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However careful and scholarly the methods used in building a collection, without expert guidance to its access and use, the collection remains difficult to approach. Cataloging and classification, well-tried disciplines often combined under the general heading of “indexing,” provide the needed guidance. Both techniques have been in use as long as libraries have existed, and their value in the so-called information age has been enhanced by the use of computers.
The function of the catalog is to identify all the items in a collection and to group like items together. All the great libraries of the ancient world seem to have had lists and inventories, whether kept on clay, stone, papyrus, parchment, palm leaves, or bamboo strips. Examples may be found in museums throughout the world.
Cataloging by author and subject
For many centuries the feature that gave a work its unique identity was the name of the writer, and users of the library were expected to know the names of the authors whose works they wished to consult. This system was eventually supplemented by the development of a subject catalog.
Many factors have contributed to the rise in importance of the subject approach to information. From the earliest times, librarians recognized that readers would be greatly helped if the catalog entries were arranged in groups of related subjects. General classifications of knowledge such as those of Aristotle and Porphyry, scholarly curricula such as the trivium and quadrivium (expounded by Julius Caesar’s librarian Marcus Terentius Varro and persisting as a major influence on Western education), and practical considerations, such as the governmental needs of emperors and priests, all have formed the basis for the arrangement of subject catalogs. Early in the 7th century the scholar Wei Cheng wrote the bibliographic section of the official Sui Dynasty History, dividing the books into four categories: Confucian classics, historical records, philosophical writings, and miscellaneous works.
Since the late 19th century far more attention has been paid to cataloging the subject contents of books as well as the names of their authors. Most of the impetus for this change came from science and technology, where the practice of working in teams in research institutions largely superseded the practice of single individuals, such as Charles Darwin, working for years to complete their research and then publishing the results as a book. The proliferation of specialist journals that publish short papers charting the progress of teamwork has meant that the names of single authors have become somewhat less important as tools for identifying works in libraries. Catalogs that list the subjects of research are more useful to specialists in related fields around the world, who may not know researchers by name but wish to have access to their work.
Catalog systems
Despite a steady, if slow, trend toward standardization, various forms of catalog continue to exist. Sets of entries generally are arranged in one of three catalog systems. The first is the dictionary catalog, in which author, title, subject, and any other entries are filed in a single alphabetical sequence. This form is popular in the United States and in public libraries generally and probably presents the least amount of difficulty for the general or casual reader. The second is the divided catalog, still in alphabetical sequence but with subject entries in a separate file. This form has increased in popularity, and many libraries have divided their former dictionary catalogs, recognizing the growing value of the subject approach. The third is the classed, or classified, catalog, which is more popular in Britain and continental Europe and in some developing countries whose librarians trained there. In the classed catalog, as its name suggests, all the entries are filed in the sequence of a classification scheme—that is, in a systematic order of subjects—but separate alphabetical files link names of authors and of subjects to the notation symbols of the classification scheme used in the main file. The chief advantage of a classed catalog is that the entries are related subjects grouped together in the file; thus, a subject search can be made much more simply than in a catalog based on the alphabet. In addition, when different languages are used, the sequence of entries in a classed catalog does not alter, as is the case with the dictionary.
Vehicles for catalogs
The types of catalog differ on the basis of the information provided in the entries, but the actual physical form may also vary. Originally, catalogs took the same form as the books they listed; being made of the same material, the catalog was an extra item of the collection itself. The earliest catalogs of the great national and scholarly libraries were in book form, with handwritten entries and spaces for new additions. The main problem of the book-type catalog, of course, was the insertion of entries for new acquisitions. Most plans, like that of the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris, made no attempt to add to the printed file and instead placed vain hopes in the prospect of new editions.
The initial solution to this problem was the creation of a card catalog, each entry having its own card and each card containing only one entry. In principle, such catalogs can grow in size indefinitely; any new entry can be filed between any two existing entries. Thus the catalog offers the opportunity to have a completely up-to-date file: an entry can be made in the catalog immediately after a book has been purchased.
