CHAPTER VIII.
Publications of Governments, Societies, and Corporate Bodies.
Co-operative Indexes. Publications of Societies. Publishing Societies. Government Publications. Statutes. Colonial and Foreign Government Publications. Local Government Publications. Associations and Institutions. Congresses.
The extent to which the work of dissecting and "indexing" the contents of books of a miscellaneous nature is to be carried out in a library catalogue depends largely on the nature and purpose of the library, though a limit must be set to it in any case. It would be unusual to index the proceedings or transactions of a society, or the contents of reviews, or other periodical publications, however valuable they might be. For this most libraries must depend upon the co-operative indexes, such as the Royal Society's Catalogue of Scientific Papers, the International Catalogue of Scientific Literature, the International Institute of Technical Bibliography, Poole's Index to Periodical Literature, the Engineering Index, the Index to Archæological Papers (unfortunately of little value because it is only an index of authors instead of subjects), and other works of the kind. The Library Association publishes a Class-Catalogue of Current Serial Digests and Indexes of the Literature of Pure and Applied Science.
The form of entry for the publications of societies will vary according to their nature. As already stated, societies or other bodies in their corporate capacity are regarded as the authors of their memoirs, transactions, proceedings, journals, etc., and entry is made under their names accordingly. The question arises, under what part of the name? and it may be laid down in general terms that if a society be national or general in its scope and character, and its headquarters are in London, then the first word of the official name of the society, other than an article, is the correct entry-word. The following are illustrative examples of this:—
Royal Society of London. Catalogue of scientific
papers, 1800-1900. Subject-index, v. 3,
Physics, pt. 1. Camb., 1913
Society of Antiquaries of London. Archæologia;
or, miscellaneous tracts relating to antiquity.
v. 1-59, with indexes. 4o 1770-1905
Chemical Society. Abstract of papers. 17 v.
1896-1912
Linnean Society. Proceedings, 1838-55. 2 v.
1849-55
British Association for the Advancement of
Science. Reports. 20 v. 1891-1910
Institution of Civil Engineers. Minutes of proceedings.
v. 56-142. 1879-1900
On the other hand, if the society be national for Scotland, Wales, or Ireland, or provincial, colonial, or foreign, the entry-word depends upon the nature of the society. The publications of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, for instance, might be better placed under "Edinburgh, Royal Society" than under "Scotland. Royal Society of Edinburgh," notwithstanding that it is a national and not a local body. Against this, the publications of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland are better entered under "Scotland, Society of Antiquaries of," although there is much to be said in favour of treating such important bodies after the manner shown in the previous entries, as
Royal Society of Edinburgh.
Society of Antiquaries of Scotland.
in which case these references are necessary:—