Catalogue

“ A catalogue is properly defined as an explanatory, logically-arranged inventory and key to the books and their contents, and differs from a bibliography in being confined to the books in a given library. For its production wide knowledge both of cataloguing rules and of general subjects is required, and experience in ordinary reference work is essential. The staff, therefore, to whom the cataloguing is entrusted should be highly trained and well educated ”

“ As the catalogue embraces far more titles of books, pamphlets, and periodicals than any other ever printed, it is a great public boon, the aid it affords to all investigators being incalculable. And any library possessing it may find, with many titles of rare and unattainable works, multitudes of books now available by purchase in the market, to enrich its own collection. ”

“ A most commendable feature of modern cataloguing is the explanatory notes and other annotations appended to catalogue entries. These are for the most part to be found in the lists of additions to libraries published monthly, quarterly, or annually; such publications lending themselves readily to this descriptive form of cataloguing. The classified catalogue has also the advantage over the dictionary form for this purpose, because, rarely having more than a single entry for each book, the question as to where the note is to go does not arise. ”

“ Cataloguing.—The catalogue of the department should aim at the maximum of fulness and be in as many forms as are necessary to bring out the entire resources of the department; there should be no retrenchment of time or labour in producing the best here, as a small collection of books adequately catalogued will give greater service than a larger one catalogued poorly. It is not an unfair paradox to say that the smaller (within reason) a reference library is the more detailed should be its catalogue. ”

“ A catalogue of a library is, strictly speaking, but a list of the titles of the books, which it contains. It is not generally expected to give any further description of a book than the author gives, or ought to give in the title-page, and the publisher, in the imprint, or colophon; except the designation of form, which is, almost universally, added. ”

“ If you once make a find like this you become wedded to the reading of catalogues. The finest private collection of catalogues in the world is in Paris. It is the result of the tireless and exhaustive study of my friend Seymour de Ricci. He has gathered complete files of auction catalogues dating from the seventeenth century, from France, Germany, and England. Every room of his large apartment on the Rue Boissière is filled from floor to ceiling. He has even compiled a catalogue of catalogues. This stupendous work comprises more than forty thousand items. ”

“ The written catalogue is contained in fourteen folio volumes, interleaved; there being generally only four articles written in a page, and those four always upon the recto of each leaf. This is a good plan: for you may insert your acquisitions, with the greatest convenience, for a full dozen years to come. No printed catalogue of either of these libraries, or of those of the Arsenal and Ste. Geneviève, exists: which I consider to be a stain--much more frightful than that which marks the copy of the "Servius in Virgilium," just before described! ”

“ The economy to each particular library, in the expense of plates for its catalogue, will be in proportion to the number of books, which it may contain in common with any other library, whose catalogue has been already stereotyped on this plan. The title of the same book, in the same edition, will, of course, be cast but once, and will thenceforward serve for the catalogue of every library possessing that book, which may enter into the arrangement. ”

“ To Sir Anthony Panizzi we owe rules for the making of catalogues: perhaps it would be more proper to say the codification of rules, for sound rules must have been in the mind of the compilers of good catalogues before his time. When one person makes a catalogue, he usually acts upon principles which are known to himself, although he may not have committed them to writing. ”

“ The catalogue can be made to give, besides the titles of books, such descriptions, more or less extended, drawn from all available sources of information, as may be necessary to furnish means of identifying each work, of distinguishing its different editions, of ascertaining the requisites of a perfect copy, of learning all facts of interest respecting its authorship, publication, typography, subsequent causalities, alterations, etc., its market value, and the estimation in which it is held. ”

“ The systematic catalogue undertakes to exhibit a scientific arrangement of the books in a library in the belief that it will thus best aid those who would pursue any extensive or thorough study. The dictionary catalogue sets out with another object and a different method, but having attained that object—facility of reference—is at liberty to try to secure some of the advantages of classification and system in its own way. ”

“ Again, those who go to a library to read upon a given subject generally know what authors they want; and an alphabetical catalogue settles the question whether the library does or does not contain the required work of the author wanted. We believe that of those who go into a place where books are collected, whether to read, buy, borrow, (or even steal) , nineteen out of twenty know what author they want; and to them an alphabetical catalogue is all-sufficient." [3] ”

“ The advantages of a printed catalogue he states under five heads: " (1) that it is in less danger of partial or total destruction than a manuscript volume or drawers of cards;" " (2) that it can be consulted out of the library;" " (3) that it can be consulted in other libraries;" " (4) that it is easier to read than the best manuscript volume, and very much easier to consult. A card presents to the eye only one title at a time, whereas a printed catalogue generally [55] has all an author's works on a single page. ”

“ Thus by simply putting together all titles bearing the [107] press mark E, we shall obtain a separate catalogue of the Civil War Tracts; and a similar proceeding as respects the titles marked F, will afford a similar catalogue of the Croker collection of pamphlets on the French Revolution. Classed indexes to the literature of any subject can be made with equal facility, and as several copies of the catalogue will be available for treatment in the manner suggested, they may be varied for different objects, or to suit different systems of classification. ”

