How to Catalogue a Library

We have been considering the arrangement of the titles of ordinary books, but here it will be necessary to go back somewhat, and ask what we have to catalogue. We may have printed books, newspapers, manuscripts (including autographs), prints and drawings, and maps. Newspapers may be included with printed books, but the rest must, without doubt, be kept distinct. When these different classes are small, they can with advantage be catalogued separately at the end of the general catalogue; but when any or all of them are large, they must be treated as distinct subjects, and catalogued according to special rules which cannot be given here.

What is a printed book? Some have made a distinction between tracts (or pamphlets) and books; but any definition of the former, intended to distinguish them from the latter, which has been attempted has always failed to satisfy the bibliographer. It is only necessary to imagine the confusion that would be caused in the library of the British Museum if the titles were thus sorted to see the futility of any such distinction. The only excuse for a separate catalogue of pamphlets is in the case of those libraries which possess a large number of ephemeral pamphlets, bound up in a long series, and kept distinct. Here, as the pamphlets are only occasionally required, it may be found unadvisable to fill the general catalogue with uninteresting entries. It may be supposed that the last remark, as recognizing the existence of a pamphlet, is contradictory to that which goes before, but it is not really so. There is no doubt of the existence of a something which is undoubtedly a pamphlet, but there is no rule by which some other small book can be distinguished as a pamphlet or not. The special characteristic of a pamphlet does not entirely consist in the number of pages, for books in which the most momentous discoveries have been announced have been made up of few leaves, and it does not entirely consist in the importance or otherwise of the subject.

There is one class of pamphlets which gives the cataloguer much trouble, viz., Extracts from Journals and Transactions. If these are catalogued without any indication that they are excerpts, readers of the catalogue are misled into the belief in the existence of separate books which were never issued. At the same time the catalogue is unnecessarily enlarged if the full particulars as to the title of the journal from which the pamphlet has been extracted are given. If there are many of these titles it will be well to adopt some sign, such as a dagger, at the beginning of the title to indicate the character of the pamphlet.

When we have decided to arrange in one general alphabet the titles of ordinary books, both those whose authors are known and those which are anonymous, we are still left with a large number of books which are different in character from ordinary books. We then have to decide how to deal with journals and transactions, ephemerides, observations, reports, etc. These classes of works are generally kept distinct, but are included in the general alphabet as academies or transactions, periodical publications or journals. In the case of comparatively small private libraries, there is no need for the separation at all, as these seldom contain many journals or transactions; but if it be advisable to make the distinction, I think the balance of advantage is on the side of keeping the class outside the alphabet, chiefly for the reason that inner alphabets are confusing and disadvantageous.

There are two main reasons in favour of the separation of serials, periodicals, or whatever other name we may give the class. The theoretical reason is, that they are not like other books, and that the rules for one will not apply to the other. It is agreed, on all hands, that MSS. should be separated from printed books, and yet a MS. is often more like a printed book than a journal is like a distinct treatise. I mean that in the one case the difference is merely one of production,—print or writing,—and in the other it is a structural difference of the mode of composition.

The practical reason is, that you eliminate the chief disturbing elements of a catalogue. The catalogue of ordinary books, if well made in the first instance, requires little alteration, and needs only additions; but the catalogue of serials, by the very nature of its contents, wants continued change.

Some librarians who have followed the British Museum rules continue the terms adopted there of Academies and Periodical Publications; but I think the headings Transactions and Journals are in every way preferable. The word Academy is entirely foreign to our habits, and most of those academies which exist here are institutions quite distinct from societies which publish transactions. Almost the only exception to this rule is the Royal Irish Academy. Even abroad, societies are more numerous than academies.[32 - Was it not Christopher North's Shepherd who said, "Open a school and call it an academy"?] With respect to the heading Periodical Publications, it may be said that transactions would logically come as properly under it as journals and magazines, because all are published periodically.

This subject of the arrangement of periodicals has not been treated of so exhaustively as it deserves. Mr. J. B. Bailey communicated a paper on "Some Points to be Considered in Preparing Catalogues of Transactions and Periodicals" to the Library Association of the United Kingdom in February 1880,[33 - Monthly Notices, No. 2.] in which he affirms that so little agreement is there among cataloguers, that the three most recent catalogues of scientific transactions and periodicals then published were arranged on different plans. The three catalogues referred to were (1) Catalogue of Scientific Serials, 1633-1876, by S. H. Scudder, Cambridge, U.S., 1879; (2) Catalogue of the Library of the Royal Medical and Chirurgical Society, London, 1879; (3) Catalogue of the Library of the Museum of Practical Geology and Geological Survey, London, 1878.

