CHAPTER III.

THE PRINCIPAL ENTRY.--THE AUTHOR ENTRY, I.

=13.=--Whatever difference of opinion may exist upon various points that arise in cataloguing books all authorities are agreed that the principal or main entry giving the most particulars concerning a book should be that under its author’s name. This, then, is the first entry to be made, and the cataloguer having selected the book to be dealt with ignores any title upon the binding and, passing by the preliminary, or “half title,” turns to the title page proper, that containing the most information and with the imprint (place of publication, publisher, and date) at foot, and copies from it the following particulars, adding those not given upon the title-page by an examination of the book, and in this order, viz.--

1. The author’s surname.

2. The author’s Christian name (or prenom).

3. Titles of the author (when required for distinctive or distinguishing purposes).

4. The title of the book.

5. The editor’s name (if not the author or compiler) or the translator’s name (if to be given).

6. The edition.

7. The name of series (if any), or, if part of a book, the name of the book it is contained in.

8. The collation (if to be given), or

9. The number of volumes, when more than one.

10. The size (if to be given).

11. The place of publication.

12. The place of printing or name of printer (when the book is typographically interesting only).

13. The date of publication.

14. The shelf, press, or other location or finding mark.

15. Descriptive or explanatory note (when thought desirable).

16. Contents (if set out).

The order is that most usually adopted, but Nos. 8 to 13 may be varied at pleasure, if such variation is made at the commencement of the work and adhered to in all cases afterwards.

=14.=--As the surname of the author leads, the Christian name must follow, either enclosed in parentheses, as

Dickens (Charles),

or preceded by a comma, as

Emerson, Ralph Waldo.

The parentheses are more commonly used, but they have not so good an appearance as the comma, and their use necessitates what a printer calls “a run on sorts”--that is the use of a particular piece of type to such an extent as to require a special supply beyond that ordinarily furnished with a fount of type. This, after all, resolves itself more into a question of taste than of expediency, and the cataloguer will choose as he thinks best. It may be remarked in passing that the “cult of the trivial” is not to be altogether despised in cataloguing, as careful attention to apparently minor details ensures good and exact work.

=15.=--The points to be observed in copying the title-page and preparing the author-entry can be shown more clearly by illustration than by description. Let it be supposed that the title-page of the book in hand reads in full:

The Personal History of David Copperfield. By Charles Dickens. With eight illustrations. London: Chapman & Hall, Piccadilly.

We proceed to write the principal entry to read:--

Dickens, Charles. The personal history of David Copperfield.

From the “fly-title” we learn that this is the “Charles Dickens’ edition.” We examine the book, and find it contains six prefatory pages, these being paged in Roman numerals, and 533 others paged in Arabic, with a portrait and seven other illustrations. This statement of the number of pages and illustrations is known as the “collation,” as to examine a book for the purpose of ascertaining that it is perfect is to collate it. As the place of publication is London, it is the practice in English catalogues to omit it from the entry, such omission signifying that London is understood. The date of publication not being given, and as there are no means of finding it out with certainty, the initials “n.d.,” meaning “no date,” are added, and the full catalogue entry will be:

DICKENS, CHARLES.

The personal history of David Copperfield. (_Charles Dickens’ ed._) pp. vi., 533, port., illus. 8vo. n.d.

K 1200

The author’s name should be written at the outside left hand of the card at the top, the rest of the entry following with an indent at each side, the press mark alone coming outside at the right hand, as shown in the printed entry above.

=16.=--It is of the utmost importance that care be taken in transcribing a title, as it is much easier to make a mistake than to detect it afterwards, even at the time of printing. Errors of the hand and of the eye creep in imperceptibly. Besides, a mistake having once been made is likely to be repeated in all other entries, when copied from the first one. A very common cause of error is to let the mind become so absorbed in the consideration of a book in hand, that when a second comes to be dealt with some word from the first will unwittingly be written into its title, and if the result is not very obvious from its absurdity it escapes notice altogether until printed, and bears permanent witness against the cataloguer.

=17.=--The signs and abbreviations of words made use of in the above illustration, and all others to follow, are those customary in cataloguing, and as there is a number of well-understood abbreviations used in connection with books, a list of the most useful of these is given in Appendix A.