“ If anything, modern-faced type is the older fashioned. Fantastic or decorated types, even for initial capitals at the commencement of a division of the catalogue, are better avoided. The following is an example somewhat after the style of the second given above, but applied to a classified catalogue:—
When varying sizes of type are used for distinctive purposes, the contrast is better brought about by using for the smaller type one which is two sizes under that of the body of the catalogue. ”

“ There must therefore be some form of subject catalogue, and there is much virtue in the fully classified card or sheaf catalogue, with author and subject indexes. These, if carried out efficiently and minutely, will do the work that is required. By fulness of entry we mean that titles should be abbreviated as little as is possible within common-sense limits; that all bibliographical particulars, number of volumes, size, pagination, date, illustrations, maps, diagrams, glossaries, indexes, bibliographies and date and places of publication (except when London) should be indicated. ”

“ By that time there would be 9000 volumes of manuscript catalogue, three times as many as the Reading Room could contain, or the public conveniently consult. The only remedy was to put a check upon the growth of the catalogue by printing all new entries for the future, and to mature meanwhile a plan for converting the entire catalogue into a printed one. I prepared, at the request of Mr. Bullen, a memorandum embodying these ideas, and entered into the subject more fully when, in January 1878, it was again brought forward by the Treasury. ”

“ There is, however, a great want of a general catalogue or general index to the vast collections of the British Museum. [231] The production of such a work would cause so large an expenditure of labour that perhaps we can scarcely expect it to be produced; but I venture to think that something might be done to bring the very miscellaneous collection of catalogues into some more uniform system than it is at present. ”

“ And in planning a manuscript catalogue, it should be remembered that a small library may grow into a large one, and that if the catalogue is made in the best way at first there will be no need of alteration.
If a book’s title-page is lost, and it is impossible to ascertain what it was from other copies or other editions, or from catalogues or bibliographies, use the half-title or the running title, stating the fact; if it has neither, manufacture a title, within brackets. Such an entry will require many references. ”

“ If, therefore, there is an evident current of progress in any direction the makers of the catalogue will do well to be a little before the present practice, in the hope that the world will soon catch up with them, not to pass them before the catalogue itself has been superseded by another. The larger the catalogue, therefore, and the less likely to be soon reprinted, the more may it venture to be ahead of the times. Nevertheless the maker will do well to remember that the future is very uncertain. ”

“ The author catalogue is most valuable in the hands of literary men and of experts, but is of very limited use to the reader whose knowledge of authors is small. It is simply an alphabetical arrangement of author entries of books, without any reference in that arrangement to their subjects. The best examples of this form of cataloguing are the British Museum Catalogue of the Printed Books and the Author Catalogue of the London Library. ”

“ The value of a good catalogue does not depend upon its extent or size any more than does that of a good book, but rather upon the exactness of the method by which the information given is digested and concentrated. There are library catalogues so elaborately compiled and imposing in appearance that they might be, and often are, considered to be most excellent productions, whereas those who use them find them little more than a medley of book-titles—pedantic without being learned. ”

“ The late Professor De Morgan made the following pertinent remarks on this point:—
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"A classed catalogue is supposed to be useful to those who want to know what has been written on a particular subject. Now, in the first place, who are the persons who look at a book list with any such view? Not beginners in a wide field of research. Did any one in his senses ever go to a library to learn geometry, for instance, and take the subject in a classed catalogue, and fall to work upon some author because he was therein set down? ”

“ I have formed, so far as I know, but one dogmatic conviction, and it is this: that the best catalogue which the art of man can invent is a catalogue in two inter-dependent yet independent parts; the first and greater part an [pg 131] alphabetical catalogue of authors, the second and lesser part a subject-index. ”

“ The two most common forms of catalogues are the dictionary and the classified. For many years much controversy has arisen respecting their comparative usefulness, and there is much to be said in favour of both, each having merits, as already shown, not possessed by the other. The late C. A. Cutter points out the advantages of the classified catalogue, thus: "One who is pursuing any general course of study finds brought together in one part of the catalogue most of the books he needs. ”

“ In this department I may congratulate the Association on material progress, to which its own labours have, in great measure, contributed. There is much more unanimity than there used to be respecting the principles on which catalogues should be made. Admirable catalogues have been issued, and continue to be kept up by the principal libraries throughout the country, and if now and then some very small and benighted library issues a catalogue [7] whose naïvetés excite derision, such cases are very exceptional. ”

“ In other cases, also, as will appear hereafter, it may be important to give, in a catalogue, fuller and more accurate descriptions of books, than are to be found upon their title-pages; but the principle should be established, and ever borne in mind, that a catalogue, being designed to be merely a list of titles, with imprints and designations of size, all additional descriptions should be limited and regulated by explicit rules, in order to give uniformity and system to the work, and to restrict its bulk and cost, within reasonable bounds. ”

“ Assuming the catalogue to be completed, the question remains for decision whether it shall be printed. In most cases this question is easily determined with reference to the circumstances of the individual library; but in one instance the nation claims a voice in the matter. It is hardly necessary to say that we refer to the Catalogue of the British Museum, the theme of forty years' controversy. Every one will admit the intrinsic superiority of a catalogue in print over a catalogue in MS. The question is, whether the advantage may not be bought too dear. ”