Catalogue and Cataloguing

Cataloguing is the process of listing something for inclusion in a catalogue. In library and information science, the process encompasses the production of bibliographic descriptions of books as well as other types of discovery tools for documents. Today cataloguing study and practice has broadened and merged with that of metadata ("data about data contents"), increasingly associated with Resource Description and Access.

DEFINITION OF CATALOGUE

The word ‘Catalogue’ derives from ‘Kata logos’. ‘Kata logos’ is a Greek phrase. ‘Kata’ means according to and ‘logos’ means word/order/reason. Catalogue is a record or list of books, periodicals, journals, pamphlets, monographs, audio-visual aids and other materials of a particular library, or a group of libraries (when union catalogue), or a private collection containing specified items of bibliographical information, viz. author, title, edition, imprint, collation, etc. in automated, microfiche, card or printed form arranged in classified or alphabetical order according to any standard catalogue code or rules, i.e. AACR, ALA,LC, etc. All together we can say catalogue is a mirror of a library.

AUTHORITATIVE DEFINITION OF CATALOGUE

The Random House Dictionary defined, “Catalogue is a systematic list of contents of a library”.

Charles Ammi Cutter defined, “A library catalogue is a list of books which is arranged on some definite plan, as distinguished from a bibliography, it is a list of books in some library or collection”.

OBJECTIVES OF CATALOGUING

Charles Ammi Cutter (1837-1903) published his Rules for a Dictionary Catalogue in 1876. His "Objectives" still inform cataloguing today.

His objectives, after 28 years of discussions were – in 1904 – stated like this:

1.     To enable a person to find a book when one of the following information is known:

a.     The author

b.    The title

c.      The subject

2.     To show what the information institution has

a.     By a given author

b.    On a given subject

c.      In a given kind of literature

3.     To assist in the choice of a book

a.     As to the edition (bibliographically)

b.    As to its character (literary or topical)

The first point describes the finding objectives. The second is the collocating objective. The last point could be called the selecting (or choice) objective.

When formulating the objectives in this way, we get operational objectives; we see what rules we must have. Cutter summarizes the rules like this:

     1.     For the objectives 1a and 2a we need author-entry with the necessary references

     2.     For 1b we need title-entry or title-reference

     3.     For 1c and 2b, we need subject-entry, cross-references and classed subject-table

     4.     For 2c, form-entry and language-entry

     5.     For 3a, giving edition and imprint, with notes when necessary

     6.     For 3b, Notes

PURPOSE AND SCOPE OF CATALOGUING

     1. To record books and other reading materials in the information institution.

     2. To interpret the reading materials to the reader by mentioning essential elements  of a book, i.e. author, title, edition, imprint, collation, series, bibliography, subject, etc.

.    3. To make the reading materials available quickly, so a reader requiring books on a subject (i.e. Cataloguing 025.3) will not have to go all around the library to collect the required materials.

.    4. To put order into the collection so that the volumes may be located and used conveniently for reference and circulation.

FUNCTIONS OF CATALOGUING

The major functions of a library catalogue are, therefore, to enable a reader to determine:

     1.  Whether an information institution contains a certain book or other reading materials.

     2.  Which works by a particular author are in the collection.

     3.  Which materials the library has on a particular subject.

     4.  Which editions of a particular work the library has.

Apart from these four basic functions, a catalogue is expected to broadly perform the following role:

     1.  To work as a book selection tool for other comparatively new or smaller library.

     2.  To explain a book to the reader by providing a description of each book.

     3.  To employ Cross references, i.e. See, and See also references.

     4.  To arrange the call numbers numerically and alphabetically by which books may be located or obtained.

     5.  To record each work in an information institution by author, editor, compiler, translator, series, or by corporate body.

     6.  To arrange author entries in such a way that a reader finds all the works of an author together in a dictionary catalogue.

     7.  To record each work in an information institution under the subject.

     8.  To arrange subject entries either according to classification number, or alphabetically by subject.

     9.  To record titles of work if it is  (a) written by more than three authors, (b) a compiled or edited work including encyclopaedias and dictionaries, (c) a fiction, or a popular work.

     10.To help the research workers and readers know what materials are available on a given subject in the information institution.

A catalogue may be helpful in identifying know items or known works when some attributes can be used as search keys (e.g. author name or title). In electronic catalogues a combination of search keys such as words from titles and printing year may be used for known item searching. A catalogue may also be helpful in identifying not know items dealing with a particular subject such as World War II. These last kinds of searches are especially facilitated by classification codes (such as Dewey Decimal Classification codes) or subject terms (such as Library of Congress Subject Headings) in the records.

REFERENCES: ESSENTIALS OF CATALOGUING AND CLASSIFICATION,

                           PROF. DR. K.M. SAIFUL ISLAM

                           DEPT. OF INFORMATION SCIENCE AND LIBRARY  

                           MANAGEMENT, UNIVERSITY OF DHAKA

                           RULES FOR A DICTIONARY CATALOGUE

                           CHARLES AMMI CUTTER