At the Cambridge Meeting of the Library Association, 1882, I communicated a paper entitled "Thoughts on the Cataloguing of Journals and Transactions." In this paper I discussed some of the open questions respecting their arrangement, and these points I may recapitulate here. Mr. Bailey is in favour of Mr. Scudder's union of journals and transactions in one catalogue, but he is not so satisfied that the plan of arranging these under the names of the places of publication adopted by that bibliographer is the best.

The two chief questions which arise, after we have settled the point that these serials shall be kept distinct from the general alphabet, are these:—

(1) Shall journals and transactions be treated as one and the same class, or shall they be arranged in separate alphabets?

(2) If journals and transactions are kept distinct, how shall they be arranged?

I

Mr. Scudder, as already mentioned, treats journals and transactions as one and the same class, and arranges both together, according to a combined geographical and alphabetical system. This is, I think, an inconvenient arrangement for a catalogue, for the following reason: Transactions are nearly always known by the names of the places where they are issued, but journals are not known by the name of the place of publication. For instance, suppose a reader comes to the librarian for the Jahrbuch of the Physikalischer Verein, the librarian would naturally ask, Which one of these societies? and the reader might answer Frankfort; but if the Canadian Journal were required it is probable that neither reader nor librarian would remember whether it were published at Toronto or at Montreal. The society of its very nature has a local habitation, while the journal has a name, but is not necessarily associated with the place where it is published. It therefore follows that if the titles of the two kinds of periodicals are arranged on different systems, it will be better to keep them distinct than to unite them in one alphabet. In the British Museum Catalogue the two classes are kept distinct, but both are arranged under the names of places, so that they might quite as well have been united in one alphabet. The reason for separation entirely depends, it seems to me, upon the difference of arrangement adopted for each.

II

Mr. Cutter's rules on this question of arrangement may be considered best under the respective headings of Transactions and Journals.

Transactions

Mr. Cutter says (rule 40):—

"Societies are authors of their journals, memoirs, proceedings, transactions, publications.... The chief practices in regard to societies have been to enter them (1. British Museum) under a special heading—Academies—with a geographical arrangement; (2. Boston Public Library, printed catalogue) under the name of the place where they have their headquarters; (3. Harvard College Library and Boston Public Library, present system) under the name of the place, if it enters into the legal name of the society, otherwise under the first word of that name not an article; (4. Boston Athenæum) English societies under the first word of the society's name not an article; foreign societies under the name of the place. Both 3. and 4. put under the place all purely local societies, those whose membership or objects are confined to the place. The first does not deserve a moment's consideration; such a heading is out of place in an author-catalogue, and the geographical arrangement only serves to complicate matters, and render it more difficult to find any particular academy. The second is utterly unsuited to American and English societies. The third practice is simple; but it is difficult to see the advantage of the exception which it makes to its general rule of entry under the society's name; the exception does not help the cataloguer, for it is just as hard to determine whether the place enters into the legal name as to ascertain the name; it does not help the reader, for he has no means of knowing whether the place is part of the legal name or not. The fourth is simple and intelligible; it is usually easy for both cataloguer and reader to determine whether a society is English or foreign....

"Fifth Plan, Rule 1. Enter academies, associations, institutes, universities, libraries, galleries, museums, colleges, and all similar bodies, both English and foreign, according to their corporate name, neglecting an initial article when there is one.

"Exception 1. Enter the royal academies of Berlin, Göttingen, Leipzig, Lisbon, Madrid, Munich, St. Petersburg, Vienna, etc., and the 'Institut' of Paris under those cities. An exception is an evil; this one is adopted because the academies are usually known by the name of the cities, and are hardly ever referred to by the name Königliches, Real, etc."

I cannot agree with Mr. Cutter's remarks in the above extracts. After a pretty extensive experience of the cataloguing of transactions, I have found plan No. 2 far and away the most convenient for reference; it has its own peculiar difficulties, but these are really much fewer than in any of the other plans, and I entirely fail to see why it should be stigmatized as "utterly unsuited to American and English societies." No doubt a large number of societies come under the heading of London, but most large towns in the country have their societies, and the societies of Dublin, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Liverpool, and Manchester all find their proper places in the alphabet.

The fourth plan may be simple, but it is far from logical, and some good reason is required for the adoption of separate rules for English and foreign societies.

Exception 1 is surely unnecessary, for the publications of the Société Météorologique de France have just as much right to appear under "Paris" as the publications of the "Institut" (which, by the way, is the "Institut" of France, not of Paris).

