104.—It must be clearly understood that while there is a certain option in indexing the contents of books like the above, there is none whatever in dealing with collected works. That a library happens to possess say the set of the Ashburton edition of Carlyle’s Works does not imply that they are sufficiently entered if set out under “Carlyle,” and therefore they must be fully catalogued in precisely the same manner as if each book had been purchased separately in various editions. Under the author’s name they would be entered as shown in the Hawthorne illustration (section 63), and each book dealt with upon the lines already laid down, as for example
Cromwell, Oliver.
Carlyle, T. Oliver Cromwell’s letters and speeches elucidated. (Works, Ashburton ed., v. 6-8). 3 v. 1885-6
105.—There is a well understood though not formulated rule, that the contents of the great classical works do not require indexing, and upon this principle a work, say upon “Hamlet,” would simply be entered under “Shakespeare,” and not even a cross-reference is needed from “Hamlet.” So with the ancient classics. The Iliad or Odyssey, the Æneid, or the Agamemnon are not usually entered in any other place than under Homer, Virgil, and Æschylus respectively. This rule would also be extended according to the nature of the library. One that had a particular collection say of editions of More’s Utopia would not require any entry under Utopia further than a cross-reference to More, where all the editions would be set out with every necessary particular.
106.—The remarks made in section 103 upon the need for a co-operative index to essays and the like also applies to the need, which is probably not so much felt, for an index to plays, and further indexes might even be looked for to volumes of sermons arranged under subjects and texts. More pressing still is the want of an index to the many portraits contained in books.
CHAPTER XII.
THE CLASSIFIED CATALOGUE.
107.—The difference between the dictionary and classified forms of catalogues already referred to in sections 8 and 9 may be further demonstrated by taking the two well-known railway guides, “Bradshaw” and the “A.B.C.,” in illustration. Both guides have merits of their own, yet are very unlike. The “A.B.C.” will show by ready reference and without any previous study of its arrangement, the times of departure for and arrival at a particular railway station, but it does not show the stoppages at intervening stations on the journey, or supply the exhaustive information that “Bradshaw” does. But before “Bradshaw” can be satisfactorily used its arrangement and order must be studied, and so it is with the classified catalogue. Its arrangement, that is the system of classification adopted, must first be understood, and then the order of sub-division of the classes must be ascertained before it can be properly used, unless such division happens to be alphabetical rather than natural or logical. Having mastered the classification and arrangement, the user of the classified catalogue has the advantage of an exhaustive list of a whole class of literature, then of a particular subject in the aggregate and afterwards in detail, and with all its collateral subjects brought together. That at least is the theory of its compilation. This form has the further advantage, already alluded to, of economy in production, as a book seldom calls for more than a single entry other than a reference in the index, whereas the number of entries to each book in a dictionary catalogue is seldom less than three.
Again a classed catalogue can be issued in sections, a class or more at the same time, and in large or small editions of each section, according to the demand for them. To be of any real service the dictionary catalogue must be published complete, as if issued in instalments it is of no value until completed because each section is not complete in itself as a class-list is.