DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.26753#0090
84
The next operation is to paste these titles into a blank book, and
the last to write them out fair into another for use.
The volume is then bound up and placed on the shelf, and, so far,
the classed catalogue is complete. It is true the natural historian,
the litterateurs, and all other classes of students, might fairly complain
of the undue and unjust preference shown to the architects. But
whatever was done eventually with this subject, this volume is a
“ fait accompli,” requiring neither alteration nor addition, to fit it in
with the rest.
The same process may be applied to every art and every science.
Astronomy maybe taken up next; or Zoology, or English or German
literature, whichever is thought most needed, or for which the best man
is at the moment available, or ten, or twenty, or fifty men—if the
catalogue consists of as many volumes—may be employed on as many
subjects at the same time, without the least interfering with one
another, or caring in the smallest degree, about what his neighbour
is doing. The catalogue of each department must be considered as a
separate work, and each cataloguer must consider that he only is
employed to produce a monography of the works in his own special
department. Each, of course, will require a separate and distinct
mode of arrangement, and some will be better arranged, no doubt,
than others. A little general supervision would, however, easily cor-
rect this fault, and after all it is of the least possible consequence.
Supposing noAV that fifty or one hundred subjects were classified in
this manner, and bound into separate volumes—how are they to be
arranged? This I consider of so very little importance, that I would
leave it to a sub-librarian, or to chance; or if I gave an opinion,
I should say, arrange them alphabetically. It is true that, according
to this, Zoology for instance would be about the last volume, Botany
among the first, and Mineralogy half-way between the two, and many
arts ands ciences come most unscientifically mixed up with them.
If the catalogue were meant to be a classified digest of human know-
ledge, all this would be very bad, and ought no doubt to be avoided; but
a catalogue of books never was this, and what is more, never will be;
nor will it even assist in forming this. All it can do, or pretend to, is
to enable a student to ascertain easily and correctly what books the
library possesses, treating of any particular subject. If it pretends to
anything beyond this, it must fail. If, however, this is all it professes
to do, it will be seen at once how unimportant the arrangement of the
volumes must be. All I would stipulate for, is, that each volume
should have its subject clearly lettered on the back, and that a printed
list of the volumes and their subjects should be pasted in the begin-
ing of each, and on a card to which every reader could refer. This
The next operation is to paste these titles into a blank book, and
the last to write them out fair into another for use.
The volume is then bound up and placed on the shelf, and, so far,
the classed catalogue is complete. It is true the natural historian,
the litterateurs, and all other classes of students, might fairly complain
of the undue and unjust preference shown to the architects. But
whatever was done eventually with this subject, this volume is a
“ fait accompli,” requiring neither alteration nor addition, to fit it in
with the rest.
The same process may be applied to every art and every science.
Astronomy maybe taken up next; or Zoology, or English or German
literature, whichever is thought most needed, or for which the best man
is at the moment available, or ten, or twenty, or fifty men—if the
catalogue consists of as many volumes—may be employed on as many
subjects at the same time, without the least interfering with one
another, or caring in the smallest degree, about what his neighbour
is doing. The catalogue of each department must be considered as a
separate work, and each cataloguer must consider that he only is
employed to produce a monography of the works in his own special
department. Each, of course, will require a separate and distinct
mode of arrangement, and some will be better arranged, no doubt,
than others. A little general supervision would, however, easily cor-
rect this fault, and after all it is of the least possible consequence.
Supposing noAV that fifty or one hundred subjects were classified in
this manner, and bound into separate volumes—how are they to be
arranged? This I consider of so very little importance, that I would
leave it to a sub-librarian, or to chance; or if I gave an opinion,
I should say, arrange them alphabetically. It is true that, according
to this, Zoology for instance would be about the last volume, Botany
among the first, and Mineralogy half-way between the two, and many
arts ands ciences come most unscientifically mixed up with them.
If the catalogue were meant to be a classified digest of human know-
ledge, all this would be very bad, and ought no doubt to be avoided; but
a catalogue of books never was this, and what is more, never will be;
nor will it even assist in forming this. All it can do, or pretend to, is
to enable a student to ascertain easily and correctly what books the
library possesses, treating of any particular subject. If it pretends to
anything beyond this, it must fail. If, however, this is all it professes
to do, it will be seen at once how unimportant the arrangement of the
volumes must be. All I would stipulate for, is, that each volume
should have its subject clearly lettered on the back, and that a printed
list of the volumes and their subjects should be pasted in the begin-
ing of each, and on a card to which every reader could refer. This