Library Cataloguing

by John Henry Quinn

A similar arrangement was also adopted for the Birmingham Public Library by the late J. D. Mullins in 1869.

At this time, or a little earlier, Samuel Huggins, a retired architect, was engaged by the Liverpool Corporation to compile a catalogue of the Public Reference Library there. He took Jewett's Catalogue of the Boston Public Library as his model, but with certain modifications. He says "in the shaping out of all its chief features—Poetry, Painting, Music, Architecture, the Drama, Novels, and the Bible group, it has been so treated as to constitute it an original and unique catalogue, which in regard both to form and detail of these great departments of the field of knowledge is superior, so far as I know, to any other work of the kind. The subjects generally are more concentrated, brought into fewer and larger groups than in the excellent catalogue just named"—that is Jewett's Boston one. One of the principles that he lays down is that a book of science or art with a geographical limitation will be found not under the scientific subject of which it treats, but under the name of the country or place to which the scientific research is confined, and so a book on the conchology of France does not appear under Conchology but under France—subject division "Natural History." Mr. Huggins apparently was not satisfied that this idea met all needs as he printed an appendix to his volume "wherein for the greater convenience of the student, those works in the catalogue which, by the geographical principle of distribution, are classed under the places to which their subjects respectively are confined, and so, wide scattered, are brought together, and grouped according to their subject." The work was published in 1872, its main principles being more distinctly those we now understand by the form "a dictionary catalogue" and it was probably the first of the kind in this country. Under the older index catalogues a book upon Palestine might be under such headings as Palestine, Holy Land, Land of Promise, Lands of the Bible, Bible Lands, or any other title adopted by the authors on their title-pages, whereas these were all concentrated under a single heading with such reasonable references and cross-references as were needed to bind the whole together or "syndetic" as Cutter terms it. This catalogue is still in use in the Liverpool Reference Library, but has been improved in detail in the later supplementary volumes, including the elimination of the form-headings, of which Mr. Huggins made so much.

Other developments in library cataloguing about this period lay more in the direction of attempts to combine the hitherto almost general classified catalogues with subject and author catalogues in the unsatisfactory alphabetico-classed form.

Up to this time, however, there was no adequate code of rules suited to all requirements. As we have seen, the British Museum rules were for author-entry, and Jewett's were by no means complete enough for the purpose. In 1876, Mr. C. A. Cutter published his "Rules for a Printed Dictionary Catalogue," this work forming the second volume or part of the "Special Report of the U.S. Bureau of Education on the History, Condition, and Management of Public Libraries in the United States of America." These rules numbered 205 as compared with Jewett's 39, and Mr. Cutter put them into use in, if they were not actually based upon, his large Catalogue of the Library of the Boston Athenæum. A second edition of these rules, with corrections and additions, was issued as a separate work in 1889, a third in 1891, and a fourth in 1904. This last edition contained Mr. Cutter's latest corrections and additions (he died in September, 1903), the number of rules being increased thereby to 369. It is at present the standard and most exhaustive work of the kind, and is unlikely to be soon superseded, though it will be improved upon from time to time as library practice requires and its essential principles become embodied in other codes. Librarians of all ranks are indebted to the American Government for the generosity with which they distributed it freely to applicants.

Both the American and British Library Associations formulated rules—the former in 1878 and the latter in 1883—though neither can be said to have been of much service, the American being a condensation of Cutter with some unimportant variations, and the British getting no further than author and title entries. The two Associations have now combined in a series of rules known as the "Anglo-American code" and entitled "Cataloguing Rules, Author and Title Entries, compiled by Committees of the American Library Association and of the Library Association." This was published in 1908, and the history of its production forms a preface to the work. A fuller history and description of it by the Secretary of the British Committee, Mr. John Minto, is contained in the Library Association Record, volume 11, 1909. A noteworthy statement he makes is "I do not think that it was supposed to be the business of the Committee to provide for the needs of very small libraries, which, on account of the inadequacy of their funds, are unable to provide full catalogues, and are obliged to be content with mere title-a-line lists. The requirements of such libraries are already well served with existing codes—for example Cutter's Rules which provide alternative forms, short, medium, and full, for various grades of libraries." For this very reason the Anglo-American code will never find much favour for practical use in this country, though it is at present the basis for the Library Association examinations in this subject.

In 1886 Prof. Dziatzko published his "Instruction für die Ordnung der Titel im alphabetischen Zettelkatalog der Königlichen und Universitäts-Bibliothek zu Breslau" which Mr. K. A. Linderfelt of Milwaukee translated and adapted in 1890, with the other standard rules, under the title "Eclectic Card Catalog Rules, Author and Title Entries, based on Dziatzko's 'Instruction' compared with the Rules of the British Museum, Cutter, Dewey, Perkins, and other Authorities." It is so ample in its details that it covers all possible forms of authors' names and is therefore most valuable for reference or for compiling any catalogues, though it may contain a great deal that is rarely required in average library practice. The appendix, containing a list of oriental titles and occupations with their significance, is a useful feature of the work.

So many classified catalogues have appeared of late years arranged according to the Dewey Decimal System that no notes upon the history of cataloguing would be complete without some reference to that system. There is no doubt that it is mainly responsible for the revival of this form of catalogue. The system was planned or invented by Mr. Melvil Dewey, when librarian of Amherst College, U.S.A., and was in the first instance intended for cataloguing and indexing purposes, though it is now more commonly used for classifying and numbering the books upon the shelves. It was the result of a good deal of careful study of library needs and, on the face of it, is simple and practical. As to this Dewey says "in all the work philosophical theory and accuracy have been made to yield to practical usefulness. The impossibility of making a satisfactory classification of all knowledge, as preserved in books, has been appreciated from the first, and nothing of the kind attempted. Theoretical harmony and exactness have been repeatedly sacrificed to the practical requirements of the library."

In spite of this statement it is astonishing how few defects it has as a system of classification, especially when it is remembered that every class and every subject is divided into ten heads. This limitation has the tendency to congest some subjects while others do not admit of the use of so many as ten numbers. Withal it is very elastic and useful, though, as may be expected, things American get preferential and fuller treatment. The first edition was published from Amherst College Library in 1876, the second from Columbia College Library in 1885, the third in 1888, the fourth from the New York State Library in 1891; the last ("edition 7") being that of 1911, each being a revision and enlargement of the earlier edition. The very full index attached to the scheme makes it comparatively easy to use, but, in the process of using, it is astonishing how many books have to be specially considered as to their correct place, a comparison of catalogues compiled under the system showing that different minds have interpreted the scheme quite differently.

There are other schemes of classification applicable to cataloguing, as for instance that known as the "Expansive," the compilation of the late C. A. Cutter, and the "Adjustable" of Mr. J. D. Brown. This last is used in several public libraries worked upon what is termed the "open access" system. The earlier history of classified cataloguing is treated fully enough for most purposes in Mr. J. D. Brown's books on library classification.