Help:How to parse data in library catalogs

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Revision as of 16:47, 9 February 2022 by Holmesd (talk | contribs) (Adding background and descriptive material.)
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Libraries have used catalogs about as long as there have been libraries. It was with the printing press that libraries accumulated enough books that the catalog became necessary to find books of interest. The 17th century saw the beginning of systematic organization for libraries.

Types of Cataloging

Library cataloging makes a distinction is between descriptive cataloging and subject cataloging, each applying a set of standards, different qualifications and often also different kinds of professionals. Descriptive cataloging has been defined as "the part of cataloging concerned with describing the physical details of a book, such as the form and choice of entries and the title page transcription." Subject cataloging may take the form of classification or (subject) indexing. Classification involves the assignment of a given document to a class in a classification system (such as Dewey Decimal Classification or the Library of Congress Subject Headings). Indexing is the assignment of characterizing labels to the documents represented in a record.

In the tradition of documentation and information science (e.g., by commercial bibliographical databases) the concept document representation (also as verb: document representing) have mostly been used to cover both "descriptive" and "subject" representation.

Classification typically uses a controlled vocabulary, while indexing may use a controlled vocabulary, free terms, or both. Although ISFDB is concerned with descriptive elements, the standards described below encompass both types, as well as related areas such as the controlled vocabularies (e.g. Authority, Countries, Geographic Areas and Languages).

Cataloging Standards

The first standard was by Anthony Panizzi. His 91 rules were approved by the British Museum in 1839, and published in 1841 as Rules for compiling the catalogues in the Department of Printed Books in the British Museum. The British Museum rules were revised up until 1936. The library departments of the British Museum became part of the new British Library in 1973.

Charles Coffin Jewett used stereotype plates to produce the Smithsonian library's catalog in book form and proposed the sharing of cataloging among libraries. His rules were published as Smithsonian Catalog System in 1853. Later, as director of the Boston Public Library in 1858; during this time the Index to the Catalogue of a Portion of the Public Library of the City of Boston Arranged in its Lower Hall was published. It provides a unified index for author, subject and title. His systems became a model for other libraries as he pushed for alphabetical card catalogs.

The published American and Anglo-American cataloging rules in the 20th and 21st centuries were:

Internationally, the main standards are:

  • Paris Principles (PP) also known as the Statement of Principles from October 1961.
  • The (Statement of) International Cataloguing Principles (ICP), was first published in 2009.

The integration RDA with the ICP and its adoption have been ongoing.

From Wikipedia and Librarianship Studies & Information Technology - 2022-012-09

[Need to add an explanation of the MARC family of standards, SUTRS and the OCLC guidelines here].

Library of Congress

For materials cataloged for the general and area studies collections (primarily textual materials), LC catalogers currently use Resource Description and Access (RDA) for original cataloging, although the Anglo-American Cataloging Rules may still be used for processing copy cataloging. Cataloging for the Library’s special collections may represent several different standards. The publications listed below are also used by LC catalogers for descriptive cataloging:

  • LC-PCC Policy Statements
  • Descriptive Cataloging Manual
  • CONSER Editing Guide
  • CONSER Cataloging Manual
  • Descriptive Cataloging of Rare Materials (Books)
  • Describing Archives: a Contents Standard (DACS)

Binding

Library catalogs do not always state whether the cataloged publication is a hardcover, a mass market paperback or a trade paperback. However, they usually record the physical size of the publication, which can be used as follows: "18cm" is the size of the standard US/Canadian mass market paperback. "19cm" is usually a small tp/hc or occasionally an oversizzed pb. 20+ is either a tp or a hc, but distinguishing between tps and hcs can be tricky. Sometimes OCLC will print "(pbk.)" next to the ISBN, which is self-explanatory, but if they don't, then it's time to check other sources. Price is not always a reliable indicator, but it can help. If the book was published pre-WWII, it's usually either a hardback or, in some cases, a pamphlet since paperbacks didn't take off until WWII -- first in the UK, then in the US. There were some cheap editions in the early part of the 20th century whose binding sometimes approached the current paperback binding, but few have survived and fewer are owned by libraries. If the catalog information is ambiguous, then leave the binding field blank and record the volume size in the Notes field.

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