Page:English-Chinese-Japanese Lexicon of Bibliographical, Cataloging and Library Terms Pb4XAAAAMAAJ.pdf/15

Rh Many of these are basic necessities in cataloguing, yet cannot be used with any certitude.

These and other like difficulties are due in large part to the fact that Far Eastern books have had little attention from the viewpoint of western bibliography. Chinese-Japanese printing is very much older than ours, with extant examples of all kinds from the year 770 onward, but eastern books have excited little interest in comparison with eastern art and archaeology. The Japanese have done little toward westernizing their library practice as com pared with the Chinese, who had made a very promising beginning before the war, mostly under the leadership of graduates of American library schools. The prospects of resumption are, to say the least, remote.

However, the large collections of Chinese and Japanese books in this country, which are likely to be greatly augmented in the future, particularly on the Chinese side, will require a standard system of cataloguing adapted to our own needs. My experience indicates that an all-purpose bilingual card with full information in both languages, easily filed alphabetically or in the Chinese-Japanese order, is the most practical. This list is offered in the hope that it will contribute something toward the cause.

I wish to express my thanks to Prof. George A. Kennedy for his permission to have the lexicon set up and electrotyped at the Yale Chinese press; also to Mr. Pat De Rosa, the foreman in charge, and to his assistants, for their painstaking efforts and their very satisfactory result. I am grateful for encouragement from Prof. L. Carrington Goodrich, to Mr. George N. Kates of the Library of Congress, and to many others for their interest.

I shall be very glad to receive corrections, additions and suggestions, all of which will be kept together for use in an enlarged and revised edition for which there may sometime be a demand.

Rh