Page 157 - DLIS002_KNOWLEDGE ORGANIZATION CLASSIFICATION AND CATALOGUING THEORY

Knowledge Organization: Classification and Cataloguing Theory

Notes Describe Library Cataloguing versus Bibliographical Cataloguing
Explain the Library Cataloguing versus Bibliographical Cataloguing
Discuss Levels of Cataloguing

Introduction

The multidimensional growth of libraries accumulated huge collection of facts and thoughts
mainly in the forms of books, periodicals, manuscripts, maps, microfilms, etc., for library users.
With the accumulation of such material, it is the primary function of any library to provide the
speedy access to the library resources for selecting the desired material. The libraries adopt
several methods of which classification and cataloguing are mainly used for accessing the library
materials. The catalogue is therefore an effective tool in making the resources of the library
available to the reader. It interprets the library to the reader and brings the reader’s needs into
relation with the resources of the library.

8.1 Meaning of Cataloguing

Library catalogue is an essential and important tool for any library. This tool has been developed
to facilitate the use of reading materials in a library. It is useful to both, the readers using the
library and the library staff members who help the readers to use the library. Library catalogue
is a list of books and other reading materials available in a particular library. It discloses to the
reader the contents of a library collection. Whereas, cataloguing is a technique of describing the
documents in order to help the reader to identify the document in which he is interested.
In this Unit, we introduce you to some of the basic ideas relating to library catalogues and
cataloguing. The objective in the preparation and production of a library catalogue is to assist;
the users in identifying the contents of a library. The library catalogue guides the users to
identify, locate and access reading and reference materials in the library. Essentially a library
catalogue functions as a finding tool to know what a library has.
A library catalogue lets a reader know if the library has a document for which the author or the
subject or the exact title is known. In addition, it gives information regarding all the other books
on a given author or all other books in a subject or a publisher’s series or the different editions
or translations of a given title available in the library. In the preparation of such a tool, a
standard code or rules and procedures for cataloguing different kinds of documents guide
cataloguers.
Libraries also create a number of other records of documents acquired by them. Some of these
are: accession register, the shelf register, current periodicals register, register for periodical
holdings, etc. Much of the bibliographical data that go into these registers may be more or less
the same as in a library catalogue.

Example: The accession register is an inventory of documents acquired by a library
containing detailed information about the price, the vendor who supplied the document, size, in
addition to the usual bibliographical data. The shelf register is a list of documents reflecting
exactly the way documents are arranged on the shelves in different rooms or halls. It is useful for
stock verification. They have some resemblance to a library catalogue but their functions are
quite distinct and different.
Library catalogues are also different from the publishers’ catalogues, booksellers’ lists,
bibliographies, etc. Each of these reference tools is useful to build up the collections for a library
book selection, but they do not do what a library catalogue does.

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