Definition.—The catalog is a directory of the library. A library without a catalog is described by Thomas Carlyle as “a Polyphemus without any eye in its head, and you must front the difficulties, whatever they may be, of making proper catalogs.” A good catalog must be an accurate and easily used index of the resources of the library, answering the questions of the readers in the simplest and most direct way possible. Such questions fall into the following groups:

1. Has the library a certain book by a certain author?

2. What books by a certain author has the library?

3. Has the library a book with a certain title, the author’s name being unknown?

4. What has the library on a given subject?

5. What volumes of a certain series are in the library?

6. Where on the shelves of the library is a certain book to be found, if it is not in use by a reader?

To answer these questions certain “entries”, or records, are made in the catalog, called the author, title, subject and series entries. Question 6, which is asked in connection with all the other questions, is answered by the call number, which appears on every entry.

The most general book of reference is the dictionary. Every one is more or less familiar with its arrangement. This fact is the chief argument for a dictionary arrangement in a card catalog where authors, subjects, titles and cross references are arranged in one alphabet, as in a dictionary. Each “entry,” or record, is made on a card having on its first line the word, or words, under which the entry is made. This card is placed in its alphabetical place in the catalog tray.

Author Entry.—Every book must have an author entry to answer questions 1 and 2. By author we mean the person, body, government, society or institution responsible for a work. The entry is usually made under the author’s surname, followed by his forenames.

Catalog Rules.—Every good code of cataloging rules gives detailed directions for the author entry, telling how to decide who is the author and what form of his name to use. In order to gain the uniformity necessary for the easy consultation of the catalog, the cataloger must decide upon her rules and then follow them carefully. If this is done, the author card will ordinarily present few difficulties. The American Library Association rules (1908) are very full and offer the advantage of general conformity to the Library of Congress entries. The question as to fullness of author’s name may well be left to the individual library. The small library will need to use the author’s dates only to distinguish different authors of the same name. Many descriptive phrases may also be omitted, e. g. “pres. of the U. S.” in the heading, “Washington, George, pres. of the U. S.” and similar headings. This will in no way interfere with the use of the Library of Congress cards, in spite of their fuller entries, as the full and less full may easily be placed in one alphabet.

All works of fiction, dramas and poems, and works of non-fiction having striking titles must have an additional record, or “added entry”, under the title, in order that the catalog may answer question 3. For this entry, the title is written at the top of the card. The average reader more frequently remembers the titles of books than the names of their authors. Consequently the cataloger must not be too sparing in making title entries.

Subject Entries.—Non-fiction must also have added entry under the subject or subjects of the book. It is here that the cataloger finds scope for all her knowledge, judgment and common sense. Above all, let it not be said of her that she

She must examine the books carefully, studying the table of contents, preface, analyses of chapters when given, marginal notes, and the chapters themselves when necessary. No entry is to be made under any subject unless the cataloger is sure that the book contains material helpful to one looking up that subject. She must always try to put herself in the reader’s place, and get his point of view.

The cataloger is extremely liable to worship rules and to forget the limitations of the average reader. There is danger of taking too much for granted. In this respect the cataloger is like a certain professor who was given to quoting Arabic in his popular lectures. When some one, remonstrated, he said, “Oh, everybody knows a little Arabic.”

The cataloger must bear in mind the fact that many users of the library do not know how to look up book titles. President Eliot once confessed to a body of librarians that although he might claim to be as intelligent as the ordinary frequenter of a library, he did not know enough to use a card catalog.

Cutter’s Rules.—Having decided what the subject or subjects of the book may be, for it may have one or many, the question arises as to the form of the subject headings to be used. C. A. Cutter, in his “Rules for a dictionary catalog” (4th edition, 1904) has laid down the principles of the choice of subject headings. One of the most useful tools of the cataloger is the American Library Association “List of subject headings” (3d edition, 1911), the result of widespread consultation and discussion on principles and practice. Here is gathered the experience of many libraries, of all types, and the cataloger would do well to follow this list unless experience has shown her that in some cases her special library requires a variation. The suggested cross references are a great help, but must be used with care and judgment. The cross references are the sign posts in the wilderness of the catalog, and they must point the way clearly and with truth. The cataloger never knows at just what point the reader will strike the catalog, but if the subject headings and cross references have been judiciously chosen he is pretty sure to reach the desired goal.

Analyticals.—In a small library it is most essential to show not only what books the library has on a given subject, but also what chapters or essays may be hidden in unsuspected volumes. Entries for such parts of books are called analytical entries. The subject heading is chosen in the same manner as for an entire work on the subject, the author, title, date, call number and paging of the volume containing the chapter being given below the subject heading. In similar manner author and title analytical entries may be made for short stories which appear in collections. Author analytical entries are frequently needed for collections of essays, etc.

