Page 16 - DLIS408_INFORMATION_TECHNOLOGY-APPLICATIONSL SCIENCES

Unit 1: Library Automation

Library catalogues originated as manuscript lists, arranged by format (folio, quarto, etc.) or in a Notes
rough alphabetical arrangement by author. Printed catalogues, sometimes called dictionary
catalogues enabled scholars outside a library to gain an idea of its contents. These would sometimes
be interlaced with blank leaves on which additions could be recorded, or bound as guard books
in which slips of paper were bound in for new entries. Slips could also be kept loose in cardboard
or tin boxes, stored on shelves. The first card catalogues appeared in the nineteenth century,
enabling much more flexibility, and towards the end of the twentieth century the OPAC was
developed.

Notes c. 245 BC: Callimachus is considered as the first bibliographer and is the one that
organized the library by authors and subjects. The Pinakes was the first ever library
catalogue.
c. 800: Library catalogues are introduced in the House of Wisdom and other medieval
Islamic libraries where books are organized into specific genres and categories.
1595: Nomenclator of Leiden University Library appears the first printed catalogue of an
institutional library.
1674: Thomas Hyde’s catalogue for the Bodleian Library.
More about the early history of library catalogues has been collected in 1956 by Strout.

1.8.1 Cataloguing Rules

Cataloguing (or catalogueuing) rules have been defined to allow for consistent cataloguing of
various library materials across several persons of a cataloguing team and across time. Users can
use them to clarify how to find an entry and how to interpret the data in an entry. Cataloguing
rules prescribe -> which information from a bibliographic item is included in the entry; -> how
this information is presented on a catalogue card or in a cataloguing record; -> how the entries
should be sorted in the catalogue. The larger a collection, the more elaborate cataloguing rules are
needed. Users cannot and do not want to examine hundreds of catalogue entries or even dozens of
library items to find the one item they need.
Currently, most cataloguing rules are similar to, or even-based on, the International Standard
Bibliographic Description (ISBD), a set of rules produced by the International Federation of Library
Associations and Institutions (IFLA) to describe a wide range of library materials. These rules
organize the bibliographic description of an item in the following areas: title and statement of
responsibility (author or editor), edition, material specific details (for example, the scale of a map),
publication and distribution, physical description (for example, number of pages), series, notes,
and standard number (ISBN). The most commonly used set of cataloguing rules in the English-
speaking world are the Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules, 2nd Edition, or AACR2 for short. In
the German-speaking world there exists the Regeln für die alphabetische Katalogisierung,
abbreviated RAK. AACR2 has been translated into many languages, however, for use around the
world. AACR2 provides rules for descriptive cataloguing only and does not touch upon subject
cataloguing.
Library items which are written in a foreign script are, in some cases, transliterated into the script
of the catalogue.

1.8.2 Cataloguing Terms

Main entry – generally refers to the first author named on the item. Additional authors are
added as “added entries.” In cases where no clear author is named, the title of the work is
considered the main entry.

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