In 1901 the Library of Congress began offering copies of its own catalog cards for sale to other libraries. For many years this proved of inestimable value, particularly to small libraries unable to afford skilled catalogers. The service was also intended to serve as a central cataloging agency. Many eminent librarians, in conferences and in published papers, had lamented what they argued was wasteful duplication of effort involved in the separate cataloging of the same books in many different libraries. They proposed that a central agency undertake the task and make the results generally available, so that any library could use the central catalog thus produced to complete its own highly professional catalog. In the 1950s the British National Bibliography also began to produce cards from the entries in its weekly lists.
These and similar schemes in other countries in Europe achieved a certain success but for various reasons could not be said to have provided the ultimate solution. The advent of the computerized catalog, however, offers a more practicable approach because the storage capacity and the operating speed of even small machines overcome the main drawbacks to card services: delays in production and the labour of filing the cards when they arrive. Computer technology makes it possible for the details of any document to be entered into a file at any point and then to be transmitted to a central data file from which other libraries can obtain details by means of telecommunications links. The process is demonstrated by the revised Machine-Readable Cataloging Project, known since its revision in 1968 as MARC II. Library users find no difficulty in consulting such on-line catalogs, and many prefer them to the more cumbersome, if more familiar, form of cards in drawers. Not only do they enable library patrons to search for books containing a particular word or combination of works in the title, but the patron also can narrow a subject search by finding books that are on two or more topics. The information from the catalog can be alphabetized or put in order by year of publication and printed out as a book list.
The system that accommodates this type of search is known as OPAC (on-line public access computer). Further development of this system has made it possible to integrate other library records with the OPAC, so that patrons can reserve materials that are still on order and can determine if items in the library’s collection are already on loan. The OPAC has been expanded in many libraries to include information about journal articles and sometimes about the community served by the library. The job of cataloger, once highly dedicated to the task of describing library materials for the production of a catalog, is now focused on producing an information retrieval tool that will be of general use to the library’s patrons.
Catalog standardization
The ideal of centralized cataloging led to increased interest in standardized forms of entry. As libraries grew larger after the Renaissance, it became necessary to devise some form of standard to ensure consistency among several catalogs. Perhaps the most famous, the British Museum Rules, was inspired by Sir Anthony Panizzi and has influenced all succeeding codes, though most of them have departed considerably from the original. The Vatican Rules and the Prussian Instructions have both been subject to commissions for revision, but certainly the most influential code is a joint British and American effort, Catalog Rules: Author and Title Entries, first published in 1908 and revised in 1967. A further revision was published in 1978 as Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules, second edition; it is commonly referred to as AACR2.
Douglas John Foskett The Editors of Encyclopaedia BritannicaAnglo-American Cataloguing Rules
The second edition of Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules (AACR2) is the most widely used cataloging code, designed for use in the construction of catalogs and other lists in general libraries of all sizes. It is published jointly by the American Library Association, the Canadian Library Association, and the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals in the United Kingdom. AACR2 comprises a detailed set of rules and guidelines for preparing bibliographic records to represent library resources, established to maintain consistency within the catalog and between the catalogs of libraries using the same code. The rules cover the description of areas such as the title, the publisher, the edition, the series, etc., as well as provision of access points for all library materials, including books, serials, cartographic materials, electronic resources, and so on.
AACR2 is structured in two parts. Part I deals with the provision of information describing the item being cataloged, and Part II deals with the rules for determination and establishment of access points under which the descriptive information is to be presented to catalog users and with the making of references to those headings. In both parts the rules proceed from the general to the specific. The second edition of the rules is based on a reconciliation of the British and North American texts of the 1967 edition. This extends to style, which is generally in accordance with The Chicago Manual of Style, and to spellings, which are those of Webster’s New International Dictionary.
Many other discussions, revisions, and simplifications have taken place since the mid-20th century. Short versions of the major codes were published for small libraries in certain countries; the public instruction ministry in Italy issued new rules; a French commission on cataloging issued standards for anonymous works; and in the former Soviet Union, proposals were published for standardizing the transcription of Chinese names into Cyrillic script. All these codes dealt with the use and entering of a consistent form of the names of authors, including Anonymous in the case of anonymous works, and sometimes, as in AACR2, with titles.