The difficulties of this first word (not an article) arrangement are numerous. For instance, all the French societies will be under Société, and a large number of the English societies under Royal. Then, again, how many German and Swiss towns have a Naturforschende Gesellschaft—the confusion of which is obviated by arranging them under the names of the towns. This is one reason; but another is, that many of these societies have double titles, with the designation of the society in different languages. For instance, the Neue Denkschriften of the "Allgemeine Schweizerische Gesellschaft für die gesammten Naturwissenschaften," at Zürich, is also styled Nouveaux Mémoires de la Société Helvétique des Sciences Naturelles; and this at once confuses the society with "Schweizerische Naturforschende Gesellschaft," which is also named "Allgemeine Schweizerische Gesellschaft" and "Société Helvétique des Sciences Naturelles." Several of the Scandinavian societies have a Latin as well as a native name. Thus the "Kongl. Vetenskaps Societet," of Upsala, is also called "Regia Societas Scientiarum Upsaliensis," and its publications are known as Acta and Nota Acta. Again, the publications of the "Kongelige Norske Videnskabers Selskab," of Trondhjem, have been in German as well as in Danish, and in the former language the style of the society has taken the two forms of "Drontheimische Gesellschaft" and of "Konigl. Norwegische Gesellschaft." Again, Bohemian societies have both a German and a Bohemian title, and the cataloguer must choose which he will take.

It cannot be said that by arranging the societies under the names of the places where they meet all difficulties are overcome, but it may safely be said that they are found with much greater ease by the consulter of the catalogue, than if they were spread about in the alphabet under the first words of their titles (not an article), and this, I think, is the greatest advantage that can be claimed for any cataloguing scheme. Another good reason for placing the societies under their place of meeting is that their transactions are most commonly referred to as the "Paris Mémoires," the "Berlin Abhandlungen," or the "Copenhagen Skrifter;" and therefore it is most objectionable that the reader who knows what he wants should have, before consulting the catalogue, to seek for the exact wording of the society's name.

The London Mathematical Society would come under London by Cutter's rule, although it is always spoken of as the Mathematical Society simply; while some of the publications of the Meteorological Society would be arranged under B (British Meteorological Society) and others under M (Meteorological Society). Those who have little to do with transactions can scarcely guess the confusion that occurs in catalogues when the references are not arranged upon a sound system.

There are two very serious objections to the geographical arrangement of the places where societies are seated rather than the alphabetical. One is, that you have to think what country the place is in before looking for it; and the other, that the boundaries of Europe are constantly being altered. If every society is placed under the name of the town where it holds its meetings, and the towns are arranged in one general alphabet, we have an arrangement that is simplicity itself.

It is of paramount importance to place all the publications of a society under one heading, even when the place of meeting may have been changed; and in such a case as this the only safe plan is to arrange all under the name of the last place of meeting, with cross-references from the other places. A good instance of this is the well-known set of transactions which is almost invariably quoted as the Nova Acta. The "Kaiserliche Leopoldino-Carolinische Deutsche Akademie der Naturforscher" published their Acta at Nuremberg between 1730 and 1754, and their Nova Acta at the same place between 1757 and 1791. The Nova Acta has subsequently been published at Erlangen, Breslau, and Bonn, and the present seat of the academy is at Dresden.

There is of course a difficulty in the case of peripatetic societies both national (such as the British Association) and international (such as the Congress of Prehistoric Archæology); but these societies have usually permanent headquarters, and these may be treated as the headings.

No mention has been made of what we rather vaguely style "Publishing Societies," because these require special rules. They should be catalogued with a general entry under the division of Transactions, but the separate books published by each society must be catalogued in the general catalogue.

Journals

Mr. Cutter's rule, No. 54 (Rules for a Dictionary Catalogue, p. 53), is as follows: "Periodicals are to be treated as anonymous, and entered under the first word. Ex. Popular Science Monthly, Littell's Living Age.

"When a periodical changes its title, the whole may be catalogued under the original title, with an explanatory note there, and a reference from the new title to the old; or each part may be catalogued under its own title, with references: 'For a continuation see    ;' 'For ten previous volumes see    .'

"Make a reference from the name of the editor when the periodical is commonly called by his name, as is the case with Silliman's Journal of Science...."

I agree, generally, with this rule, but I think that we must arrange somehow that the whole of a journal should appear in one place in the catalogue, however much the title may have been changed. Thus the title of the well-known Philosophical Magazine has undergone many changes, but all should appear under the heading of "Philosophical Magazine" The first series is known as Tilloch's Philosophical Magazine, and the current series as the London, Edinburgh, and Dublin Philosophical Magazine and Journal.

Although the rule should be to place the titles under the first word not an article, some judgment must be displayed. Thus the New Monthly Magazine should be placed under "New," because it was a rival and not a continuation of the Monthly Magazine; but the Neue Notizen of Froriep must come under "Notizen," of which it is a second series.

As a rule, it is objectionable to place journals under their editors' names, because editors are continually changing. For instance, the famous German scientific journal (Annalen der Physik) which was for so many years associated with the name of Poggendorff no longer bears the name of that distinguished man. After his death his name entirely disappeared from the title-page.

