With the Dewey and Brown notations the indexing would be by class and topic number, and not by pages, as
Ornament, 745.
Poetry, English. 821.
Christ, Lives of. E 168.
Irrespective of the system of classification made use of each separate section of a class could be numbered consecutively for indexing purposes (as this present book is) and unless the sections were unusually large, reference would thereby be much simpler and more direct than by the page.
If the section or class of prose fiction were arranged under authors alphabetically, there would be no occasion to include the authors of that section in the index, and a mere general statement at the commencement of the index, pointing to the fact that they were not so included would meet the case. Upon a similar principle it would hardly be necessary to index the subjects of individual biography if they were arranged alphabetically as suggested, though it must be remembered that many of these would appear in the index as authors.
It is customary to keep the author and subject-indexes separate, sometimes printing one at the beginning and the other at the end of the catalogue. There does not seem to be any important reason for adopting this course, and both indexes might very well be amalgamated, and so add one feature of the dictionary form to the classified catalogue, besides it would be easier to refer to. In no case should a summary of the classification adopted, showing the order of its arrangement, be omitted, and this is better placed at the beginning than at the end where the index will be.
The index entries can be made, if desired, at the time of writing the main entry for the catalogue, when a smaller-sized slip should be used for them; but it is found convenient to compile the index from the printer’s proofs as the work passes through the press. With the Dewey and Brown numbering there is no occasion to wait until the work is so far advanced, and the index can be as easily compiled before any portion of the “copy” is sent to the printer as when it is in type.
112.—It may be necessary to add that the main entries of a classified catalogue are arranged by class and topic names or numbers, as shown in the examples, and not by authors, as in the dictionary catalogue, though the authors of books coming together under a single definite topic would be arranged alphabetically as a matter of course.