds of these volumes in the

earlier letters of the alphabet were already swollen with entries, and

required to be broken up and divided into three. Sooner or later every

volume would have undergone this process. By that time there would be

nine thousand volumes of manuscript catalogue, three times as many as

the reading-room could contain, or the public conveniently consult. The

only remedy was to put a check upon the growth of the catalogue by

printing all new entries for the future, and to mature meanwhile a plan

for converting the entire catalogue into a printed one. I prepared a

memorandum embodying these ideas, and entered into the subject more

fully, when, in January 1878, it was again brought forward by the

Treasury. These views, however, did not find acceptance at the time....

The question was thus left for Mr. Bond, who became Principal Librarian

in the following August. As Keeper of the Manuscripts, Mr. Bond's

attention had never been officially drawn to the catalogue of printed

books, but as a man of letters, he had formed an opinion respecting it;

and I am able to state that he came to the principal librarianship as

determined to bestow the boon of print upon the Catalogue and the

public, as to effect the other great reforms that have signalized his

administration."[17]

Dr. Garnett, near the end of his paper, said, "My aspiration is that the

completion of the Museum Catalogue in print may coincide with the

completion of the present century;" and I believe he still holds the

opinion that this is possible and probable.

Mr. Cutter enters very fully into this question of _Printed or

Manuscript_? in his elaborate article on "Library Catalogues" in the

_United States Report on Public Libraries_, 1876 (pp. 552-56). The

advantages of a printed catalogue he states under five heads: "(1) that

it is in less danger of partial or total destruction than a manuscript

volume or drawers of cards;" "(2) that it can be consulted out of the

library;" "(3) that it can be consulted in other libraries;" "(4) that

it is easier to read than the best manuscript volume, and very much

easier to consult. A card presents to the eye only one title at a time,

whereas a printed catalogue generally has all an author's works on a

single page. Time and patience are lost in turning over cards, and it is

not easy either to find the particular title that is wanted or to

compare different titles and make a selection;" "(5) that several

persons can consult it at once."

The disadvantages are stated by Mr. Cutter under three heads: "(1) that

it is costly;" "(2) that a mistake once made is made for ever, whereas

in a card catalogue a mistake in name or in classification or in copying

the title can be corrected at any time;" "(3) it is out of date before

it is published. As it cannot contain the newest books, the very ones

most sought for, fresh supplements are continually needed, each of which

causes an additional loss of time and patience to consulters. The

average man will not look in over four places for a book; a few, very

persevering or driven by a great need, will go as far as five or six. It

becomes necessary therefore, if the catalogue is to be of any use, to

print consolidated supplements every five years, and that is expensive."

Of the advantages the main one is No. 4, and of the disadvantages the

only one of any importance is, it seems to me, No. 1.

As to disadvantage No. 2, it is more apparent than real. A mistake in

print will of course remain for ever in the copies of the catalogue

outside the library, but it can easily be corrected in the library copy

either in manuscript or by reprinting the single title in which the

mistake occurs. The card catalogue cannot be used outside the library,

and the catalogue in the library can be as easily corrected whether it

be printed and pasted down on pages or arranged on cards. The two are

equal in this respect. Disadvantage 3 is the stock objection. But what

does it really come to? He who consults the catalogue of a library away

from that library knows that a given book is there if he finds it in the

catalogue; but if it is not in the catalogue, he does not give up hope,

but either visits the library or sends to know if the book he requires

is in. He is no worse off in this case than if there had been no printed

catalogue; and in the former case he is much better off. The library

copy of the catalogue can be kept up as well in print as it can be in

manuscript, and here at all events there will only be one alphabet. It

will therefore be a question for the consulter alone whether it is

better worth his while to consult several supplements than to go

straight to the library. For the purposes of the library, it is quite

unnecessary to reprint or consolidate your supplements, because your

library copy of the catalogue will always be kept up to date. If the

library is a lending one, the subscribers will probably insist upon

having new catalogues, as the supplements become too numerous; but this

is only an additional instance of the advantages of a printed catalogue.

