- A, Specific dictionary.
- B, Specific dict. by its cross-references and its form-entries. Alphabetico-classed catalogue.
- C, Classed catalogue without subdivisions.
- D, Classed catalogue with subdivisions.
- A, B are alphabetical.
- C, D are classed.
- A, B, D contain specific subjects.
- B, C, D contain classes.
The specific entries of A and the classes of B, though brought together in the same catalogues (the class-dictionary and the alphabetico-classed), simply stand side by side and do not unite, each preserving its own nature, because the principle which brings them together—the alphabet—is external, mechanical. But in D the specific entries and the classes become intimately united to form a homogeneous whole, because the principle which brings them together—the relations of the subjects to one another—is internal, chemical, so to speak.
Collector.
See Author.Cross-reference.
See Reference.Dictionary catalogue,
so called because the headings (author, title, subject, and form) are arranged, like the words in a dictionary, in alphabetical order.Dictionary and other alphabetical catalogues.
These are differentiated not, as is often said, by the dictionary having specific entry, but (1) by its giving specific entries in all cases and (2) by its individual entry.Even the classed catalogues often have specific entry. Whenever a book treats of the whole subject of a class, it is specifically entered under that class. A theological encyclopædia is specifically entered under Theology, and theology is an unsubordinated class in many systems. The alphabetico-classed catalogues have specific entry in many more cases, because they have many more classes. Professor Abbot has such headings as Ink, Jute, Lace, Leather, Life-savers, Locks, Mortars, Perfumery, Safes, Salt, Smoke, Snow, Varnish, Vitriol. Mr. Noyes has scores of similar headings; but neither of them permits individual entry, which the dictionary-catalogue requires. The alphabetico-classed catalogue enters a life of Napoleon and a history of England under Biography and History; the dictionary enters them under Napoleon and England. This is the invariable and chief distinction between the two.
Editor.
See Author.Entry,
the registry of a book in the catalogue with the title and imprint.Author-entry,
such registry with the author’s name for a heading.Title-entry,
registry under some word of the title.First-word-entry,
such entry made from the first word of the title not an article. {13}Important-word
or catch-word entry, such entry made from some word of the title other than the first word and not indicative of the subject, but likely to be remembered and used by borrowers in asking for the book.Series entry,
entry of a number of separate works published under a collective title or half-title or title-page caption. Such are “The English citizen” series and “American statesmen.”Subject-word-entry,
such entry made under a word of the title which indicates the subject of the book.Subject-entry,
registry under the name selected by the cataloguer to indicate the subject.A cataloguer who should put “The insect,” by Michelet, under Entomology would be making a subject-entry; Duncan’s “Introduction to entomology” entered under the same head would be at once a subject-entry and a subject-word-entry.
Form-entry,
registry under the name of the kind of literature to which the book belongs.Form,
applied to a variety of classification founded on the form of the book classified, which may be either Practical, as in Almanacs, Dictionaries, Encyclopædias, Gazetteers, Indexes, Tables (the form in these being for the most part alphabetical), or Literary, as Fiction, Plays, Comedies, Farces, Tragedies, Poetry, Letters, Orations, Sermons (the latter with the subdivisions Charity, Election, Funeral, Installation, Ordination, Thanksgiving, etc.). There are certain headings which belong both to the Subject and the Form family. “Encyclopædias,” inasmuch as the books treat of all knowledge, is the most inclusive of all the subject-classes; inasmuch as (with few exceptions) they are in alphabetic form, it is a form-class.Heading,
the word by which the alphabetical place of an entry in the catalogue is determined, usually the name of the author, of the subject, or of the literary or practical form, or a word of the title.Imprint,
the indication of the place, date, and form of printing.Polygraphic,
written by several authors.Polytopical,
treating of several topics.Will the convenience of this word excuse the twist given to the meaning of τόπος in its formation? Polygraphic might serve, as the French use polygraphe for a miscellaneous writer; but it will be well to have both words,—polygraphic denoting (as now) collections of several works by one or many authors, polytopical denoting works on many subjects.
Reference,
partial registry of a book (omitting the imprint) under author, title, subject, or kind, referring to a more full entry under some other heading; occasionally used to denote merely entries without imprints, in which the reference is implied. The distinction of entry and reference is almost without meaning for Short, as a title-a-liner saves nothing by referring unless there are several references. {14}Analytical-reference,
or, simply, an analytical, the registry of some part of a book or of some work contained in a collection, referring to the heading under which the book or collection is entered.Cross-reference,
reference from one subject to another.Heading-reference,
from one form of a heading to another.First-word-reference,
catch-word-reference, subject-word-reference, same as first-word-entry, etc., omitting the imprint, and referring.Series-entry.
