To study systematically the various codes of cataloguing rules is of great value to the beginner in the work of cataloguing a library, though the apparent variations and contradictions in the codes are at first somewhat confusing. Their practical application to work in hand serves better to prove the usefulness and necessity of adopting some code or a modification of it before much progress is made. Once a choice is made, it is better to adhere to it uniformly throughout.

The purpose of the catalogue has a bearing upon the nature of the stationery required. A catalogue cannot be written into a book like an inventory; each item—even books by the same author or upon the same subject—must be upon a separate paper slip or card cut uniformly to any size fixed upon. Paper slips serve quite well for manuscript, or "copy" as it is termed, for the printer, but tough cards of good quality are needed for a catalogue on cards to be handled by many persons. It is a good plan in any case first to prepare the catalogue upon slips or cards for office use; then, when checked and revised, to copy from these for public use, either upon the good quality cards as suggested, or into the book-form of catalogues with separate leaves, known as "sheaf-catalogues." This last-named form is preferable for public use, and takes up less room. Any size of slips or cards may be adopted provided they are exactly cut to a fixed size, 5 inches by 3 inches being convenient; or the size usually provided with the index filing outfits, now so generally in commercial use, which were first used in the cataloguing of libraries, and then applied to other purposes. If the slips or cards are for handwriting, they should be ruled "feint" across, and whether so written or typed, are better with red lines marking margins of about half an inch at each side. If written by hand, the writing should be round, clear, of fair size, and above all, free from flourishes, whether written for public use or for the printer.

Two of the first questions a catalogue will be expected to answer are

Have you a particular book by a given author?
What books have you by a named author?

These two questions are not precisely identical, though they are both answered by the same form of catalogue entry, namely, that under the surname of the writer of the book, known as the "author-entry." This, or some substitute therefor, is invariably regarded as the main, or principal, entry. Though the placing or position of such an entry is not the same in both the dictionary and classified forms of catalogue, one falling under the author's name according to its place in the alphabet, and the other into its position in a class, the form of the entry itself is the same in both. The particulars for this entry must always be taken from the full title-page of the book, never from the binding or from the preliminary or half-title, though at times this half or "bastard-title" will furnish the name of the series or some other detail not given elsewhere but wanted for full-entry.

The title-page of the first book we deal with reads:—

The surname of the author then is Bell, and we either enclose his further names in parentheses, as

Bell (Aubrey F. G.)

or with a comma and full stop, as

Bell, Aubrey F. G.

There is no reason for advocating the adoption of one of these styles more than the other, especially in these days of type-setting machines. Where hand composition is still in use, and particularly in small printing offices, the use of a large number of parentheses () causes "a run on sorts," that is, the supply wanted is greater than is ordinarily found with a fount of jobbing type. Nowadays, it being merely a question of taste, and not one of expediency, it matters less, and as my personal preference is for the use of the comma and point, that style is used in the examples given throughout this book. The form decided upon must be adhered to if only to ensure uniform appearance—certainly both forms should not be found in one catalogue. Attention to details of this kind is the essence of good work, and after a time cataloguers, becoming accustomed to a particular style, fall, as a matter of course, into its use quite readily.

The surname is followed, as shown, by the Christian or forenames, but we are often confronted with the necessity for deciding how much of these forenames shall go in—shall they be given as on the title-page, or shall we find out the full names covered by the initials, or will initials alone suffice? In some catalogues the full names are given, in others only the initials, and in a few rare instances of "index-entry" catalogues the surname alone. For an average catalogue to give the name in its fullest possible form is more than is required, and is wasteful of space, while the bare initials do not enable us to discern whether the author is a man or a woman. It is more helpful to give the first or other important forename, and to do so does not lengthen the catalogue to any appreciable extent. The danger of this omission is exemplified at the end of this chapter.

In the catalogues of large libraries it is often necessary to take the trouble to get all names as fully and correctly as possible, otherwise, owing to the likelihood of numerous entries under persons with the same surnames, errors may result if the authors are not distinguished from one another in this way. This does not imply that the cataloguer of a collection of books up to 100,000 volumes need go to the trouble of giving every name in full as if he were compiling a biographical dictionary; nor need he add the dates of the author's birth and death to the name, as is sometimes done, because the labour will be unappreciated, and be wasted. Such dates, however, have at times to be given to distinguish between authors whose names are alike.

