59.—As in this illustration the repeat dash has been used, it may be here stated that its purpose is to save the repetition of the author’s name in each entry after the first, and, as shown in the case of “The wrecker,” it is unnecessary to give more than a single dash in any instance, as the position of the entry denotes that it is by the same authors as the preceding book. It was owing to the misuse of this dash that the old catalogue joke arose of

and others equally ridiculous are to be found in catalogues where the dash is not limited in use as a repeat for authors’ names, or as a repeat to a subject-heading, but this point is further dealt with under subject-cataloguing (Section 102). It must be noted that in the case of authors’ or editors’ names the dash is strictly limited in use as a repeat for second and further books by the same author, and not to repeat all authors with the same surname, as

This bad form should be avoided, and the surname of each person given in full, as

60.—Music is not usually treated upon the supposition that the librettist is joint-author with the composer. The latter is always regarded as the author and the entry given under his name only. The reason for this is that in the case of operas, oratorios, and the like the libretto is a mere secondary matter and the books are placed in libraries for the music only, and in the vocal scores of operas there is seldom a complete libretto. In this way the Gilbert-Sullivan operas are entered only under Sullivan, and if thought desirable a reference may be given from Gilbert, but it is not essential. The following is from the title-page of one of these operas.

Properly adapted this would appear in the catalogue as

It is hardly necessary to say that if on the other hand the libretto only of an opera or similar work were in the library, the entry would be given under the librettist, and the composer would be ignored, as there would be none of his work in the book.

Occasionally an exception to these rules will arise, and would be found in a book like

because it is likely enough that an edition of Moore’s Melodies with music would be called for without regard to the composer, though the book may have been placed in the library more on account of the music. Therefore, both entries must be given, that under the arranger’s name being the principal, as

61.—When a book consists of a collection of essays or articles by a number of authors, gathered together by an editor, it is proper to give the principal entry under the editor’s name rather than under that of the first-named author in the contents. If a book of this nature is of sufficient importance, each of its divisions can be treated as a separate work, and author-entries given, each author being credited with his share only. As to how far books of the kind are to be so dealt with must rest entirely with the cataloguer, space and utility being the two important points for his consideration. It frequently happens that a single essay or section of a book contains the essence of many volumes, and to a busy man such essays may be of more real value than a whole book. Again, if a person is interested in the work of a particular author, he will be glad not only to have the complete books, but also his contributions to miscellaneous works as well, and these are shown by indexing the contents. To do this will add to the extent and cost of a catalogue, but it will, at the same time, add to its value and usefulness. Of course there are many volumes of this miscellaneous nature, the contents of which are of a very slight or ephemeral value, and to so index them would be a waste of energy and of space. It is quite as easy to overdo this indexing of contents as to carry it out judiciously, as witness the fact that some librarians have gone to the trouble of indexing the principal contents of such obvious works of reference as the Encyclopædia Britannica, and the Dictionary of National Biography. In this matter, then, it will be seen that no fixed rule can be laid down. Sometimes the setting out of the contents under the principal entry will be sufficient. This does not imply that the contents of volumes of magazines, reviews, and the like should be so treated, as is sometimes seen attempted, of course with sorry results so far as completeness is concerned, because at best but a selection can be given, and even this necessitates wading through pages of closely-set small type; in fact, the only real purpose it serves is to show what serial stories are in a particular volume. No one can gainsay the fact that an enormous quantity of valuable material lies hidden away in back volumes of magazines, but librarians must depend upon such works as Poole’s Index to Periodical Literature, with its supplements, and the Review of Reviews’ Annual Index to Periodicals to reveal it.

62.—In some libraries the contents of miscellaneous books are set out as well as indexed, but it is doubtful if it is worth while doing both in the majority of cases. The following entries show a well-known book fully treated in this way so far as the principal and author entries only are concerned:—

As these items would each require at least one subject entry besides, it will be seen that this book must have fifteen distinct entries to be effectually catalogued.