Something must also be said respecting astronomical and meteorological observations, reports of various institutions, surveys, etc. These are not strictly transactions; but the same principle which makes it expedient to take transactions out of the general alphabet applies to these books. Observations are sometimes catalogued under the name of the observer; but this is a bad practice, because the observer changes, and it is only the observatory which is permanent, and this should be arranged under the place where the observatory is situated, as Greenwich, Paris, etc. The treatment of reports is a more difficult matter, and here again judgment must be called into play. A particular report on a special subject must be treated as a book; but the series of reports of commissions, or the annual reports of an institution as serials, may well be brought under a separate division.

CHAPTER VII.

SOMETHING ABOUT MSS

Very little need be said here about the cataloguing of manuscripts, because it is a distinct art from the cataloguing of printed books; but most libraries contain a few manuscripts, and therefore it is needful to say something.

What a large collection of MSS. really is, is partly answered by Mr. Maunde Thompson, late Keeper of the MSS., and now Principal Librarian, British Museum, in an interesting paper, "On the Arrangement and Preservation of Manuscripts," read before the Library Association in 1886. Mr. Thompson writes:—

"While in foreign countries it is the custom to subdivide and deposit in different custodies the several classes of MSS. after their kind, in England the Museum is the only national institution where MSS. of all descriptions are purchased for the public use. In the Department of MSS., accordingly, may be found every kind of MS., from papyri dating back to the second century before Christ down to the correspondence of our own day on which the ink is scarcely dry. Papyri, ancient and mediæval MSS. of all periods and in all languages from the fifth to the fifteenth century and later, illuminated MSS., literary works of all periods, state papers and literary and private correspondence, charters and rolls, seals, casts of seals, and bullæ—all these are brought together under the custody of the keepers."[34 - Library Chronicle, vol. iv., pp. 33-9.]

Now very few of these rare objects will be found in ordinary libraries. The manuscripts to be found there will probably be literary works, historical and literary correspondence, and perhaps some deeds or family documents. If the manuscripts consist only of a few unprinted literary works or original manuscripts afterwards printed, these may well be included in the general catalogue of printed books. When there are autograph letters and miscellaneous MSS., these must be kept separate. The cataloguer must then consult the best catalogues of collections of manuscripts, and choose the plan best suited to his particular purpose. A collection of autograph letters will best be catalogued under the names of the writers, arranged in alphabetical order; while a series of historical documents will often be more conveniently arranged in chronological order.

The usual mode of cataloguing adopted is to register the contents of the particular collection of manuscripts in the order which it stands, and then to make a full index. The result of this plan is the production of a series of volumes of great interest to the reader. Many a pleasant and instructive hour may be spent in the turning over of the pages of such catalogues as that of the Harleian Collection, or of the various volumes which contain the descriptions of the additional manuscripts in the British Museum.

There is, however, a great want of a general catalogue or general index to the vast collections of the British Museum. 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. The subject index which can be referred to in the MS. room is a work of the greatest value, and he who turns over a few pages of a few of the volumes of which this subject catalogue consists will obtain a more vivid idea of the exceeding richness of the MS. Department of the British Museum than by any other means. This classified catalogue we owe to Mr. Bond, formerly Keeper of the MSS., and late Principal Librarian, and every scholar must feel deep gratitude to him for this great gift of knowledge. If this were printed, it would form a work of immense value; but probably before this could be done it would be necessary to re-catalogue on one system a large number of the entries.

With the present catalogues at the Reading Room table, when a certain known manuscript is required, the searcher goes at once to the special catalogue, and he has little or no difficulty. If he wants to find a manuscript upon a particular subject, he can look at the subject catalogue; but if he wants to find all the manuscripts of a given book, he will have to look up the separate indexes of the different collections. This will be a long and tedious undertaking, and the searcher will usually need the assistance of the gentlemen of the Department—assistance which is always freely and courteously rendered.

Catalogues of certain classes of manuscripts have been produced which are of monumental value; but I think a great desideratum is a catalogue of all the distinct works in the Manuscript Department, with information respecting the printing of such as have been printed. Possibly such a work, by which can be found the MS. copies of the works of our great authors,—and, for the matter of that, of our small ones too,—is being prepared. It will be a work of great labour, and if the Department prepare it, the learning of the country will be placed under a lasting obligation.

We may look forward to a time when a national bibliography of our literature shall be produced, in which manuscripts will be registered as well as printed books. One great characteristic of manuscripts is the permanence of their reference numbers. Printed books are moved and change their shelf-marks, but the number of a manuscript is always the same. Sometimes the manuscript is known by the name of the collection with its number, and sometimes the reference is to a former shelf-mark; but if originally a shelf-mark, it is continued as a part of the manuscript, however much the original position in the library may have been changed.