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Page 34
[Illustration: Title card. (Reduced; actual size, 7-1/2 x 12-1/2 cm.)
973.2 Old times in the colonies
C65 _Coffin_, C.C.]
As the use of the library for reference work increases, the question
will often be asked, has it any books on a certain subject? Add,
therefore, to your author- and title-list a subject-list. Make this by
writing a card for each book with the subject of which it treats the
first word upon it. Arrange this also in the same alphabetical series
with the other two. In some cases the book's title and its subject
will be identical; for example, Geology, by Tompkins, or Washington's
boyhood, by Jones. For such books one card answers for title and
subject. For fiction no subject-card is necessary. On the other hand,
many books have to do with more than one subject; a volume of essays,
for example, or a group of biographical sketches. For such it is
desirable to add to the subject-list by writing as many cards for each
book as the importance of the several subjects therein and the space
the author gives to them seem to demand. Each card will have for the
first word of its entry the subject to which it refers, followed by
the author and title of the book.
Arrange these cards also alphabetically with all the others. Put on
every card in the catalog the call-number of the book to which it
refers. This author-title-subject-list, or dictionary catalog, will
tell at a glance if the library has books a) by a certain author; b)
with a given title; c) on a given subject. These are the questions
most often asked.
[Illustration: Subject card. (Reduced; actual size, 7-1/2 x 12-1/2
cm.)
973.2 U.S. history- colonial.
C65 Coffin, Charles Carleton 1823-
_Old_ times in the colonies.
460 p. il. O N.Y. c[1880]]
There are in print several books giving rules for cataloging. Some of
these are mentioned in the chapter on Things needed (9). In a small
library which is always to be small it is not necessary to follow all
the rules laid down in these books. It is much better, however, to
do all the work, even in a very small library, according to the most
approved methods. So to do brings you in touch with your fellows and
gives you the comfort which comes from the consciousness of work well
done, even if the amount of the work be small.
In writing the subject-headings difficulties will soon arise unless
you follow certain general rules and are careful also to be consistent
in your work. For instance, at intervals during a few months you add
to the library books on horses, cows, sheep, goats, camels, and pigs;
some dealing with one animal, some with two or more. If for the first
one you write a subject-card with the catch-word or entry-word at the
top "Domestic animals," and for the next one "Farm animals," and for
the next one "Animals, domestic," you will scatter the references to
domesticated animals all through your catalog, to the despair of those
who would use it. You can guard against this, and easily, if your
catalog is small, by looking to see what you have already written
every time you write a new subject-entry-word, and by following out a
previously devised plan in the making of your entries. The safest
way is to get a printed list of headings and catalog rules and follow
them. (See chapter on Things needed, 9.)
With a printed list of subject-headings at hand it is not difficult to
keep your catalog consistent and reasonable.
This same list of subject-headings will serve also as a guide in the
writing of the cross-reference cards for your catalog, the cards, that
is, which refer the searcher from the topic "pigs," for example, to
"swine," or from both to "domestic animals."
Of course the subject-headings' list must be systematically used, and
must be marked and annotated to fit your special needs. This work,
like classifying, can best be learned by doing.
There are many ways of keeping your catalog cards. The thing to use is
a set of trays made for the purpose. (See Library Bureau catalog.)
The cards are extremely valuable, and expense should not be spared in
providing for their safe keeping and handy use.
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