It is a wise plan, in any case, to limit the forenames or initials to those used by an author on his books at any time during his career. For all reasonable purposes, or any purpose, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, for example, is sufficient, though his name was properly Gabriel Charles Dante Rossetti, Charles Dickens, instead of Charles John Huffam Dickens, will not be mistaken for any other of the name, and Joaquin Miller will serve better than Cincinnatus Heine Miller.

A few instances taken from recent books by well-known authors will show how difficulties may arise in this connection. George Bernard Shaw's "Man and Superman" according to the title-page is "by Bernard Shaw," whereas his "The quintessence of Ibsenism" is "by G. Bernard Shaw." Martin Hume's work on "The love affairs of Mary, Queen of Scots" is given as "by Martin Hume," but his "Spain: its greatness and decay" is "by Martin A. S. Hume." There is the "Life of Gladstone" "by Herbert Woodfield Paul," a book "Men and letters" "by Herbert Paul," and "Matthew Arnold" (in the "English Men of Letters" series), "by Herbert W. Paul." Then we have the case of the well-known writer on animal life who changed his name recently on his books from Ernest Seton Thompson to Ernest Thompson Seton. This leads the unwary cataloguer into the mistake of getting books by the same author under different names. It must be confessed that the risk is not great where such well-known writers are concerned, but if they should be unknown authors of a past age or another country, the cataloguer would probably not be so well-informed, and fall into error. To cite an instance of this, the French author, Louis Jacques Napoleon Bertrand, we are told, took the name of Ludovic Bertrand, and later substituted Aloysius for Ludovic, the wonder being that he did not change the Bertrand also. There is need to be constantly on the alert for those who have no fixity of name. The only little satisfaction the cataloguer has if he finds he has tripped is that few will have sufficient knowledge to discover his fault.

Besides the catalogues of important libraries, the following may be named as among the more useful works of reference for working out the names of authors and other personages:—

Phillips, Lawrence B. The dictionary of biographical
reference. 1871 and later reprints.
Stephen, Sir Leslie, and Sir Sidney Lee (Eds.)
The dictionary of national biography; with
the supplements. 1885-1912.
Allibone, S. A. Critical dictionary of English
literature and British and American authors;
with supplement of J. F. Kirk. 1885-91.
Smith, B. E. (Ed.) The Century cyclopedia of
names. 1894.
Auge, Claude (Ed.) Nouveau Larousse illustrÉ;
avec supplement.
Biographie universelle, ancienne et moderne. 1811-28.
Nouvelle biographie gÉnÉrale. 1852-66.
Allgemeine deutsche Biographie. 1875-1908.
Appleton's CyclopÆdia of American biography.
1888-89.

The New York State University Library Bulletin, Bibliography, No. 5, issued in 1898 at the price of 3d., consists of "A selection of Reference Books for the use of Cataloguers in finding Full Names."

To revert to the book we are dealing with. As the author gives his first Christian name in full and two initials for the others we may regard it as quite full enough for any style of catalogue, and adding the title of the book, the entry becomes

Bell, Aubrey F. G.
In Portugal.

The quotation on the title-page, with its translation, is ignored altogether, as would be anything of a similar nature, such as a motto; these are merely adornments of the title-page, and have no bearing whatever upon the book from the cataloguer's standpoint. If it were intended to be very exact the omission could be indicated by three dots (...) but the need for doing this only applies in the case of rare or special editions.

We have now got the first two parts of our catalogue entry, and in the order from which there can be no deviation. Our next step is to decide how much further information is to be given. A catalogue of a library has been defined as a list of the titles of books which it contains, and that it (the catalogue) must not be expected to give any further description of a book than the author gives, or ought to give, on the title-page, and the publisher in the imprint, or colophon.

The catalogue can be made to give, besides the titles of books, such descriptions, more or less extended, drawn from all available sources of information, as may be necessary to furnish means of identifying each work, of distinguishing its different editions, of ascertaining the requisites of a perfect copy, of learning all facts of interest respecting its authorship, publication, typography, subsequent causalities, alterations, etc., its market value, and the estimation in which it is held.

