TRADE CATALOGS, PHOTOGRAPHS AND LANTERN SLIDES--THEIR FILING AND
INDEXING
Trade Catalogs
Several methods for filing and indexing trade catalogs have been
advocated by various writers, but the most generally approved practice
is to file in legal size vertical file cabinets, with a shelf to
accommodate large bound volumes which are too bulky to go into the
drawers and whose disposition on shelves instead of in file drawers may
be noted by a symbol on the index card, and also by a reference sheet
placed in the file where the catalog would be alphabeted.
All trade catalogs should be filed alphabetically by the names of the
firms issuing them, rather than under subjects, because often a single
pamphlet, or volume, may list a variety of materials which can not be
classified under a single subject name, thus avoiding numerous cross
subject references.
+-------+--------------------------------------+
| | |
| | Belt shifters |
+-------+--------------------------------------+
| |Mahlon Bradley & Company |
| | First National Bank Building |
| | Chicago |
| | |
| | |
| | |
| | |
| | |
+-------+--------------------------------------+
Trade catalog index card made under the subject name
+-------+--------------------------------------+
| | |
| | Diamond speed shifter |
+-------+--------------------------------------+
| |Mahlon Bradley & Company |
| | First National Bank Building |
| | Chicago |
| | |
| | |
| | |
| | |
| | |
+-------+--------------------------------------+
Trade catalog index card made under well known trade name
Engineers are prone to endeavor to apply a decimal subject
classification in filing trade catalogs, with the result that they fall
into many intricate difficulties. However, small offices using only a
few trade catalogs on special subjects can file under subjects with
other library material if desired. (The organization of an alphabetical
subject file for miscellaneous data is described in Chapter VI.) All
trade catalogs filed under the names of the firms should be subject
card indexed, because it takes less time to make a working index than
it does to look through various catalogs to find desired information
when there is no index.
+-------+--------------------------------------+
| | |
| |Mahlon Bradley & Company |
+-------+--------------------------------------+
| | First National Bank Building |
| | Chicago |
| | |
| | |
| | |
| |Belt shifters |
| |Diamond speed shifter |
| | |
+-------+--------------------------------------+
Trade catalog index card made under the name of the firm and showing
the subject name and trade name under which additional cards have been
made.
The method of indexing should be as follows: there should be a card
made for the name of each firm issuing the catalog, and the address of
the firm may be added to this card in order to use it as a mailing list
if desired. The subjects, i. e., specific names of merchandise, which
the catalog covers and any well known trade names, should be written
on the face of this main card (see illustration) and additional cards
made for the subjects and any important trade names, and all of the
cards should be filed in a single alphabet. A Cutter number (which is
explained in detail in the chapter on cataloging) may be put on each
index card and trade catalog, in order to facilitate the alphabetizing
and quick location of individual trade catalogs. The subject index
in Thomas' Register of American Manufacturers, an invaluable tool to
purchasing departments, is a great aid in selecting subject names to be
used in the trade catalog index.
Photographs
Photographs are important sources of information for any business firm,
as they visualize printed or written descriptions and make an accurate
and unchangeable record which does not permit of any misunderstanding,
as is sometimes the case in reading a printed account. Every industry
should have a photograph file illustrating the various aspects of
its products or the installations and construction for which it is
responsible and which may be supplemented by any photographs which can
be obtained on similar work done by firms other than its own.
Banks and investment houses should have photographs of all tangible
properties on which they issue securities, as they have been found to
be of great aid in making a stock and bond offering concrete in the
mind of possible customers.
Photographs are best filed by mounting singly or in groups on
a standard size photo-mount board 11 by 14 inches and put into
architectural size vertical file drawers. A dry mount process by the
use of gum tissue and a hot iron is much to be preferred to the
ordinary method of mounting, as photographs expand when wet and shrink
in drying, thus subjecting the mounting board to more or less warping
unless heavy pressure is used.
[Illustration: A photo-mount board 11 by 14 inches in size. The title
of the photograph with date when taken is lettered across the top and
the classification number is shown in the upper left hand corner.]