63.—The contents of collected works in more than one volume must be set out in order that the catalogue may show in what volume a particular work is to be found, in this way:—

and so on through the rest of the volumes. Wherever possible, the tabulated contents of such works should be summarised when considered sufficient for all reasonable purposes, as

To give a list of the essays contained in the first volume is unnecessary, as all Gray’s miscellaneous essays are in that volume.

64.—There are books, or rather editions of books, of a composite nature, where an editor has joined together works by different authors into one volume. Examples of these are

To be exact, the cataloguer may give the principal entry under the editor, as already stated, but it does not obviate the necessity under any circumstances of a separate entry under the name of each author. There is no need to include the names of the other authors in the entries, and just the same principle would apply as illustrated in the Essays and reviews above. It is as well, however, to add the name of the editor to each author-entry, as it shows the particular edition. The entries in full would appear as

The second book would be dealt with after the same manner, but with the Christian names supplied to the sub- or author-entries, as

and similar entries under Wm. Congreve, Sir John Vanbrugh, and George Farquhar. The entries may be made a little more concise, as

It will be observed that neither of the above books would properly admit of a principal entry under the first-named author, as it would bring the authors’ names together in such a way as to lead to the supposition that they were joint-authors, as

It is true that any person with the least knowledge of English literature would know better than that these authors had collaborated, but the cataloguer has to put himself in the position of the man who knows nothing of the matter. Cross-references from one author’s name to the other in such a case would be absurd.

65.—Anthologies or other compilations are to be entered under the names of the editors or compilers, with the abbreviation Ed. (Editor) or Comp. (Compiler) following the name, as

The artist of a collection of drawings or other illustrations is to be regarded as the author, and the writer of any descriptive text accompanying them placed subordinately, as

It would be as well to give cross-references from the writers of the text, as

66.—The difference in references between “See” and “See also” must be noted. If there are entries of any kind already in the catalogue under the names of the persons referred from, then the reference is “See also,” and not “See.” The best form for writing a cross-reference is

and, if it should happen that by the time the “copy” of the catalogue is being got ready for printing there was no other entry under this author’s name, it would be altered to

67.—It occasionally happens that both the work of the artist and of the writer of the text are of sufficient importance to warrant separate entries, but only one of the entries should be the principal entry giving the fullest particulars. A book of this kind is Ruskin’s edition of Turner’s Harbours of England. As this particular edition is published as one of Ruskin’s works, and Turner is more subject than author, then the main entry is

and the subordinate entry is

68.—When a word not on the title-page is added to an entry by the cataloguer, it is customary to show this by enclosing it in brackets [ ] as the word “text” in the above example. On the other hand, if words have been left out from the transcript of the title-page as unnecessary the omission is denoted by three points … as shown in the Ruskin entry where the word “thirteen” has been passed over. In the smaller libraries it will be found that it is unnecessary to denote either additions or omissions in this way, but where perfect exactness is of importance this is the understood form for the purpose.

This Ruskin entry also shows that if it is already stated in the title that the book is illustrated there is no occasion to repeat “illus.” in the collation. There are many books of which the value lies more in the illustrations than in the text, such as those illustrated by Blake, Bewick, Cruikshank, “Phiz,” and others. It is often found sufficient in such cases to give a cross-reference from the artist to the author illustrated, like

it being, of course, understood that it is stated in the author-entry that the particular edition is illustrated by the artist from whose name the reference is given, as

otherwise the reference would be worthless.

The extent to which these references are given depends altogether upon the editions, as the cheap modern reprints of books like Ainsworth’s novels do not call for notice of the illustrations, and there are not many illustrators of books—especially in these days of “process” reproduction—whose work calls for the special attention of the cataloguer.

In making references like the foregoing, or of any kind, care should be exercised to give all the names necessary, and not, as is sometimes done, but two or three, and then finishing with a comprehensive “&c.” which is less than no use, inasmuch as it only serves to show that there are other books in the library illustrated by this particular artist, but what they are the cataloguer has neglected to state and the inquirer is thus left in vexatious doubt.

