Standard Cataloging for School and Public Libraries (4th edition)

Citation

Duckett, R. (2009), "Standard Cataloging for School and Public Libraries (4th edition)", Library Review, Vol. 58 No. 5, pp. 389-391. https://doi.org/10.1108/00242530910961828

“Intner and Weihs”, this standard text on cataloguing for US librarians, was first published in 1990 and is now in its fourth edition. As the authors observe, the rules and standards for library cataloguing and classification are constantly changing.

Those responsible for standards call the process by which they are kept up‐to‐date ‘dynamic revision’, and it truly never ends. Because of dynamic revision, books such as this must be updated regularly to keep the details of the standards it describes accurate and relevant (Introduction).

Since the 3rd edition of 2001, there have been new editions of many of the cataloguing rules and tools to which it referred. These include the Anglo‐American Cataloguing Rules, Library of Congress Subject Headings, Sears List of Subject Headings, and the Dewey Decimal Classification.

In their Preface the authors note the new descriptive cataloguing code (to be called Resource Description and Access – expected in 2009, and the announcement by the Library of Congress that they will be reducing its role in providing authoritative information. Evidence, say Intner and Weihs, “that catalogers working in local libraries and media centres can anticipate taking more, not less, responsibility for organizing their materials. They may also be expected to assume a larger share of the work on standards and policies in a new multi‐institutional model of librarianship in cataloguing and classification. In a distributed leadership environment, knowledgeable librarians and media specialists at the grassroots level will be especially important”. You have been warned – now buy the book!

Starting with the “Functions of the Catalog” and the need to conform to standard practice, the authors lead the reader to the decisions that need to be made in relation to descriptive cataloguing, subject cataloguing, classification, call number assignment and encoding for computer input. These elements are then considered in more detail in separate chapters. The chapter on descriptive cataloguing features AACR2 and its updates, while the chapter headed “Access Points” treats of choice of headings, form of headings and cross‐references. Moving on to “Subject Authorities” there are separate chapters on Sears List of Subject Headings and Library of Congress Subject Headings, while after a discussion of “Classification Systems” there are chapters on the Dewey Decimal and Library of Congress classifications. Finally there are chapters on “Computer Encoding” and “Managing the Catalog Department”. Most chapters include an Introduction, a Conclusion, a Recommended Reading and Notes.

This book is designed as a “hands‐on”, practical, “how‐to‐do‐it” manual. The prose is limited to the reasons why things are done as they are, and to how they are to be done. About half the book is devoted to giving examples featuring facsimile title pages and their versos, with worked examples and test exercises (answers given at end of book).

There is a Glossary (in which I was amused to find: “Full stop – British term for the mark of punctuation called a “period” by North Americans”). CILIP is in. There are several indexes: the first is a subject (“topical”) index to the text; the second is an index to personal and corporate names; the third is an index “for those who wish to study the figures and examples more systematically”. This is followed by four separate indexes, for types of media (e.g. book, map, game), access points (e.g. composer, named conference), description and classification.

I am not aware that many UK public and school libraries use either Sears or LC subject headings, LC classification, or Cutter numbers (for which there are nine entries in the index). Indeed, the number of cataloguers in UK libraries is shrinking fast with the advent of supplier servicing (maybe the book should be marketed to them). But the general principles remain sound and for North American libraries, and others for whom these standards apply, this is an excellent instructional primer.