AACR2 has been succeeded by Resource Description and Access (RDA), which was released in June 2010. RDA builds on the strengths of AACR2 with some new features that make it more useful for resource description as a cataloging code for the modern libraries operating in a digital environment.
Resource Description and Access
Resource Description and Access (RDA) is the new standard for descriptive cataloging providing data elements, instructions, and guidelines on recording the contents and formulating bibliographic metadata for description and access to information resources covering all types of content and media held in libraries and related cultural organizations, such as museums and archives. RDA is designed for the digital world. The metadata created by following RDA instructions are well formed according to international models for user-focused linked data applications that are compatible with existing records in online library catalogs and also adaptable to new and emerging database structures.
RDA is the successor to Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules, second edition (AACR2), which is still the most widely used cataloging standard worldwide. Built on the foundations established by AACR2, the organization of RDA is based on international standards developed by the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA), such as Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records (FRBR) and Functional Requirements for Authority Data (FRAD).
The creation of RDA was the result of collaboration between representatives from the United States, Canada, Great Britain, Germany, and Australia. RDA was developed by the RDA Steering Committee (formerly the Joint Steering Committee for Development of RDA) as part of its strategic plan (2005–09) to replace AACR2. RDA was initially published in June 2010 under the title RDA Toolkit as an online resource by the American Library Association, the Canadian Library Association, and the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (CILIP). The text of RDA consists of 10 sections divided into 37 chapters, with 13 appendices, a glossary, and an index. RDA was widely implemented in 2013 by the Library of Congress, the British Library, and other major libraries.
Salman HaiderOther codes
A separate set of codes for subject cataloging emerged mainly in the United States. These subject headings took the form of lists of subject headings, the three best known being the list compiled by Minnie E. Sears, the Library of Congress Subject Headings, and the Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.
Thesauri
A new use of the term thesaurus, now widespread, dates from the early 1950s in the work of H.P. Luhn, at International Business Machines Corporation (IBM), who was searching for a computer process that could create a list of authorized terms for the indexing of scientific literature. The list was to include a structure of cross-references between families of notions, in the manner of P.M. Roget’s Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases (1852) and similar to the structure of faceted classification schemes. A major thesaurus, and one of the earliest, is the Thesaurofacet (1969), a list of engineering terms in great detail designed by Jean Aitchison for the English Electric Company. The thesaurus has proved very useful both for indexing and for searching in machine systems. It is especially helpful in such areas as medicine, aerospace, and other scientific and technical fields.
Thesauri depend upon the concept of controlled vocabulary, subject headings organized into lists that help users locate the appropriate heading for their topic of interest and find related terms used for narrower or broader topics. One of the functions of controlled vocabulary is to select from what may be a large group of synonyms the one term that most accurately describes a topic. When libraries use that one term consistently, their users will know where to look to find materials on any topic of interest. Books on travel in Britain, for example, might be described as travel, tourism, or sightseeing in Britain, Great Britain, or the United Kingdom. By selecting one expression of this topic—for example, “Great Britain—Description and Travel”—a library ensures that all of the books on the topic will be grouped under one subject heading in the catalog.
The disadvantage of controlled vocabulary systems such as subject headings lists is that they are slow to evolve. New topics and new ways of thinking and talking about topics continually evolve, and, although there are ongoing efforts to keep controlled vocabulary lists as up-to-date as possible, they inevitably lag behind ordinary language usage. As a result, some topics may be difficult to find using the subject heading approach. For this reason, many library systems, particularly those that use computerized information retrieval techniques, combine controlled vocabulary such as subject headings with free vocabulary: descriptions of the topic of books or other materials using ordinary language. In these systems, subject headings are supplemented with topic descriptions such as abstracts and summaries, which have no restrictions on descriptive vocabulary.
Classification
While catalogs aim to identify and list items in a collection, schemes of classification have a more general application in arranging documents in a sequence that will make sense and be helpful to the user. Because they display subjects, and not documents, they can be used in several libraries, and some indeed have found applications in many different countries. Like schemes for grouping entries in catalogs, classifications—whether of knowledge based on philosophical principles, of the subject faculties of universities, or of the pragmatic grouping of books on shelves—have formed the basis of many individual systems.
