Page 259 - DLIS002_KNOWLEDGE ORGANIZATION CLASSIFICATION AND CATALOGUING THEORY

Knowledge Organization: Classification and Cataloguing Theory

Notes the library, risk to be discovered if a book is in the catalogue but missing from the shelves. To
avoid this, some library thieves have been careful to also steal the catalogue card describing the
book.
A library catalogue serves the same purpose. It is a file of records for a library’s collection. It is
important to both library users and library staff. Its functions include giving a comprehensive
record of materials owned by the library, listing what the library possesses by a certain author,
on a given subject, and with a certain title, and enabling library materials to be located easily.
The catalogue provides multiple access points to the library’s collection.

Task Critically examine how catalogue also serves as an inventory or bookkeeping of
what’s in the library.

Self Assessment

State whether the following statements are true or false:
1. A library catalogue is a register of all bibliographic items found in a library or group of
libraries, such as a network of libraries at several locations.
2. A catalogue also serves as an inventory or bookkeeping of what’s in the library.
3. A library catalogue serves the different purpose.

14.2 Functions of a Library Catalogue

Until the 1980s, most library catalogues consisted of 3" × 5" cards representing all the materials
in the collection. These cards were stored alphabetically in drawers, comprising large banks of
cabinets. Few libraries still have functioning “card catalogues.”
During the 1980s, many libraries began converting to ONLINE CATALOGS. The reasons for
doing so included:

Online catalogues could be edited and updated more easily and quickly than card catalogues
Online catalogues showed the current status of each item (i.e., “available” or “checked
out”)
Searching was easier and more flexible – users could enter Keywords as well as Title,
Author, and Subject terms to search for materials
Users could access the catalogue from computers located outside the library – from home
or from thousands of miles away
Functions of Library Catalogue are as follows:

To collect, preserve and cultivate the treasures of knowledge, the heritage and the culture,
including the expansion and enhancement of the Library’s collections;
To serve as a home for the collections, archives, manuscripts, documents, maps, music and
other audio treasures, graphic creations, audio-visual creations and electronic documents,
as well as other items of unique national, historic or cultural significance;

To allow the public, proper and reasonable access to the Library’s collections through a
variety of channels, among them advanced technological means;
To display permanent and changing exhibitions of collections to the public, including
borrowed collections;

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