File:Annual Report of the Librarian of Congress (1901) (14589868538).jpg

Identifier: annualreportofli1901unse (find matches)
Title: Annual Report of the Librarian of Congress
Year: 1901 (1900s)
Authors:
Subjects: Library and Information Services
Publisher: Library of Congress
Contributing Library: American Printing House for the Blind, Inc., M. C. Migel Library
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collection; he mustapply this; arrange the books accordingly, and indicate onthem and on the shelf lists which are the records speciallyin his charge, the precise location of each book, and its par-ticular symbol (class and book number).cataloguer. The function of the cataloguer is to exhibit the book in Functions. the catalogues. He must, however, exhibit it not merely(1) to one who knows the author and not the title, and (2)to one who knows the title but not the author, but also (3)to one .who desires to know what the Library contains on thesubject of which the book treats. A fully efficient cataloguemust, therefore, be by author, by subject, and, when the titleis likely to be remembered, by title also. The labor in cataloguing and the difficulty vary extra-ordinarily with the character of the book. Current Amer-ican novels by known authors, pure romance (i. e., dealingwith no historical event or sociological problem), may becatalogued at the rate of 50 or 60 a day. A single work in
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Catalogue Division, 225 science may require a half day; if by composite authors, orincluding various subjects, perhaps several weeks. Themere identification of the author, or the determination ofthe proper bibliographic statement, may involve referencesto various authorities; the determination of the subjectentry may involve a detailed and careful examination of thecontents. There is no limit to the knowledge useful for acataloguer. There is scarcely an)^ information, fact, orintellectual experience which may not be brought into playin the course of a years work in cataloguing. The merelinguistic difficulties are formidable; the accessions of theLibrary of Congress include books in more than a hundreddifferent languages. It is estimated that in a library such as this, handling solarge a percentage of serious material, the average output ofa cataloguer is but about 20 titles a day, and of a classifierbut about 50. The work of each cataloguer, however, andof each classifier requires rev

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