It is a commendable plan to take note of those it is intended to use, and to keep a list of them written on a card always at hand for reference. The list could then be put in the preface to the catalogue when printed, as a help to its better understanding by those not versed in book abbreviations. It is as well to remember that there is not very much gained in the long run by abbreviating too closely, as “illus.” is easier understood than “il.” or “ill.” and “transl.” than “tr.”

=18.=--In copying a title-page it is required that the spelling of it should be closely followed, more especially if peculiar, but not the punctuation. The punctuation in the illustrative entries throughout this Manual is that most frequently made use of in catalogues, and will be found convenient in practice. But if personal preference for other forms comes in, and a change is made, all that is needed is that such change should be uniformly carried out. Besides the ordinary rules of punctuation there are but four well-defined which can be considered to govern the matter, and these are:--

A.--That alternative titles take a semi-colon after the first title, and a comma after the word “or;” as

St. Winifred’s; or, the world of school.

B.--That explanatory sub-titles be preceded by a colon; as

The foundation of death: a study of the drink question.

C.--When additional matter in the book occupies a subsidiary place in the title-page, in order not to detach it altogether from the rest of the title, that the word “with” be preceded by a semi-colon; as

Life of Luther; with an account of the Reformation.

D.--That when an editor’s or translator’s name appears upon the title-page the word “ed.” or “transl.” be preceded by a semi-colon, as

Epictetus. Discourses; transl. by George Long.

Green fairy book; ed. by Andrew Lang.

It is necessary to point out that in cataloguing it must not be left to the printer to supply the punctuation, as is customary with other books, and therefore the cataloguer must carefully supply it as he proceeds, and not when the time comes to prepare the work for the press.

=19.=--The same rule holds good with respect to the use of capital letters. Until recently it was the general fashion in printing book-titles to give every word, or almost every word, an initial capital, but the custom has fallen into disuse. Like other old-fashioned customs it dies hard, and if not advised that the “copy” must be closely followed in this respect, the printer will as likely as not put in the capitals all the same, and this in spite of the fact that he may have to wait until he has one sheet printed off before he can set another, on account of the run on the capitals. All that is now expected is that capital letters should be used in catalogue entries as they would be in any ordinary book, viz., to proper names; to words coming after a full stop; and to words derived from proper names. In the last-named a lower-case (_i.e._ small) initial letter is sometimes used in catalogues, but such words as “christian,” “pauline,” “lutheran,” “darwinism,” “ibsenism,” have not a good appearance and should be avoided. In foreign titles the usage of the language should be followed, so that there will be fewer capitals used in Latin, French, or Italian than in English, and more in German.

=20.=--All dates and numbers should be transcribed in Arabic figures, even if they are in Roman numerals upon the title-page. Thus, “from the XVIIth Century to the Present Time” becomes “from the 17th century to the present time;” “MDCCCXCIX” becomes “1899;” and “Volume xliv.” is simply “v. 44.” The only reasonable exception to this rule is that numbers to the names of potentates be always in Roman, though in American catalogues these also are put into Arabic. We on this side of the Atlantic are not yet well enough accustomed to “Charles 2,” or even “Edward 6th,” to adopt it.

=21.=--Sometimes figures form part of the title of a book, when it is desirable for the sake of appearance to write them out in words: the transcript, of course, being kept in the language of the title-page, though “50 études pour le piano” has been seen entered in a catalogue as “Fifty études pour le piano.”

=22.=--So far as languages printed in Roman are concerned, it is the invariable rule to adhere to the language of the title-page, and not to make a translation. In ordinary libraries Greek is usually transliterated into Latin; if a Greek classic has both Greek and Latin titles, as is commonly the case, then the Latin title is taken rather than the Greek.

=23.=--Upon this point of the translation of title-pages the question of utility, in popular libraries especially, might very well be considered. It does not often happen, but it is possible, that a person may be a capable musician and not know a word of French, German, or Italian, and it is likely therefore that many of the lesser-known compositions would be made acceptable if a translation of the title-page were given as well as the original. It is very certain that in the public libraries there are many valuable foreign books upon ornament and the decorative arts, consisting almost exclusively of illustrations, that are not used as they should be. The catalogue entries of such books convey no meaning whatever to many an artisan or craftsman, and a free translation might very well be given for their benefit. If such a translation is not given, a note descriptive of the nature of the book should be added.

