The Business Library: What it is and what it does

by Louise B. Krause

Subject catalog card for Alphabetic-subject file

Alphabetic-subject File

All material put into vertical files need not be filed necessarily by a numerical subject classification such as the Dewey Decimal Classification; on the contrary a number of business libraries, which use the Decimal Classification for material put on the shelves, have organized most successful vertical files of miscellaneous material, clippings, pamphlets, etc., by the alphabetic-subject method. This simply means that the material is assigned, instead of a subject number, a specific subject name similar to that put on a subject catalog card and is filed alphabetically under that subject name written out in full upon the folder, to which may be prefixed a Cutter number assigned from the subject name of the material. The Cutter number, primarily designed to alphabet authors, is the first letter of a word combined with certain figures, designed to keep words in alphabetic order by their initial letter and the figures following it. The Cutter three figure alphabetic-order table, price $2.70, or the Cutter-Sanborn alphabetic-order table, price $3.00, both for sale by the Library Bureau, are equally good for use in the alphabetic-subject file. The Cutter two figure table may be used for a small collection of material. No business firm should attempt to install an alphabetical-subject file unless the work is done under the direction of a trained librarian who has had thorough training in cataloging and in the assigning of subject headings. The best information in print on the details of alphabetical-subject filing for business libraries is to be found in a pamphlet entitled "Pamphlets and Clippings in the Business Library" by Virginia Fairfax, published by the Journal of Electricity, San Francisco.

The advantage in using a Cutter number is, that it makes a convenient brief notation to use on the material to be filed and on the catalog card to show where the material is placed in the file. For temporary files of ephemeral material both the Cutter number and the card cataloging may be omitted. The alphabetic-subject file obviates the difficulties which arise when the business library finds it has material on subjects for which the Dewey Decimal Classification has not adequately provided.

Printed information on corporations collected by banking houses is most satisfactorily filed alphabetically under the name of each corporation with sub-divisions (i. e., mortgages, reports, etc.) under each corporation name where necessary.

Cataloging

Business men as a whole do not understand what cataloging involves nor its supreme importance. Most of them call it card indexing and think they have provided amply for it when they have purchased a card catalog cabinet and a supply of cards, without realizing what someone has recently said in a business periodical, that "the number of employes and the generosity of mechanical equipment are not the essentials of high grade production. Brains and floor space are unrelated." A card catalog to be a success, as a working tool, must be made according to a code of standardized rules by some one who has been thoroughly taught to use them. A code of catalog rules given to a novice who attempts to catalog by them without previous instruction will yield about as satisfactory results as an automobile does when it is operated by some one who has never run one before, and whose only knowledge consists of what he has read about it in a handbook. The truth of this contention is apparent when one considers that strict uniformity and accuracy must be maintained, not only in making author entries but particularly in making what the trained librarian calls subject headings with "see" and "see also" references which the business man is often heard to call cross indexing. (See Hitchler, Cataloging for Small Libraries, Chapters 5 and 6.) Cataloging must be as accurate as bookkeeping; a wrong figure, a mis-filed card or the entry of information under an incorrect subject, makes the catalog as useless as trying to unlock a door with a key that does not fit. The American Library Association, 78 East Washington Street, Chicago, Illinois, has issued a valuable list of suggestive "Subject Headings for Use in a Dictionary Catalog," third edition, price $2.50, which indicates proper terminology with cross references, and to which each business library will probably make many subject additions to suit its specific needs. The subject headings used in the "Readers' Guide to Periodical Literature" and the "Industrial Arts Index," mentioned in a previous chapter, are also of help to the business library in determining adequate subject headings for the card catalog. The ability to assign subject headings and cross references correctly requires both broad knowledge and a high degree of training and is one of the important assets which the business librarian derives from a library school education.

For the benefit of small offices which have a limited collection of material and will need to do very little cataloging or indexing, the sample author and subject cards are given to illustrate correct form.

Further helpful suggestions can be obtained from Hitchler's Cataloging for Small Libraries, published by the American Library Association, 78 East Washington Street, Chicago, Illinois, price $1.25.