CHAPTER VII.
THE PRINCIPAL ENTRY.—CORPORATE AND OTHER FORMS.—EDITORS AND TRANSLATORS.

69.—In cataloguing the transactions, memoirs, proceedings and other publications of the learned societies, the societies in their corporate capacity are regarded as the authors and so treated, the principal entry being placed under the first word of their names not an article, provided they are societies of a national or general character, as

Societies of a strictly local character are to be entered under the name of the place of meeting or publication, as for example the publications of the Literary and Philosophical Society of Newcastle-on-Tyne are not entered under “Literary,” but

such an entry of course being kept quite apart from the subject-heading Newcastle-on-Tyne.

There are antiquarian and other societies whose work covers a much larger area than the particular locality in which they hold meetings or their offices happen to be situated, and they could not be fitly entered under the name of the place. For instance, the publications of the Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire emanate from Liverpool, but the place of meeting or publication might be changed to Manchester or Chester without in any way affecting the nature or scope of the Society’s work. Therefore the entry in such a case should not be under Liverpool or even “Historic,” but

Almost similar are the publishing societies dealing with a limited area, as the Chetham and Surtees Societies, but the specially distinctive name settles the matter, and the entries would accordingly be under those names. Societies of this class, however, are simply the publishers of collections of books, and so, in addition to the entries under the societies’ names, each book must have a separate author-entry. The entries would be after this manner:—

(The first eight volumes would be set out in the same way in their place as are the contents of collected works).

It would be within the scope of most catalogues to separately enter under authors and subjects any exceptionally important monographs published with or supplementary to, the transactions of scientific or other societies, but to go further than this and to catalogue in this way each separate contribution to such transactions opens up so vast a field of work that it need not be attempted. Special libraries used only by special classes of the community will have to settle the length to which they can go in this direction according to their several requirements and the means at their disposal. Something towards this end of making available the contents of transactions, proceedings, and the like has been accomplished in the Royal Society’s Catalogue of Scientific Papers, but there is infinitely more yet to be done and the majority of libraries will choose to wait for the promised great International Catalogue of Scientific Literature rather than attempt to index the contents of whatever transactions they happen to possess in their libraries, though this great catalogue has up to the present got no further than the conference-and-dinner stage of compilation.

The publications of foreign societies are usually entered under the names of the countries if of national importance, or places where they meet if of local importance, unless they have a specially distinctive title. Government publications are entered under the names of the countries or places, as

The publications of the home government cannot be grouped under one head or title in this way, and must be distributed under the names of the various departments as Board of Trade, Local Government Board, Historical Manuscripts Commission, Charity Commission, &c.

The reports of Church Councils and official publications of religious denominations occasionally call for some consideration. Important ecclesiastical councils as the Council of Trent or the Westminster Assembly of Divines are entered under the names of the places of meeting, but in the case of denominational assemblies where the place of meeting is a mere incident, the entry is to be made under the name of the denomination, and not the place of meeting. Examples of such publications are

and the form of entry is

In the same way reports or publications of particular societies meeting in annual or occasional congress as Freemasons, Good Templars, Trades Unions, or professional associations are entered under the names of the societies irrespective of the places of meetings.

70.—There is still one form of principal entry to be considered, and that is when there is no author, editor, or compiler whose name can be used and a title-entry becomes a principal entry. The commonest form is that of newspapers, magazines, and periodicals. These are invariably entered under the first word of the title not an article, and never under the editor’s name. The first and last volumes of the series contained in the library with the earliest and latest dates (i.e. years) are given, as

If the series is incomplete then the volumes wanting must be shown by the entry, as

this showing that volumes 1 to 8, 16, and 18 are not in the library.

71.—Another form of principal title-entry is that for the sacred books, especially for the Bible in its various editions and translations. It is customary to enter all editions in all languages of the complete scriptures, or of portions of them, under the word “Bible,” arranging the entries in this order in the first place—

Each of these divisions are then arranged according to language, and each of the languages again chronologically according to the edition. When a library contains a fair collection of versions and editions of the scriptures it is as well to keep to the rule to place those first which are in the original languages, but in the average English library it will be found most convenient to lead off with the English versions, followed by those in the original texts, and afterwards with those in modern languages other than English. The entries would be after the following style, but with such distinctive bibliographical particulars as may be desirable according to the importance and interest of the collection.

