  Co-operative Indexes. Publications of Societies. Publishing Societies. Government Publications. Statutes. Colonial and Foreign Government Publications. Local Government Publications. Associations and Institutions. Congresses. The extent to which the work of dissecting and "indexing" the contents of books of a miscellaneous nature is to be carried out in a library catalogue depends largely on the nature and purpose of the library, though a limit must be set to it in any case. It would be unusual to index the proceedings or transactions of a society, or the contents of reviews, or other periodical publications, however valuable they might be. For this most libraries must depend upon the co-operative indexes, such as the Royal Society's Catalogue of Scientific Papers, the International Catalogue of Scientific Literature, the International Institute of Technical Bibliography, Poole's Index to Periodical Literature, the Engineering Index, the Index to ArchÆological Papers (unfortunately of little value because it is only an index of authors instead of subjects), and other works of the kind. The Library Association publishes a Class-Catalogue of Current Serial Digests and Indexes of the Literature of Pure and Applied Science. The form of entry for the publications of societies will vary according to their nature. As Royal Society of London. Catalogue of scientific On the other hand, if the society be national for Scotland, Wales, or Ireland, or provincial, colonial, or foreign, the entry-word depends upon the nature of the society. The publications of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, for instance, might be better placed under "Edinburgh, Royal Society" than under "Scotland. Royal Society of Edinburgh," notwithstanding that it is a national and not a local body. Against this, the publications of Royal Society of Edinburgh. in which case these references are necessary:— Scotland, Society of Antiquaries of. See Society The British Museum practice is inconvenient and affords no help in cataloguing the publications of societies, because all of them are brought together, irrespective of character, country, or locality, under the general heading of "Academies," and arranged according to the names of the places of publication in one general alphabet (not in national or geographical order), as Abbeville, Aberdeen, Abo, Acireale, Adelaide, etc. If it is desired to find say the "Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers," it is necessary to turn first to "Academies," and then to "Birmingham," provided one knows or remembers that the Institution has its centre there. Publications like those of the Early English Text Society or the Hakluyt Society must be sought first under "Academies" and afterwards under "London." This method of general, then local entry, is not a simple and ready one. Even local entry is not always satisfactory, as often enough the place of It must clearly be understood that when a society is established for the publication of separate works upon subjects coming within the scope of the society's purpose, and not for the reading and discussion of papers, its publications require full cataloguing, as if each work had been issued independently, in addition to whatever entry is given under the name of the society. A case in point would be this:— Chetham Society. Remains, historical and literary, This is the main-entry in full catalogues. The essential sub-entries are Roper, Wm. O. Materials for the history of Whatever economy may be exercised, neither of these two last entries can be dispensed with, rather let the list of contents and the volumes under the main-entry be omitted, especially if the list is a long one, involving a hunt through many items to find a particular book. Under ordinary circumstances a summary entry for a whole set can be made to suffice in this fashion:— Chetham Society. Remains, historical and literary, Similar entries for the whole set would be made under "Lancashire" and "Cheshire." By this arrangement a person requiring a particular work in the series could find it by reference to the entry under the author's name, or under the definite subject, if the book does not deal with either of these counties in general, and one or the other is certain to be remembered. It may be explained that the summary entry for the whole series, when given under the names of the two counties, obviates any necessity for separately entering any particular book under these counties. For example, the late Chancellor Christie's volume (No. 7 of the new series) on the old church and school libraries of Lancashire requires no separate entry under "Lancashire," as it is covered by the general The book by Roper, taken in illustration above, which is given as "Pt. 1," does not require a second entry for Pt. 2 when it is received later. All that is necessary is to adapt the entries in this way Chetham Society. Remains (and the rest of the There are other societies which publish separate and independent books, lending themselves to this separate treatment, when each work must be dealt with individually. Among them may be named the Camden, Early English Text, Folk-Lore, Hakluyt, Harleian, Malone, Navy Records, and Surtees Societies. These publications present the same problem for the classified catalogue as they do for shelf-classification, viz., shall they be kept together under the name of the Society, or be distributed throughout the catalogue according to the nature of their contents? If the volumes of the Camden Society or the Hakluyt Society are so scattered, they appear in many parts of the catalogue, whereas they are not usefully entered if grouped together. Some of the other societies do not raise this difficulty, The publications of the state, of local government authorities, and other official bodies are regarded in much the same light for the main entry as societies. In a British catalogue the publications of the home government or its departments cannot be usefully or conveniently grouped together under a general heading of "England" or "Great Britain," but are better placed under the names of the respective departments. On the other hand, the publications of any other government and its departments are brought together under the name of the state, and those of the governing body of any specified area, local, home, or colonial, under the name of that area. These points can be made plainer by examples. To take the home government reports first:
While these official titles of the respective departments are the correct form of entry, there is no particular objection to reversing the titles, when they admit of it, thus bringing them under the name of the public service concerned, as Trade, Board of, Labour Department. Any necessary guiding references must be furnished if required, as Board of Trade. See Trade, Board of. If the entries are so reversed, this does not convert them into a combined form of corporate-author and subject-entries; they will still need entries under whatever subject to which they appertain, unless a reference is substituted to meet the case under the subject. Should a library contain, say, many of the volumes of the special reports of the Board of Education, or a collection of the various reports on Labour issued by the Board of Trade, the setting of them out in detail twice over can be avoided by these two references Education. The police report can be entered under "London," though by "Metropolis" is meant a much larger district than that usually understood as London, as it includes several outside county and other boroughs while excluding the City itself. Nominally the report is that of the chief officer, but there is no occasion to enter it under his name. Upon the principle already outlined, editions of the statutes would, in the ordinary course, be entered under "Parliament," but it is better to take a separate heading, as "Acts of Parliament" or "Statutes, British," referring from "Parliament." Illustrative examples are
References should be given from the names of any editors, compilers, digesters, or annotators, as Chitty and Aggs. A volume of Acts relating to a specified subject, say, Copyright, Theatres, or Workmen, is not entered under the general heading, but under the name of the subject and the compiler. Such works ordinarily contain the law as well as the statutes, and therefore any references required from the general to the particular would be given under "Law." Legislative publications of other countries corresponding to our Acts of Parliament are entered under the names of those countries. The manner of stating the number of volumes in the second (Chitty) of the above examples indicates that the work is still in course of publication; if it were complete the number of volumes would be given as in the first entry. This first entry also takes precedence of the Chitty for order because it is the official "By authority" edition. As said above, the publications of colonial and foreign governments are first entered under the names of places, then by departments, as
An item like that of the U.S. Bureau of Education needs entries for subject and for the author of the particular section. Presuming that the whole series is covered under the heading "Education" by a reference to "United States. Bureau of Education," the other entries are
The first of these entries raises a question in connection with double place-names, i.e., should the entry be given as above or under "West"? Following the recommendation of the Joint-Code rule (No. 130), three standard gazetteers were consulted; two gave the name under "Virginia" (as in our entry), and one under "West." Accumulation of headings in one place is prevented when place-names qualified by the points of the compass, or in some similar way, are entered under the name following the prefix. All the same, each name must be considered independently. To enter New York or New Zealand under "York" and "Zealand" is incorrect, though the Isle of Man or the Isle of Wight are better under "Man" and "Wight" respectively. If there is the least doubt give the reference, which in this case is West Virginia. See Virginia, West. Examples of local government publications would be
The "f" attached to the classification numbers is meant to mark the book as a folio, and, while indicating the size, serves also as a guide to its probable position on the shelves, because folios are not usually placed with octavos. If the book were a quarto, it would be marked "q", as "q 371.74". Another local government publication is
The libraries of various localities usually make a point of obtaining all reports and documents bearing upon their particular areas, and, therefore, need special methods both for classification and cataloguing, according to the extent of their collections, so we may consider how the above items may be treated in a typical London public library. Presuming that all the publications of the London County Council are received, they would be so numerous that it is not worth while entering them again under "London" as subject. The entries under "London County Council" and under "London" would not only be many in number, but would come together in the catalogue. A better plan is carefully to enter all under "London County Council", subdividing the entries according to their nature. Though the Hammersmith report needs a reference under "London", an entry thereunder could not be justified, as in the case of the publications of the larger body. The references would be in this manner London: This is placed in order exactly as if it were an entry, whereas the Hammersmith reference comes at the end of the entries in the usual way, as See also the names of the Metropolitan boroughs, as Perhaps the first form of what may be termed an "entry-reference" is better exemplified by supposing it to be the most suitable style when under a general heading like "Education", and the entry references are Education: These fall into place under the heading as "Board", "London", "United States", and not as references at the end. This style is only recommended where there are many entries under both the heading and the name referred to, the ordinary method being Education: The foregoing principles for the entry of government documents also apply to the publications of associations and institutions. The officers making reports in an official capacity are usually disregarded so far as their personal names are concerned, though at times a special report or other publication may justify and require an entry under the name of the writer, but this depends upon its nature. International and local exhibitions are entered under the names of the places where held, unless the organisations arranging The same applies more particularly to congresses and conferences of all kinds regularly held, the places of meeting being merely incidental. The following is an example of such a congress, which is held at intervals in different parts of the world, and with a certain continuity:—
The National Council is, apparently, a central body representing British peace societies, and is responsible for this report only. When the congress is held in another country, presumably some body in that country makes itself responsible for the publication of the report, in which case it is probable the title would be in German or in French, whichever country issues the report, and this must be remembered. The title "Universal Congress of Peace", not being the name of a body, but the purpose of the congress, is met by a subject-entry, the above serving as a main-entry for this particular report.
This is a subject-heading that permits of a concentration of books, both for and against international peace, and may be made to include those upon international arbitration, the Hague Conferences, reducing of armaments, and other phases of the subject, even with the opposite term of "war" in their titles, provided the books bear upon the question in the ethical, social, or economic aspect, and are not purely military in character. The references then would be of this nature:— War versus Peace. See Peace Question. The heading is better sub-divided, the books in favour of international peace and arbitration leading, and those opposed to it following, under some suitable sub-headings. Amalgamation of subjects under a single heading is further referred to in Chapter XIV. |
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