For our entry we shall adopt the happy mean between these two and add to this entry, because it is the principal one, the information contained in the "imprint" at the foot of the title-page, giving the place of publication, the publisher's (or printer's) name, and the date of publication. In the early days of printing this information was given at the end of a book, and termed the "colophon." We shall also give the information spoken of as "the collation," consisting of a statement of the number of pages in the book, whether it is illustrated, and how, by maps, portraits, or otherwise, and even if the illustrations are in colour.

The first-named place of publication on the title-page of the book is London. In the catalogues of British libraries it is a recognised custom to omit naming the place of publication when a book is unmistakably published in London, this being taken as understood, all other places being given. Except in booksellers' lists and similar catalogues, the name of the publisher may also be left out, though it is often given in the full form of library catalogues. In the case of this book, the name of the second place, New York, is merely supplemental, the book being printed as well as published in this country. The date of publication must always be given, and in every entry (with the single exception of works of fiction, referred to later), not in Roman numerals, however, but in Arabic.

When books are in a number of volumes, the earliest and latest dates are given. These dates are not necessarily those of the first and last volumes, as the volumes may not have appeared in regular sequence, or a set may be made up from editions of varying dates.

For "the collation" we carefully examine the book and find that it has eight pages of prefatory matter marked with Roman numerals (i.—viii.), and the body of the work contains 227, paged in Arabic. This is shown as pp. viii. + 227, or as pp. viii., 227. The book has no map or illustrations. The enumeration of the pages in this way, it may be said, conveys no very exact idea of the extent of the work, as, of course, large type requires many more pages than small. Even the thickness of the book is not indicated by stating the number of pages, as an India-paper edition will contain just the same number of pages as one on thick paper. For these and other reasons, such information can be omitted if economy of space is of any consequence. If a book is in more than one volume it is unusual to give the number of pages, though it is sometimes done in publishers' lists. A "book" is invariably understood to mean a complete work, whether in one or many volumes.

The size of the book may also be given, and will occasionally prove useful, while completing the entry. The book we are dealing with is octavo in size, coming between the sizes known as "crown" and "demy," but as these terms convey no special idea to the uninformed in book sizes, and, indeed, no very definite idea to those who are, it will suffice for most purposes to call the book 8^o (octavo) unless the height is given instead in inches or in centimetres, as 8¼in. or 21cm. For most catalogues it will be found sufficient to give the sizes when they exceed octavo, it being understood that all books are of that size, or less, unless the contrary is indicated by the signs 4^o(quarto) or f^o (folio).

The entry completed upon these lines becomes

Bell, Aubrey F. G.
In Portugal. London and New York, John
Lane, 1912. pp. viii., 227. 8^o

The information to be given, when tabulated, falls into this order

1. —Author's surname.
2. —The author's forenames.
3. —The title of the book.
4. —The name of editor or translator.
5. —The edition if stated.
6. —The name of series or publication society (if any).
7. —Place of publication.
8. —Publisher's (or printer's) name.
9. —The date of publication.
10. —The collation (or the number of volumes if more than one).
11. —The size.
12. —The shelf, press, or other finding mark.
13. —Any descriptive note or contents.

Numbers 4, 5, 6, 12, and 13 are not required or given in the above entry, but are here inserted to make the table complete. With the exception of numbers 1 to 4, this order may be varied at will, but only at the outset, as whatever order is decided upon must afterwards be adhered to. The following statement of the order given in some of the rules is of interest in this connection, and will be helpful:—

British Museum order under its Rules (3, 16-22):

Cutter's Rules:

Library Association and American Library Association Rules:

For most libraries the information can be satisfactorily curtailed and limited to the following:—

The reduced entry for our book accordingly becomes

Bell, Aubrey F. G.
In Portugal. 1912

Having the author or principal entry complete, we now proceed to examine the book for subject-entry, and find that it consists of descriptions of journeys to places off the beaten track in Portugal. Even with the title of the book so obvious and the subject so clearly named in it, it is wise not to take it for granted, and examine the book as it may contain something of value belonging to another subject—for example, there is a book of travel in the Near East bearing the title "Pen and pencil in Asia Minor" which contains no less than thirteen chapters upon silkworms and the silk industry, not only in the Levant, but in France and elsewhere—quite a respectable book within a book, but this the title-page fails to reveal. The subject of our book, however, is open to no doubt, and for the dictionary catalogue the subject-entry is

Portugal:
Bell, A. F. G. In Portugal. 1912

No further entries are called for than these two (author and subject).

