CHAPTER V

TRADE CATALOGS, PHOTOGRAPHS AND LANTERN SLIDES--THEIR FILING AND INDEXING

Trade Catalogs

Several methods for filing and indexing trade catalogs have been advocated by various writers, but the most generally approved practice is to file in legal size vertical file cabinets, with a shelf to accommodate large bound volumes which are too bulky to go into the drawers and whose disposition on shelves instead of in file drawers may be noted by a symbol on the index card, and also by a reference sheet placed in the file where the catalog would be alphabeted.

All trade catalogs should be filed alphabetically by the names of the firms issuing them, rather than under subjects, because often a single pamphlet, or volume, may list a variety of materials which can not be classified under a single subject name, thus avoiding numerous cross subject references.

+-------+--------------------------------------+ | | | | | Belt shifters | +-------+--------------------------------------+ | |Mahlon Bradley & Company | | | First National Bank Building | | | Chicago | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | +-------+--------------------------------------+

Trade catalog index card made under the subject name

+-------+--------------------------------------+ | | | | | Diamond speed shifter | +-------+--------------------------------------+ | |Mahlon Bradley & Company | | | First National Bank Building | | | Chicago | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | +-------+--------------------------------------+

Trade catalog index card made under well known trade name

Engineers are prone to endeavor to apply a decimal subject classification in filing trade catalogs, with the result that they fall into many intricate difficulties. However, small offices using only a few trade catalogs on special subjects can file under subjects with other library material if desired. (The organization of an alphabetical subject file for miscellaneous data is described in Chapter VI.) All trade catalogs filed under the names of the firms should be subject card indexed, because it takes less time to make a working index than it does to look through various catalogs to find desired information when there is no index.

+-------+--------------------------------------+ | | | | |Mahlon Bradley & Company | +-------+--------------------------------------+ | | First National Bank Building | | | Chicago | | | | | | | | | | | |Belt shifters | | |Diamond speed shifter | | | | +-------+--------------------------------------+

Trade catalog index card made under the name of the firm and showing the subject name and trade name under which additional cards have been made.

The method of indexing should be as follows: there should be a card made for the name of each firm issuing the catalog, and the address of the firm may be added to this card in order to use it as a mailing list if desired. The subjects, i. e., specific names of merchandise, which the catalog covers and any well known trade names, should be written on the face of this main card (see illustration) and additional cards made for the subjects and any important trade names, and all of the cards should be filed in a single alphabet. A Cutter number (which is explained in detail in the chapter on cataloging) may be put on each index card and trade catalog, in order to facilitate the alphabetizing and quick location of individual trade catalogs. The subject index in Thomas' Register of American Manufacturers, an invaluable tool to purchasing departments, is a great aid in selecting subject names to be used in the trade catalog index.

Photographs

Photographs are important sources of information for any business firm, as they visualize printed or written descriptions and make an accurate and unchangeable record which does not permit of any misunderstanding, as is sometimes the case in reading a printed account. Every industry should have a photograph file illustrating the various aspects of its products or the installations and construction for which it is responsible and which may be supplemented by any photographs which can be obtained on similar work done by firms other than its own.

Banks and investment houses should have photographs of all tangible properties on which they issue securities, as they have been found to be of great aid in making a stock and bond offering concrete in the mind of possible customers.

Photographs are best filed by mounting singly or in groups on a standard size photo-mount board 11 by 14 inches and put into architectural size vertical file drawers. A dry mount process by the use of gum tissue and a hot iron is much to be preferred to the ordinary method of mounting, as photographs expand when wet and shrink in drying, thus subjecting the mounting board to more or less warping unless heavy pressure is used.

Photographs for business purposes may be filed geographically or by subjects, according to the use which is to be made of them. An engineering firm building structures in different parts of the country file their construction photographs under the name of the state and city in which the work is done; all the cities of a single state are arranged in alphabetical order under the state name. The individual photograph boards are numbered in accession order which makes the photograph of latest date the highest number under each city.

In order to avoid writing the name of the state and the name of the town on the corner of each photograph, this particular library uses on each board the Dewey Decimal Classification history number for each state with the first letter of the name of the city below this decimal number, to which is added the accession number of the photograph. This combined number is used on the corner of the index card on which is also entered the name of the city followed by the accession number of each board and the title of the photograph with the date on which the photograph was taken.

Each photograph may be cataloged on a separate card if desired and subject cards can also be made to any photographs and filed alphabetically with the geographical index cards.

When subject filing of photographs is desired the Dewey Decimal Classification subject number, or a modification of that system, or the name of the subject written out in full or the Cutter symbol for it (which is described in Chapter VI), can be substituted in place of the geographical classification number.

Lantern Slides

There are two methods of filing slides. One is to file slides in a cabinet containing drawers similar to a card catalog case, the slides being filed horizontally rather than vertically. The other method is to use a specially designed filing cabinet containing sliding file leaves which pull out at right angles to the cabinet, which is designed on the sectional unit plan for growth; the leaves have each a capacity of about fifty or sixty slides which are held in place by means of channel grooves which provide for examination of the slides without handling, and also permit of quick removal of each slide as needed. Complete descriptions of such cabinets may be obtained from the Multiplex Display Fixture Company, St. Louis, Missouri, and from G. S. Moler, 408 University avenue, Ithaca, New York. Both makes have been satisfactorily used by a number of business organizations.

The drawer method of filing slides costs less than the cabinet with sliding file leaves, and also takes up less space. It has been found in the experience of libraries handling large numbers of lantern slides which are used freely that they are not as fragile as they appear to be; they do not break easily and can be fingered as rapidly as a card index file in a similar drawer. A piece of white paper can be easily slipped behind the slides in the drawers to bring out their details when they are being consulted.

Lantern slides may be classified and card indexed for business purposes in the same way that photographs are and care should be taken to have the file number and title of the slide plainly lettered along the top edge of the face of the slide.

Collections of lantern slides for art and architectural purposes require more elaborate classification and cataloging but such requirements do not come within the scope of this treatise.

In some business libraries where the slides are loaned out of the city it may be advisable to index them on a 4 by 6 inch catalog card, instead of the standard 3 by 5 inch card, in order to allow room to paste on it a photograph of the lantern slide which will show its detail when the slide itself is not immediately available.

Cuts

Half-tone, zinc and electrotype cuts may be classified in the same way that photographs are but filed in flat drawers. A reduced photograph of the cut may be pasted on the index card similar to the plan noted above for lantern slides.

Maps

Business firms having large collections of maps which need to be specially filed and recorded will find helpful suggestions in a small pamphlet entitled "Making Maps Available," by Beatrice Winser, published by the American Library Association, 78 East Washington Street, Chicago, Illinois, price five cents.

REFERENCES FOR ADDITIONAL READING

=Cook, G. L.=

A library of trade catalogs. Library journal May 1919, p. 307-308.

=Nourse, F. M.=

Finding the needle in the haystack (photographs and cuts). System Feb. 1919, p. 218.

=Peck, E. E.=

Trade catalog file. Library journal July 1919, p. 442.

=Selection of trade publications= of manufacturing companies. The booklist April 1919, p. 285.

=Stokes, C. W.=

Classification and filing of photographs. Printers' ink August 3, 1916, p. 82-86.