Description
GOOD cataloguing is part of the very essence of the librarian's job I have little patience with the rapid, slovenly work that has been to often in the past thought sufficient for the popular library, and some times for the larger reference library too, and which is still to be seen in many places. Partly this is due to the comparative rarity of efficient cataloguers-the surprising rarity, I might almost add-be partly it arises from the mistaken idea that "anything will do" anything in the shape of an author and title entry-for the general public. That elaborate cataloguing is not called for in all cases is n doubt true-that it is both unnecessary and costly to give the same details of a book of temporary interest, as is desirable for a work of permanent value, may be granted; but even then what is given should be as accurate in form and content in the one instance as in the other. This, if for no other reason, because inaccuracy and departure from the code form permitted in this or that entry will assuredly extend to others and vitiate the whole catalogue.
To the uninitiated, cataloguing is apt to appear a very simple business, and the lengthy codes of rules evolved by librarians a professional device to obscure the obvious. You copy the author and title, set down a few items, such as date, number of volumes, if more than one, etc., and there you are. But try it, and you will quickly find all sorts of problems facing you, and to ensure that you shall deal with these various problems in the same way, you will find that a code is thrust upon you, however simple it may be, or chaos will result And if the books you have to deal with are of many types, you will be obliged to extend your code, until in the end it will be far from simple. The purpose of a code is not only, indeed, is not chiefly, to enable the cataloguer to be uniform in his treatment, but to help the reader to find his way amongst the entries as easily and quickly as it is possible to do. For this there must be "rules of the road." A reader wanting a particular book, and not coming on it at once, and where he expects to find it, may, and often does, condemn the whole system, and librarians with it. He forgets that the librarian has to deal not with one particular book, but with thousands, and that it is just as unreasonable to suppose you can master a catalogue at "one fell swoop," as to pluck the heart out of Bradshaw's railway guide without taking any trouble to acquaint yourself with the system on which it is compiled, or until familiarity has given you the key. Without a code there would be no system, and no key.
ISBN: CATALOGUING
