Theory, Tools, History: A Brief Introduction August 17, 2016

What is cataloging? The purpose of cataloging is to uniquely describe each item in the library’s collection, organizing the information so that it is accessible to those who need the information. What good is information if it cannot be accessed when needed? – Imagine trying to find information when the format was scrolls –

Charles Cutter’s Rules for a Printed Dictionary* Catalog, Objects in the catalog – To enable a person to find a book when the author, title and/or subject is known. – To show what the library has by a given author, on a given subject, in a given kind of literature – To assist in the choice of a book bibliographically or by literary genre or topic *dictionary = alphabetical as opposed to classified that is arranged by class number (i.e., DDC) Cutter had 369 rules.

Charles Cutter’s Rules for a Printed Dictionary Catalog Means of providing access: – Author entry – Title entry or title reference – Subject, cross references, subject table – Form and language entry – Edition and imprint, with notes if needed – Notes

Cataloging Rules First edition of AACR (cataloging rules) in 1967; many rules for description of items, many revisions, many updates AACR2 in 1998 FRBR (pronounced fer-ber) – Functional Requirement for Bibliographic Records: more user-focused than format focused Resource Description and Access (RDA)

Bibliographic record Supplies a physical and intellectual description of the resource, as well as the location of the resource. – Physical: # of pages, length of movie, size of book – Intellectual: what the resource is about Subject cataloging Classification

Card catalog to Online Public Access Catalog (OPAC) Print card catalogs – I do not remember these with fondness! Too much typing and rules of punctuation and spacing to remember - not to mention trying to file all of the cards. You may have had 4 or even more cards (index size) for a book. OPAC – Easily updated, portable, easily accessible, multiple subject headings and notes and added titles can be added easily

New information sources Technology has made more information available to all of us. Organization of the information imperative for clients to get accurate information. Not only printed materials and recordings, but electronic information – Internet, electronic databases, DVDs, blogs, streaming video

Sharing of records Library of Congress began a printed card service in LOC began distributing electronic form records by MARC (Machine Readable Cataloging) was developed by and for LOC. It is NOT a cataloging standard, but a template for putting cataloging information into the automated library system.

Cataloging in Publication CIP began in Records are created on information from galley proofs from publishers. See these on the verso (back) of the title page of books. Not always completely accurate because sometimes things change from the galley proofs to the actual publication, such as page numbers, etc. – Take a look at a book and identify the CIP.

Organization of information Possible ways: – Alphabetical by author – Alphabetical by title – Chronologically – Statistically – Subject (can also be organized alphabetically) – Geographically – Databases (searchable by subject, keyword, author, title, etc.) – Genre

Is one method better than another? Think about this – are items better arranged by title or author or genre or subject or alphabetically, etc.? What would you consider in deciding how to arrange items?

Why standardization of rules? Think about this – why is standardization of cataloging rules important for all types of libraries (academic, special, school, public) when their clients are so different?