This arrangement and sub-division is only applicable to the text, and then only if the edition is simply a version or translation and is not accompanied by a commentary. Commentaries are treated as any other original work would be and entered under the author’s name, unless they happened to be of a collective character, as The Cambridge Bible for schools and colleges; ed. by Perowne, when the principal-entry would be under “Bible” (Subject sub-division “Commentaries”) preferably to “Cambridge Bible,” with the contents of each volume of the series set out, not alphabetically, but in the order of the books of the Bible, as

A cross-reference would be necessary from

and, if it were deemed desirable, references could be given from the editors’ names in this form

72.—Sometimes the commentaries in a series are of sufficient importance, or of such a character, that each is virtually a book quite apart from its place as one of the series. The volumes of the Expositor’s Bible, edited by W. Robertson Nicoll, are of this class, and, while they should in the first place be dealt with as shown in the Cambridge Bible above, yet a mere reference under the author’s names hardly suffices—they are not merely editors as in the Cambridge Bible series—therefore, besides this principal-entry under Bible, entries are required, as

or in a style more concise

Though coming more correctly under the remarks on subject-headings it may be here noted in passing that commentaries in a series are regarded as a single book and not entered separately under the name of each book of the Bible throughout the catalogue, therefore the above items would not have entries under “Kings” or “Daniel.” If, however, Dean Farrar had written a separate work dealing with the Book of Daniel, it should be entered under “Daniel,” and not under “Bible.” So commentaries, or any other works upon the whole Bible, like the entire series of the Expositor’s Bible, go under “Bible,” but if the commentaries deal with the Old or New Testament, or any particular book of the Bible separately, such works are placed under the headings of “Old Testament,” “New Testament,” or under the name of the particular book dealt with, as the case may be, and not under the heading “Bible,” as in the case of the text alone, or any portion of it. There are exceptions even to this rule with regard to translations, if special, and more particularly if accompanied by an exposition, as in a case like

This work would not be put under “Bible” as its subject, but would be entered either under “Paul, St.” (where all books upon his Epistles, not part of a general commentary or including any other parts of the Bible, might very well be grouped), or under the names of the churches to which the Epistles were addressed, as

In either case a cross-reference would be needed under the heading “Bible,” sub-division “Commentaries,” thus:

or

73.—The extent to which editors and translators are to be noticed in cataloguing is a very important one, but it also depends largely upon the requirements of the case. It should be taken for granted in large reference libraries intended principally for use by scholars that every name appearing upon a title-page, whether as author, editor, translator, compiler, or adapter, would be noticed and receive an entry, either in full or by way of cross-reference. But for an average library, and particularly lending libraries, it would be waste of energy and of space to adopt this system and fully carry it out. Thus, a work like

would in the former case have references from Phillpotts and Jerram to Xenophon, under which the principal entry should appear. But in most cases a single entry will be found ample, as

On the other hand, there are famous translations or editions that should have in every case entries under the translator’s or editor’s name, as

These are instances where two principal entries might be given with advantage, firstly under “Homer” and “Plato,” and secondly under “Chapman” and “Jowett,” as above.

Almost in the same category come those books which have been revised and enlarged by an editor to such an extent as to leave but little of the original author’s work. Sometimes the revision and additions may not be so extensive, but still be important enough to command a separate entry under the reviser’s name. Examples of these are

these entries being in addition to those under “Robertson” and “Watts.”

74.—It occasionally occurs that a prefatory essay or biographical or critical introduction to a book is of so much value as to be worth a separate entry, as

The careful cataloguer will rarely overlook these important points, though it too often happens that sets of books are lumped into a catalogue without the least attention to details of this kind, leaving it incomplete and so making the library less useful.

CHAPTER VIII.
SUBJECT, TITLE, AND SERIES ENTRIES.

