As three of these are "Rev.," no purpose is served by affixing that title to their names, and in cataloguing would generally be no more useful than to attach "Mr." to others. It is considered to be quite in order to ignore all ecclesiastical titles below that of a dean, and, in the democracy of cataloguing, military and civil distinctions share the same fate. It is a matter of no moment to the cataloguer that the compiler say of a dictionary of quotations holds the rank of colonel. Civil distinctions below that of a knight may safely be disregarded, even "Hon." omitted from the names of younger sons and daughters of the nobility, though it is customary and better to give the higher courtesy titles of Lord and Lady. The custom here outlined works quite satisfactorily in practice, and is economical of space, but any who wish to be particularly exact and deferential in this respect cannot do better than follow the British Museum rule (No. 15) in its entirety and after the manner of the examples attached thereto.
The honours lists of each New Year and King's Birthday must be closely examined, and the changes in titles noted for alteration in the catalogue.
Something must be said here as to the use of capital letters in cataloguing. Until comparatively recent years it was the recognised custom to give a capital initial to every word that would admit of it, but this fashion is not now so generally observed. Perhaps our American cousins are to be blamed (or praised) for this. As has been truly said
"The reasons for writing and printing all catalogue titles in small letters and with only such capitals as cannot be avoided is two-fold. First, there can be no standard prescribing what words should or should not be capitalised [that is, a rule saying what words should have a capital letter under the older fashion], and so the cataloguer will be constantly at a loss, or will use capitals in the most unprincipled way. He will write one day, The Dangers of great Cities, and the next, The dangers of Great Cities; with no particular reason for either form. Secondly, the appearance—the symmetry—of a title or a sentence, whether written or printed, is best attained by the exclusion of capitals. Nothing can be more unsightly than the constant breaking up of the harmony of a line by the capricious use of capitals."
The use of capitals is now mostly limited to proper names and to adjectives derived from them, besides those customary in ordinary usage. In foreign names the custom of the language is followed, and, therefore, speaking generally, there would be more capital letters in the Teutonic languages, and fewer in the Romance languages. In the entry of the book under notice it is seen that the word Church has an initial capital because the Church of England is meant and not the Christian church in general. There is a recommendation to the effect that a capital initial should be used to the second word in the title of a book if the first word is an article, and this, though not commonly adopted in practice, has the advantage of emphasising the word whereby the entry is usually alphabetised (as shown later), as the articles "a," "an," and "the," are invariably ignored for this purpose when beginning a title, though they are taken into account in the middle of a title. The use made of capital letters throughout the illustrative entries in this book is that becoming general, and can be noted in passing. It is not intended to dogmatise on the use of capitals, as it resolves itself into a question of taste rather than one of utility—the rule is, however, "in all doubtful cases avoid the use of capitals."
The twenty-three essays or articles in the book before us range over as many topics, opening with one on novels and novelists, and closing with one on training in patriotism. As there is a more or less single purpose or idea running through them all, viz., the influence or bearing of the Church of England on the ethical and social questions of the day, the whole book is entered under the name of that Church for subject.
Church of England:
Browne, G. F., &c. The Church and life of
to-day. 1910
As already stated, when the number of entries under such a subject-heading warrant it, they should be sub-divided to facilitate reference and indicate as far as possible the nature of the books. As a rule such divisions suggest themselves by the quantity and nature of the material in hand when arranging it under the heading, the entries falling into sections like History, Customs, Ritual, Polity, etc., this being marked and placed with the sub-division most appropriate.
The book also has a large bearing upon the ethics of these days, and seems to need an additional entry under "Morals" or "Ethics." If any doubt exists as to the value of the book as a contribution to the subject, let the mistake be made on the right side, and give the entry