See Entry.Specific entry,
registering a book under a heading which expresses its special subject as distinguished from entering it in a class which includes that subject.E. g., registering “The art of painting” under Painting, or a description of the cactus under Cactus. Putting them under Fine arts and Botany would be class-entry. “Specific entry,” by the way, has nothing to do with “species.”
Subject,
the theme or themes of the book, whether stated in the title or not.It is worth noting that subjects are of two sorts: (1) the individual, as Goethe, Shakespeare, England, the Middle Ages, the ship Alexandra, the dog Tray, the French Revolution, all of which are concrete; and (2) general, as Man, History, Horse, Philosophy, which may be either concrete or abstract. Every general subject is a class more or less extensive. (See note on Class.) Some mistakes have also arisen from not noting that certain words, Poetry, Fiction, Drama, etc., are subject-headings for the books written about Poetry, Fiction, etc., and form-headings for poems, novels, plays, etc.
Subject-entry,
Subject-word entry. See Entry.Syndetic,
connective, applied to that kind of dictionary catalogue which binds its entries together by means of cross-references so as to form a whole, the references being made from the most comprehensive subject to those of the next lower degree of comprehensiveness, and from each of these to their subordinate subjects, and vice versa. These cross-references correspond to and are a good substitute for the arrangement in a systematic catalogue. References are also made in the syndetic catalogue to illustrative and coördinate subjects, and, if it is perfect, from specific to general subjects.Title
in the broader sense includes heading, title proper, and imprint; in the narrower (in which it is hereafter used) it is the name of the book given by the author on the title-page, omitting the imprint, but including names of editors, translators, etc. The name of the book put on the leaf preceding the title page is called the half-title; and the same term is applied to lines indicating subdivisions of the book and following the title; the name given at the head of the first page of text is the caption. That given at the back of the book (the binder’s title) should never be used in a catalogue which makes the slightest pretensions to carefulness.A title may be either the book’s name (as “&c.”) or its description (as “A collection of occasional sermons”), or it may state its subject (as “Synonyms of the New {15} Testament”), or it may be any two or all three of these combined (as description and subject, “Brief account of a journey through Europe;” name and description, “Happy thoughts;” name and subject, “Men’s wives;” all three, “Index of dates”).
Bibliographers have established a cult of the title-page; its slightest peculiarities are noted; it is followed religiously, with dots for omissions, brackets for insertions, and uprights to mark the end of lines; it is even imitated by the fac-simile type or photographic copying. These things may concern the cataloguer of the Lenox Library or the Prince collection. The ordinary librarian has in general nothing to do with them; but it does not follow that even he is to lose all respect for the title. It is the book’s name and should not be changed but by act of legislature. Our necessities oblige us to abbreviate it, but nothing obliges us to make additions to it or to change it without giving notice to the reader that we have done so. Moreover, it must influence the entry of a book more or less; it determines the title-entry entirely; it affects the author-entry (see § 3) and the subject-entry (see § 104). But to let it have more power than this is to pay it a superstitious veneration.
Volume,
a book distinguished from other books or other volumes of the same work by having its own title, paging, and register.This is the bibliographic use of the word, sanctioned by the British Museum rules. That is, it is in this sense only that it applies to all the copies of an edition as it comes from the printer. But there is also a bibliopegic and bibliopolic use, to denote a number of pages bound together, which pages may be several volumes in the other sense, or a part of a volume or parts of several volumes. To avoid confusion I use “volume” in the present treatise as defined in the Rules of the British Museum catalogue, and I recommend this as the sole use in library catalogues, except in such phrases as 2 v. bd. in 1. which means 2 volumes in the bibliographical sense united by binding so as to form one piece of matter.
In the present treatise I am regarding the dictionary catalogue as consisting of an author-catalogue, a subject-catalogue, a more or less complete title-catalogue, and a more or less complete form-catalogue, all interwoven in one alphabetical order. The greater part, however, of the rules here given would apply equally to these catalogues when kept separate.
These rules are written primarily for a printed catalogue; almost all of them would apply equally to a card catalogue.