A Library Primer (1899)/Chapter XXV

After the books are accessioned, classified, author-numbered or book-marked, and shelf-listed, they should be cataloged. A catalog is a labor-saving device in library work. From it both reader and attendant can ascertain whether the library has a certain book. By consulting the catalog for the class-number, the book may be looked for in its proper place, thus often saving hunting through the shelves in several classes.

A printed list or catalog of the library is one of the first things that will be asked for by the public. It is useful especially for those who cannot well visit the library. But it is very expensive; it is out of date as soon as issued; it cannot often be sold; it requires training and experience to make it properly, and the money it will cost can be better spent otherwise. Do not issue one. Print lists of additions in newspapers. Post them in the library. Issue an occasional bulletin of the latest purchases if you think it will be popular. Put your time, skill, energy, and money into the making of a full card catalog; keep this up to date; give the public access to it; teach them how to use it, and you will find the printed catalog not needed.

On cards prepared for the purpose [see chapter on Things needed (9) and Library Bureau catalog], a card for each book—and a book is a book although in several volumes—write the author's surname (if the book is anonymous write first the title), given name or names, if known, title, date of copyright, date of publication, call-number, and such other data as seem desirable. The price, for example, may be put here, and the size, indicating this by a letter. [See Cole size card in chapter on Things needed (9) and in Library Bureau catalog.] Arrange these cards alphabetically, by authors' names for an author catalog. This catalog will be in constant use in the purchasing of books, in classifying new purchases, etc. By the call-number one can refer from any entry in it to the entry of the same book in the shelf-list. To make possible a like reference to the accession book, write the accession number of each book near the bottom of the card on which it is entered. In making the catalog entries observe certain fixed rules of alphabetization, capitalization, punctuation, arrangement, etc., as set forth in the catalog rules which may be adopted. Only by so doing can you secure uniformity of entry, neatness in work, and the greatest possible meaning from every note, however much abbreviated.

973.2 Coffin, Charles Carleton, 1823– C65 Old times in the colonies. 460 p. il. O N.Y. c[1880]

Author card. (Reduced; actual size, 7½ x 12½ cm.)

Preserve this catalog with great care. It is the key to the records in shelf-list and accession book. In a small library the public may very properly use it. As soon as possible, if your library is to be quite large and much used, prepare for public use a duplicate of it, omitting all those entries in the original which are of use only to the librarian.

The average reader more often remembers the titles of books than their authors. Add, therefore, to the author-list, in your public catalog—not in your private or official catalog, for which author-entries alone are sufficient—a title-list; a set of cards like the author cards, except that on each one the book's title is entered first instead of its author. Arrange author and title-lists in one alphabetical series.

973.2 Old times in the colonies C65 Coffin, C.C.

Title card. (Reduced; actual size, 7½ x 12½ cm.)

As the use of the library for reference work increases, the question will often be asked, has it any books on a certain subject? Add, therefore, to your author- and title-list a subject-list. Make this by writing a card for each book with the subject of which it treats the first word upon it. Arrange this also in the same alphabetical series with the other two. In some cases the book's title and its subject will be identical; for example, Geology, by Tompkins, or Washington's boyhood, by Jones. For such books one card answers for title and subject. For fiction no subject-card is necessary. On the other hand, many books have to do with more than one subject; a volume of essays, for example, or a group of biographical sketches. For such it is desirable to add to the subject-list by writing as many cards for each book as the importance of the several subjects therein and the space the author gives to them seem to demand. Each card will have for the first word of its entry the subject to which it refers, followed by the author and title of the book.

Arrange these cards also alphabetically with all the others. Put on every card in the catalog the call-number of the book to which it refers. This author-title-subject-list, or dictionary catalog, will tell at a glance if the library has books a) by a certain author; b) with a given title; c) on a given subject. These are the questions most often asked.

973.2 U.S. history- colonial. C65 Coffin, Charles Carleton 1823– Old times in the colonies. 460 p. il. O N.Y. c[1880]

Subject card. (Reduced; actual size, 7½ x 12½ cm.)

There are in print several books giving rules for cataloging. Some of these are mentioned in the chapter on Things needed (9). In a small library which is always to be small it is not necessary to follow all the rules laid down in these books. It is much better, however, to do all the work, even in a very small library, according to the most approved methods. So to do brings you in touch with your fellows and gives you the comfort which comes from the consciousness of work well done, even if the amount of the work be small.

In writing the subject-headings difficulties will soon arise unless you follow certain general rules and are careful also to be consistent in your work. For instance, at intervals during a few months you add to the library books on horses, cows, sheep, goats, camels, and pigs; some dealing with one animal, some with two or more. If for the first one you write a subject-card with the catch-word or entry-word at the top "Domestic animals," and for the next one "Farm animals," and for the next one "Animals, domestic," you will scatter the references to domesticated animals all through your catalog, to the despair of those who would use it. You can guard against this, and easily, if your catalog is small, by looking to see what you have already written every time you write a new subject-entry-word, and by following out a previously devised plan in the making of your entries. The safest way is to get a printed list of headings and catalog rules and follow them. (See chapter on Things needed, 9.)

With a printed list of subject-headings at hand it is not difficult to keep your catalog consistent and reasonable.

This same list of subject-headings will serve also as a guide in the writing of the cross-reference cards for your catalog, the cards, that is, which refer the searcher from the topic "pigs," for example, to "swine," or from both to "domestic animals."

Of course the subject-headings' list must be systematically used, and must be marked and annotated to fit your special needs. This work, like classifying, can best be learned by doing.

There are many ways of keeping your catalog cards. The thing to use is a set of trays made for the purpose. (See Library Bureau catalog.) The cards are extremely valuable, and expense should not be spared in providing for their safe keeping and handy use.