Page 186 - DLIS002_KNOWLEDGE ORGANIZATION CLASSIFICATION AND CATALOGUING THEORY

Unit 9: Physical Forms and Types of Library Catalogues

Self Assessment Notes

Fill in the blanks:
11. Libraries were treated as mere …………………..for a long time where books were mainly
kept for preservation.

12. The cataloguing process comprises ……………….operations.

9.6 Types of Library Catalogues

Following are the types of Library Catalogues:

9.6.1 Author Catalogue

In an author catalogue, the entries of documents are under authors’ name and are arranged
alphabetically. In other words, the leading section of an author catalogue would be the name of
an author. An author is generally a person or a corporate body who is responsible for the
thought contents of the document brought out under the name. Listing of personal names of
authors varies greatly because of the cultural traditions in the naming of persons in different
regions of the world. For example, names of persons in western countries, Indic names, Muslim
names, Chinese and Japanese names have their own traditions, which part of the names should
be taken as the lead in a catalogue has been set by cataloguing codes and there are established
practices. There are also a variety of corporate bodies under whose names documents are
published. Although we are not concerned very much with rendering of names in catalogue
entries here, it is important to note that their filing position is determined by these names.
Inaccuracies in the rendering of names would seriously affect the alphabetical arrangement of
entries in the catalogue.
Libraries may have author catalogues arranged in three different ways. (a) There may be an
exclusive author catalogue without mixing it with any other entries such as titles, subjects,
series, etc. (b) Author entries may form part and parcel of a dictionary catalogue. (c) Author
entries may form part of the alphabetical index of a classified catalogue. Irrespective of the form
in which an author catalogue exists, it provides an important approach to a library catalogue, as
it fulfils an essential function of a catalogue. If the user approaches the catalogue with the correct
name of an author, the catalogue immediately gives the person all the documents by the author.
To help a user, the other variants of a name of an author are usually provided as cross-reference
in a catalogue.

The advantages of an author catalogue are that it brings together the titles of books of the same
author at one place in the catalogue. This helps a user to obtain at a glance what books are
available in the library by a given author. This function, can, however be fulfilled by author
entries in other inner forms of a library catalogue. In a classified catalogue this function is
performed by the alphabetical index or dictionary part.
The catalogues of the British Museum Library (now the British Library), the Library of Congress,
the National Library of India are some of the fine examples of author catalogues.

9.6.2 Name Catalogue

A name catalogue is a variation and extension of an author catalogue. It contains entries for
works of an author and also for books written on him. All entries are arranged alphabetically by

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