Form of Card.—The form of the card is of minor importance, provided it is clear and gives all of the important information. It is well to make prominent the author’s name by indention. The title must omit nothing which will aid the reader in his choice of a book. The name or number of edition and the name of the editor or translator should be included. Names of illustrators may be omitted unless they are of sufficient importance to require an added entry card. In a public library added entries under the names of popular illustrators like C. D. Gibson, Joseph Pennell or Walter Crane, will often prove helpful.

Imprint and Collation.—Fullness of imprint and collation varies in different libraries. The cataloger should not count on the library always remaining very small, but should include enough details of imprint and collation to assure her that the cards will be useful when the library has grown. The A. L. A. rules give detailed instruction for imprint and collation, while any of the papers written on cataloging for the small library will point out the possibilities of simplification.

Contents Notes.—The contents of the book should be given whenever it will add important items to the reader’s knowledge of the book. Descriptive and critical notes will often tell a reader positively whether or not he wishes the book, when the title alone could not do this.

Subject headings for historical fiction—and also for poetry and drama—will be found most helpful. Thus Winston Churchill’s “Crisis” can well have an entry under U. S. History—Civil War—Fiction, and Dumas’ The Whites and the Blues, an entry under Napoleon I—Fiction.

Printed Cards.—The use of the Library of Congress cards will be found a great labor saver. If, at the time of ordering the cards, a temporary slip bearing call number, author, title, place and date of publication, accession number and suggested subjects and analyticals be written, a second examination of the book on the receipt of the cards will be unnecessary, unless the cards disagree with the book in some of the data noted. The Library of Congress, on application, will send instructions for the ordering of cards. Although it is cheaper to order cards by serial numbers, it will not pay the cataloger to spend much time searching for this number as for 1/2c per title the Library of Congress will do this work. The use of the printed cards, though it will destroy the uniformity of appearance of the catalog, will in no way detract from its usefulness or usableness.

Essentials.—The cataloger must constantly bear in mind that the catalog is a machine for the use of the public. Any time spent in making it serve the readers more easily and quickly is time well spent. Any time spent in beautifying it simply for the glorification of the cataloger is time wasted. Rules,—careful, detailed rules,—are needed so that the machine may do its work without friction and that every part may fit into its proper place, but any rules that hamper the user of the machine, should be promptly struck from the code. The cataloger is paid to make a time-saving machine, and this is her duty,—to make a machine that will bring together the book and the man who wants it with the least expenditure of effort on the part of the latter.

“If the trustees can afford it,” very rightly says Miss Esther Crawford, “there is one substitute for a catalog, viz., a librarian who knows intimately every book in the library; who has the memory for each book and that fine, discriminating knowledge of the reader’s tastes and abilities which will enable her always to fit the right book to the right person; who will never be absent from the library during the ten hours in which it is kept open every day in the year; who will never die nor take a vacation,—marriage is out of the question.”^[1]

The Cataloger’s Training.—“The modern library movement is young, and it is therefore not surprising that the subject of library work in general and of cataloging in particular is not fully understood,” writes Miss Theresa Hitchler in the eighth annual report of the Brooklyn Public Library. “The average man does not know and cannot realize the demands of the work, and has no idea, seemingly, that any training or special aptitude is necessary. By way of contrast to this average man’s view might be recorded the plaint of a prominent librarian at a recent library club meeting that so great a per cent of the talent of the library profession had to be diverted to the cataloging department, to the detriment of the circulating desk. The moral to be pointed out is that the catalog must be good as a first requisite to a library. In the words of the old comparison, the catalog is the key to the otherwise hidden material buried in books. In a library of any size, the best desk attendant in the world is almost helpless, or at best constantly handicapped, without a convenient and rational classification of the volumes of the collection and the bibliographical aid of a catalogue. The born bibliographer is as rare as the born teacher or poet. The cataloging expert must have the quick mind, sound common sense, broad view and good judgment of the book-reviewer joined with the slow and solid qualities of the bibliographer. The former qualities are needed for rapid classification of books in all the various fields of human knowledge, from abstruse to practical, from grave to gay, and for placing them under subject headings in the catalog useful and specific, to student, scholar and every day reader alike, and are by far the more important and indispensable. The latter qualities are needed for recording accurately the data of the books so classed, in a bibliographical catalog of a form useful to people of all grades of intelligence. It stands to reason that to cope with these requirements, a solid educational training that gives an intelligent outlook on the various fields of knowledge must be joined to a natural aptitude for bibliographical detail, and added to these a technical training in such work. The head of such a department must possess these requirements in an ever greater degree, with an executive ability and knowledge of human nature above the ordinary, since the results, good or bad, depend directly on her ability and on her management, successful or unsuccessful, of the varied material entrusted to her guidance.”