=24.=--It is a safe rule that the date of publication should be given in every case and in every entry, as it serves in some measure to show the particular edition of the book, and more important still in scientific and technical works, to show if the editions in a library are of recent date or obsolete. It will, however, be found quite useless in popular libraries to give the dates of publication in the entries of works of fiction, for the simple reason that many of the books in this class of literature are so often worn out and then replaced with new copies, which are very seldom of the same dates as those printed in the catalogue, and it soon becomes incorrect in this respect. Happily it is a matter of no importance, as very few fiction readers are concerned about the date of publication, and therefore it may be safely omitted from all entries. This statement does not apply to first or other editions of novels of special value, such as the first edition of “David Copperfield,” as these would be fully described as well as carefully preserved.

=25.=--A suggestion worthy of consideration has been made that the original dates of publication should be added to the entries of reprints. This would increase the information given, and might prevent persons mistaking an old book for a new one, though librarians are familiar with the fact that old books are read with as much pleasure as the newest, if got up with modern attractive illustrations and pretty bindings.

=26.=--In the illustrative entry we have marked the book as 8vo.--that is octavo in size. This we learn either by experience in the sizes of books, or by actual measurement, and it may be at once admitted that the question of size notation is a vexed one and no absolute rule can be laid down for guidance. Those who have studied the matter know that there is no satisfactory solution of the difficulty beyond that of measuring the book and giving its size in centimetres or in inches. But this encumbers the catalogue entry too much, and for ordinary every-day purposes the old signs suffice of 8vo. (octavo), 4to. (quarto), and fo. (folio), and they give a rough idea of the size. These may be qualified, if thought necessary, by la. (large), sm. (small), or obl. (oblong), if the books are of a special size. The terms 12ᵒ., 16ᵒ., 32ᵒ., &c. are sometimes used, but they do not convey any very precise information and the additional terms of “demy,” “royal,” “imperial,” and others have varying meaning nowadays, as there is no fixed standard in the sizes of paper or books. Appendix B consists of a table taken from the “Report of the Committee on Size Notation of the Library Association of the United Kingdom,” and this may be studied as an introduction to the subject, but is not to be taken as decisive. The full report of the Committee is to be found in the Library Association Monthly Notes, vol. 3, 1882, pp. 130-133. A scale made from this table will be found convenient to cataloguers, as will also the handy and better known book-size scale prepared by Mr. Madeley of the Warrington Museum. The pages of books are to be measured and not their bindings. The sizes of books are not always shown in the printed catalogues of free libraries and if they were it is most likely that the signs would confuse rather than help, as the majority of the public do not understand anything of the matter, besides the proportion of books other than octavos is not large in a lending library. The reference library usually contains a considerable number of quartos and folios and the information upon this point would be more useful in the catalogue of that department.

=27.=--The immense value of occasional explanatory or descriptive notes to the entries in a catalogue is well known, but they are not as often inserted as they might be. They should be added to author, subject, or title entry, where necessary, desirable, or in any way helpful, as far as possible briefly and to the point, and printed under the entry in a smaller type, to show they are not part of the title. The following are a few examples taken from various catalogues:

ALBERT, MARY. Holland and her heroes. 1878

Adapted from Motley’s “Dutch Republic.”

BALL (Sir Robert S.) Elements of astronomy. 1886. ill.

Knowledge of mathematics required for the study of this book.

Ball, (William P.) Are the effects of use and disuse inherited? 1890. _Nature series._

NOTE.--The author taken a negative view and attempts to prove that no improvement in mankind can take place without the aid of natural or artificial selection.

BOCCACCIO, Giovanni. Il decamerone; nuovamente correto et con diligentia stampato. pp. xii, 568. 8o. _Firenze_, 1527 [_Venice_, 1729.]

This is the counterfeit of the Giunta or “Ventisetana” Decameron of 1527.

Dupont-Auberville, _M._ Art industrial: L’ornement des tissus. 1877

Coloured designs suitable for all purposes taken from textile fabrics.

Mariette, A. E., _called_ Mariette-Bey. Outlines of ancient Egyptian history. 1890

The best brief manual.

=Persia.=

Morier, J. Hajji Baba. 1895

Remains yet a standard book upon Persian life and manners.

In adding notes of this nature it is a wise plan to keep to statements of fact, and not indulge in expressions of opinion.