Photographs for business purposes may be filed geographically or
by subjects, according to the use which is to be made of them. An
engineering firm building structures in different parts of the country
file their construction photographs under the name of the state and
city in which the work is done; all the cities of a single state are
arranged in alphabetical order under the state name. The individual
photograph boards are numbered in accession order which makes the
photograph of latest date the highest number under each city.
[Illustration: Form of entry on the index card to a photograph file]
In order to avoid writing the name of the state and the name of the
town on the corner of each photograph, this particular library uses on
each board the Dewey Decimal Classification history number for each
state with the first letter of the name of the city below this decimal
number, to which is added the accession number of the photograph. This
combined number is used on the corner of the index card on which is
also entered the name of the city followed by the accession number of
each board and the title of the photograph with the date on which the
photograph was taken.
Each photograph may be cataloged on a separate card if desired
and subject cards can also be made to any photographs and filed
alphabetically with the geographical index cards.
When subject filing of photographs is desired the Dewey Decimal
Classification subject number, or a modification of that system, or the
name of the subject written out in full or the Cutter symbol for it
(which is described in Chapter VI), can be substituted in place of the
geographical classification number.
Lantern Slides
There are two methods of filing slides. One is to file slides in a
cabinet containing drawers similar to a card catalog case, the slides
being filed horizontally rather than vertically. The other method
is to use a specially designed filing cabinet containing sliding
file leaves which pull out at right angles to the cabinet, which is
designed on the sectional unit plan for growth; the leaves have each
a capacity of about fifty or sixty slides which are held in place by
means of channel grooves which provide for examination of the slides
without handling, and also permit of quick removal of each slide as
needed. Complete descriptions of such cabinets may be obtained from the
Multiplex Display Fixture Company, St. Louis, Missouri, and from G. S.
Moler, 408 University avenue, Ithaca, New York. Both makes have been
satisfactorily used by a number of business organizations.
[Illustration: The Moler lantern slide cabinet]
The drawer method of filing slides costs less than the cabinet with
sliding file leaves, and also takes up less space. It has been found in
the experience of libraries handling large numbers of lantern slides
which are used freely that they are not as fragile as they appear to
be; they do not break easily and can be fingered as rapidly as a card
index file in a similar drawer. A piece of white paper can be easily
slipped behind the slides in the drawers to bring out their details
when they are being consulted.
[Illustration: Lantern slide cabinet made by Multiplex Display Fixture
Co.]
Lantern slides may be classified and card indexed for business purposes
in the same way that photographs are and care should be taken to have
the file number and title of the slide plainly lettered along the top
edge of the face of the slide.
Collections of lantern slides for art and architectural purposes
require more elaborate classification and cataloging but such
requirements do not come within the scope of this treatise.
In some business libraries where the slides are loaned out of the
city it may be advisable to index them on a 4 by 6 inch catalog card,
instead of the standard 3 by 5 inch card, in order to allow room to
paste on it a photograph of the lantern slide which will show its
detail when the slide itself is not immediately available.
Cuts
Half-tone, zinc and electrotype cuts may be classified in the same way
that photographs are but filed in flat drawers. A reduced photograph of
the cut may be pasted on the index card similar to the plan noted above
for lantern slides.
Maps
Business firms having large collections of maps which need to be
specially filed and recorded will find helpful suggestions in a
small pamphlet entitled "Making Maps Available," by Beatrice Winser,
published by the American Library Association, 78 East Washington
Street, Chicago, Illinois, price five cents.
REFERENCES FOR ADDITIONAL READING
=Cook, G. L.=
A library of trade catalogs. Library journal May 1919, p. 307-308.
=Nourse, F. M.=
Finding the needle in the haystack (photographs and cuts). System Feb.
1919, p. 218.
=Peck, E. E.=
Trade catalog file. Library journal July 1919, p. 442.
=Selection of trade publications= of manufacturing companies. The
booklist April 1919, p. 285.
=Stokes, C. W.=
Classification and filing of photographs. Printers' ink August 3,
1916, p. 82-86.