Page 102 - DLIS103_LIBRARY_CLASSIFICATION_AND_CATALOGUING_THEORY

Unit 14: Development and Trends in Library Cataloguing

Uses of union catalogue Notes

1. The union catalogue makes the full document resources of an area available every indi-
vidual in that area.
2. The national union catalogue reveals the document resources of the country.
3. Union catalogue provides a quick method of tracing the availability of a particular document.
4. They guide book selection
5. They are helpful in discarding the books.

Examples of Union catalogue
DSTSDOC has brought out a series of regional union catalogue of serials covering different regions
1. The library of congress has converted its union catalogue to microfiche from U983.

14.5 Descriptive Cataloguing
Descriptive Cataloguing has been defined as “that phase of the process of cataloguing which
concerns itself with the identification and description of books”.
Descriptive Cataloguing helps in isolating a book from other books in the process of identification.
This part of cataloguing is sometimes considered mechanical, but it is not so because the cataloguer
has to use his judgment on the number and degree of minuteness of details to be adopted. They
must be authentic and precise.
Reading material in modern libraries is not only limited to printed books but also, extends to
maps, atlases, musical scores, Braille books, sound records, etc. Each class of material poses its own
problems of description. Even in books, the complexity transcends all imagination.
A simple analysis of books in modern libraries will result in the following main groups:
1. Personal author publications, single and joint, with and without other collaborators like
editors, translators compilers, etc
2. Corporate author publications (a) Government (b) Non-Government, i.e. society, institution,
other organizations
3. Publications of pseudonymous writers
4. Anonymous works
5. Serials and periodical publications
6. New editions and duplicates
7. Incunabula
8. Manuscripts
9. Issues and off prints
10. Motion pictures and filmstrips
11. Maps, globes, etc
12. Music
13. Sound records
14. Pictures, designs, etc
Items in each one of the above groups will need a distinct pattern of description. The Library of
Congress Rules for Descriptive Cataloguing (adopted by the American Library Association) 1949,
provide the fullest directions for” the descriptive cataloguing of such material. Some libraries
may decide to simplify these rules in accordance with then individual needs. It is still possible to
maintain some standards of uniformity even in limited cataloguing’.
“A cataloguing entry should contain no item which is not necessary”. The judgments on the
necessity for inclusion of all or some bibliographic details of the book in the catalogue entry will
rest on the principles and standards adopted in individual libraries. To identify a-work, author
and title are usually sufficient. To identify a book, it is usually necessary to add the number of the

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