75.—The form of author-entry, or its equivalent, having been settled, the subject-entry now commands attention. The importance of the author-entry is recognised, but it is well known to librarians that, leaving fiction out of the question, most inquiries are made in libraries for books upon a particular subject, or for a special class of literature, rather than for the works of a particular writer, the people who know many authors not being so numerous as might be supposed. Therefore it is essential in all cataloguing work that the utmost attention be paid to the subjects. Every volume dealt with should be thoroughly examined for the purpose of ascertaining generally the nature of its contents, and definitely the subject or subjects of which it treats. This course should be pursued in every case, even if the subject is so clearly defined upon the title-page that to go beyond the statement there made would seem to be a sheer waste of time, otherwise the “pitfalls” that lie in the cataloguer’s way cannot be avoided. Besides, there may be some particularly valuable feature of the book hidden away in an appendix, or even a separate book bound up in the same cover, which the first title-page will not reveal.

76.—When the subject of the book has been clearly ascertained, an entry taken from the book itself or from the principal entry already written, is made under the name of the direct and definite subject of the book, not under the class of literature to which it belongs or even the form in which it is written. It is of the first importance that the cataloguer should definitely decide the particular subject-name he will adopt in order to avoid the somewhat common blemish in catalogues of synonymous headings. Having so decided, it will prevent future mistakes if a cross-reference is immediately written and sorted into place with the first lot of slips alphabetized when it at once serves as a pointer in the right direction by preventing books upon a single subject being placed under two headings. Thus if the book in hand is

and the cataloguer has decided in favour of the heading “Physics,” he will at once write a cross-reference

which when put in its alphabetical sequence will point out if slips have been inadvertently written under “Natural Philosophy” that the chosen heading is “Physics,” and that the entries must be so altered and arranged. The subject-entry in this instance would be

It will be here noted that under the subject-heading the author’s surname leads off as it directs to the principal entry where the fullest particulars concerning the book are to be found, and consequently it is most unusual to give the collation, size, and other information in all sub-entries. It is advisable, however, to give the date of publication in every entry excepting in the case of works of fiction under the circumstances referred to in paragraph 24.

77.—The forms of subject entries in dictionary catalogues can be much better shown by means of example with explanations than by statement alone, and for this reason a number of ordinary books, not selected for any difficulty they present, are given. These have been fully worked out in the dictionary system, and are accompanied in each case by the principal entry, so that the complete series of entries can be seen. The styles of types in printing commonly made use of to mark distinctions are also shown.

It is an excellent rule to follow that a subject must have at least two books upon it before it is entitled to a “heading,” such as the second of the above entries has. In the event of the library possessing but this one book upon the subject by the time the “copy” has to be sent to the printer, it would then be reduced to title form, as

78.—The third entry is under the name of the series. Where space is a consideration, and only brief entries can be given, the cataloguer can omit either the name of the series from the principal entry and retain the entries under the title heading of the series, or he may reverse the process and leave out this third entry, as he may deem most expedient, but if possible both should be retained, as they afford useful information—in the first entry showing that the book is one of a particular series, and thereby giving some idea of its character and scope, indeed it would not be amiss for the same reason to include it in the second entry, and the third entry form furnishes a list of the books of this particular series in the library.

79.—Baillon, Henry E. The natural history of plants; transl. by Marcus M. Hartog. Illus. 8v. la. 8o. 1871-88

This work should neither be placed under “Natural History” nor “Plants,” as some might suppose, as its subject is “Botany,” and the further entries would therefore be

Besides the curtailment of information given in the principal entry already shown, the Christian names of authors are reduced to simple initials, and the names of translators and editors are omitted in all sub-entries. It is important to notice the difference between “See” and “See also” in cross-references; the first would prevent any entries being placed under the subject-heading where it is given, as already stated, but the second is intended to guide to lesser or closely-related divisions of the subject under which it appears. There may be a number of these see alsos under a single heading by the time the catalogue is ready for printing, when they are to be embodied into one entry, as in the following illustration, where nine are so amalgamated