In all entries subordinate to the main entry, where the fullest particulars concerning the book are given, the information is condensed sufficiently to identify the book upon the supposition that those who require more details will turn to the main entry for them. The omissions from the subordinate entries are the full Christian names of authors (initials alone being given), the names of editors, translators, or illustrators, the names of series, the collations, sizes, and places of publication. The entries used throughout this work demonstrate this. The dates of publications are invariably given in all entries except where shown.

It has been contended that all details are as much wanted under the subject as under the author. There is much to be said in favour of this, but it is impossible to make every entry a main-entry when expense and the size of the catalogue have to be considered.

When the time comes for preparing the manuscript of the catalogue for the press, should it happen that there was no other book upon the subject, then the form of entry can be changed to what may be called a subject-title-entry, thus

Portugal, In. Bell, A. F. G. 1912

upon the principle that a "heading" is not required unless there are two or more books to go under it. By the reverse process, if there should be two or more title-entries of books unquestionably upon the same subject then these are converted into entries under a single subject-heading. If the two entries were

Portugal, In. Bell, A. F. G. 1912
Portugal, Sunshine and storm in. Watson, G. 1904

they are changed to

Portugal:
Bell, A. F. G. In Portugal. 1912
Watson, G. Sunshine and storm in Portugal. 1904

It is possible further to economise these entries:

Portugal:
Bell, A. F. G. In P. 1912
Watson, G. Sunshine, etc. in P. 1904

This style was adopted in quite good catalogues, and there is no particular loss of information through it, though the gain of space hardly compensates for the want of clearness, to say nothing of the somewhat bald appearance of the entries.

In all the subject-entries above it will be observed that the author's surname leads, the reason for this being that it serves to guide to the name under which the main-entry is to be found. The books are also arranged in alphabetical order by these surnames under the subject-heading.

If the catalogue we are compiling is not dictionary but classified in its arrangement, then, as already stated, there is but one entry (other than the brief index entries), and that the main-entry. Upon this is marked the numerical symbols of the classification adopted, which we shall presume throughout is the best-known and most used, Dewey's Decimal Classification. For convenience in sorting, the numbers are better written on the top right-hand of the slip or card. Our entry is marked accordingly

914.69
Bell, Aubrey F. G. In Portugal. London and
New York, John Lane, 1912. pp. viii., 227. 8^o

This entry can be curtailed if considered desirable, as shown above for the dictionary catalogue.

As some persons may not have used the Dewey Classification, it may be explained that these numerical symbols signify

Brief entries are needed for the author and subject-index or indexes, which appear at either the end or beginning of the catalogue when printed, thus

Bell, A. F. G. In Portugal. 914.69
Portugal (Travels). 914.69

In the following pages all the examples given to illustrate the various points which arise in the cataloguing of books are worked out in full for both the dictionary and classified catalogues, in order to show the whole method of treatment, as well as to prevent the misunderstanding which arose upon explanations given only by way of suggestion, and not as completed examples, in my former book upon this subject.

To show how difficult it is for experienced cataloguers to avoid error and the pitfalls in their way, it may be mentioned that several otherwise good catalogues have these two books

Here and there in Italy and over the border, by
Linda Villari. 1893
Italian life in town and country, by L. Villari. 1902

entered as

Villari, Linda. Here and there in Italy. 1893
— Italian life in town and country. 1902

though the latter book is by Luigi Villari. With nothing in either book to show this, the presumption that both books are by the same author is excusable, the initials of the authors' names and the subject being alike, yet it proves that it does not do to jump to conclusions. Correctly catalogued, the entries are

Villari, Linda. Here and there in Italy and over
the border. pp. viii., 269. 1893
Villari, Luigi. Italian life in town and country.
(Our neighbours.) pp. xii., 261, illus. 1902

and the subject-entries are

Italy.
Villari, L. Here and there in Italy. 1893
Villari, L. Italian life in town and country. 1902

Both entries will be marked 914.5 for the classified catalogue (History—Geography and Travels—Europe—Italy), and the index entries will be

Villari, Linda. Here and there in Italy. 914.5
Villari, Luigi. Italian life. 914.5
Italy (Travel). 914.5