This is that division of library work which one must approach as the holy of holies, leaving one's shoes on the mat outside.
Please do not assume that I do not appreciate what it has meant to the public library to have experts formulate a set of rules which any library can use. I am not objecting to the rules, but to the application of the rules. We spend hours, days, months, and years in giving paging, illustrations, size, publishers and place of publication on our catalog cards and all for what purpose pray?
What does the average user of a public library want to know? He wants to know whether you have a book by a certain author, by a certain title or on a certain subject. Ninety-five per cent of the borrowers of books want nothing more than that, and I am excluding fiction entirely. Consequently for the possible five per cent, and that is a high percentage, you spend much time in giving gratuitous information. The man who knows his subject goes to the bibliographies of the subject and does not depend upon your card catalog for bibliographical information. Let us look into these valuable items, aside from the very necessary author and title, supplied on catalog cards.
Paging. Did your reference people ever report any need of it in serving the public? I never heard of such need.
Place of publication and publisher. Both these items are occasionally asked for, but why spend time in putting them on all your cards for the sake of the few who wish to know, since you can immediately refer to Books in Print for current books and for all others to the many aids published for the librarian.
The date. Well, I might grant that it serves a better purpose than the other items, but I doubt its great usefulness.
Do you in addition to the very necessary shelf-list for all the books in the library, have a special shelf-list for Branches? Have you ever thought of the time given to keep the record of all the books at your Branches?
What purpose does it serve, since your Branches have their own record of the books they have?
I know of one library which kept such a record and finally decided to give it up, since it cost a great deal of money, and seemed after careful consideration to be of little value. Not the least harm has resulted from the change and the cataloging department has almost forgotten that it was ever done.
Does the head cataloger work at least one day a week in the lending or reference department for the sake of getting away from her own point of view and to imbibe something of the real needs of public and assistants? Try it, even if you think you can't afford it and I venture to prognosticate that your cataloging department from being the seat of the learned and superior will become a really valuable aid to all the other departments.