A printed catalogue should never be added to in manuscript, as this

causes the greatest confusion; and, moreover, it is not necessary. It is

quite possible to keep up a catalogue in print for many years; and even

when worn out, if the printed sheets have been kept, a working catalogue

can be made up afresh without printing again. The plan adopted by my

brother, the late Mr. B. R. Wheatley, is so simple, that it seems

scarcely necessary to enlarge upon its merits; but as it has not been

generally adopted, I may perhaps explain it here with advantage. It will

be seen by the specimen on page 59, that each page of the library copy

of the catalogue is divided in two. On the left-hand side is pasted down

the catalogue as it exists at the time, and the right-hand side is left

for additions. These additions may be printed as annual supplements, or

they may be printed from time to time at short intervals on galley slips

on one side only, without being made into pages. This can be done as

suits the best convenience of all concerned; and it is just as easy to

have the titles printed frequently as to have them copied for insertion

in the library copy of the catalogue. The ruled columns are for the

press-marks, and these are arranged on the outside of each column for

purposes of symmetry. It is not advantageous, as a rule, to print the

press-marks in the catalogue, although this is done in the case of the

British Museum. There are two advantages in having two columns of type

on one page. One is that there is a saving of space, and the other is

that it is easier to keep the alphabet in perfect register if it becomes

necessary to insert a page. However well arranged a library copy of a

catalogue may be, it will probably become congested in some places

before the whole catalogue requires readjustment. Now suppose each page

contains only one column of print, and the left-hand page is left for

additions. When both pages are full, and it is necessary to insert a

leaf for fresh additions, it is clear that the correct order of the

alphabet will be thrown out. But if there are two columns on each page,

then the additional leaf will introduce no confusion; for the recto of

the additional leaf will range with the verso of the old leaf, and the

verso of the additional leaf with the recto of the next leaf in the

book. The only difference will be that you will have to run your eye

along four columns instead of two.[18]

================================================================

|-----+-------------------------+-----------------+-----+------|

| B | 1 |~Le Breton~ | | N | 5 |

| | |1847. | | | |

| | | | | | |

| B | 2 |----Correspondence| | | |

| | |(1826-1842). Sm. | | | |

| | |1874. |~Liddell~ | | |

| G | 4 |~McNicoll~ | | | |

| | |1863. | | | |

| | | | | | |

The advantage of this plan is that the library catalogue can be

actually kept up for any length of time without any reprinting. When the

catalogue is filled up, and there is no room for any additions, the

whole may be pasted down afresh as in the first instance, always

presuming that copies of the catalogue and its supplements have been

retained.

Sometimes the pasting down of the print is delegated to the binder; but

it should be done either by the librarian himself, or at all events

under his eye, for much judgment and knowledge are required for the

proper leaving of spaces where the additions are likely to be the

thickest.

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 Athenæum 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 titles.[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 manuscript

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 titles 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 manuscript 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 manuscript.

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 titles was

published by Mr. C. C. Jewett, Librarian of the Smithsonian Institution,

in 1850.[20]

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

"1. The Smithsonian Institution to publish rules for the preparation of

catalogues.

"2. To request other institutions 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

Institution.

"3. The Smithsonian Institution to pay the whole _extra_ expense of

stereotyping, or such part thereof as may be agreed on.

"4. The stereotyped titles to remain the property of the Smithsonian

Institution.

"5. Every library uniting in this plan to have the right of using all

the titles in the possession of the Smithsonian Institution, as often as

desired for the printing of its own catalogue by the Institution; paying

only the expense of making up the pages, of the press work, and of

distributing the titles to their proper places.

"6. The Smithsonian Institution 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, shell, 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 repetition, 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 pass-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 title-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

repetition 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 manuscript 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 manuscript 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 Assistant

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 titles on one side of sheets of

paper, proper spaces 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 spaces 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.

======================================================

|-----+------+---------------------------+-----+-----|

| 10 | B | HAYDN (Joseph). Haydn's |_8vo_|1878 |

| | | | | |

A specimen of how paper should be ruled for a manuscript 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.

[Decoration]

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 Association, 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 manuscript, catalogues. As a manuscript 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 space to have only

one column. Where it is no disadvantage to have a catalogue in several

volumes, this question of space 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 Titles, and for

forming a General Stereotyped Catalogue of Public Libraries in the

United States." _Proceedings of the Fourth Meeting of the American

Association for the Advancement of Science, held at New Haven, Conn.,

August 1850_ (8vo, Washington, 1851).

[Decoration]