Cataloging

In library and information science, cataloging (or cataloguing) is the process of creating metadata representing information resources, such as books, sound recordings, moving images, etc. Cataloging provides information such as creator names, titles, and subject terms that describe resources, typically through the creation of bibliographic records. The records serve as surrogates for the stored information resources. Since the 1970s these metadata are in machine-readable form and are indexed by information retrieval tools, such as bibliographic databases or search engines. While typically the cataloging process results in the production of library catalogs, it also produces other types of discovery tools for documents and collections. In library and information science, cataloging (or cataloguing) is the process of creating metadata representing information resources, such as books, sound recordings, moving images, etc. Cataloging provides information such as creator names, titles, and subject terms that describe resources, typically through the creation of bibliographic records. The records serve as surrogates for the stored information resources. Since the 1970s these metadata are in machine-readable form and are indexed by information retrieval tools, such as bibliographic databases or search engines. While typically the cataloging process results in the production of library catalogs, it also produces other types of discovery tools for documents and collections. Bibliographic control provides the philosophical basis of cataloging, defining the rules for sufficiently describing information resources to enable users to find and select the most appropriate resource. A cataloger is an individual responsible for the processes of description, subject analysis, classification, and authority control of library materials. Catalogers serve as the 'foundation of all library service, as they are the ones who organize information in such a way as to make it easily accessible'. Ronald Hagler identified six functions of bibliographic control. While the organization of information has been going on since antiquity, bibliographic control as we know it today is a more recent invention. Ancient civilizations recorded lists of books onto tablets and libraries in the Middle Ages kept records of their holdings. With the invention of the printing press in the 15th century, multiple copies of a single book could be produced quickly. Johann Tritheim, a German librarian, was the first to create a bibliography in chronological order with an alphabetical author index. Konrad Gesner followed in his footsteps in the next century as he published an author bibliography and subject index. He added to his bibliography an alphabetical list of authors with inverted names, which was a new practice. He also included references to variant spellings of author's names, a precursor to authority control. Andrew Maunsell further revolutionized bibliographic control by suggesting that a book should be findable based on the author's last name, the subject of the book, and the translator. In the 17th century Sir Thomas Bodley was interested in a catalog arranged alphabetically by author's last name as well as subject entries. In 1697, Frederic Rostgaard called for subject arrangement that was subdivided by both chronology and by size (whereas in the past titles were arranged by their size only), as well as an index of subjects and authors by last name and for word order in titles to be preserved based on the title page. After the French Revolution, France's government was the first to put out a national code containing instructions for cataloging library collections. At the British Museum Library Anthony Panizzi created his 'Ninety-One Cataloging Rules' (1841), which essentially served as the basis for cataloging rules of the 19th and 20th centuries. Charles C. Jewett applied Panizzi's '91 Rules' at the Smithsonian Institution. 'Descriptive cataloging' is a well-established concept in the tradition of library cataloging in which a distinction is made between descriptive cataloging and subject cataloging, each applying a set of standards, different qualifications and often also different kinds of professionals. 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. 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. Classification typically uses a controlled vocabulary, while indexing may use a controlled vocabulary, free terms, or both. Libraries have made use of catalogs in some form since ancient times. The library of Ninevah had the first classification system. It is located in present-day Iraq. The first known cataloging occurred with ancient clay tablets. They had marks on each side of the tablet. There is evidence of catalogs dating back to approximately 310/05-240 B.C. in Sumer. The Library of Alexandria is reported to have had at least a partial catalog consisting of a listing by Callimachus of the Greek literature called “Pinakes”, however was have very little and poor evidence about “Pinakes.” Pinakes means list. There were originally 825 fragments of Callimachus’ “Pinakes,” but only 25 of them have survived. The Chinese Imperial Library of the Han Dynasty of the 3rd century A.D. had a catalog listing nearly 30,000 items, each item similar in extent of its content to a Western scroll. The first catalogs in the Islamic world, around the 11th century, were lists of books donated to libraries by persons in the community. These lists were ordered by donor, not by bibliographic information, but they provided a record of the library's inventory.