Forms of catalogue

By
Dr. S. L. Sangam
Professor and Chairman
Department of Library and Information Science
Karnataka University, Dharwad

Introduction
 The library catalogue has been an indispensible and
effective tool to make the library resources available to
its users.
 The modern librarians have attached much importance
to the convenience of readers for making the use of the
present action of the library catalogue has greatly
influenced its shape which has led to the adoption of
various forms.
 There are two forms of catalogue
1. Outer Forms or the Physical Form
which relates to the external shape, size, and
appearance of catalogue installed for the use of the
readers.
2. Inner Forms:
which refers to various varieties of construction and
arrangement of catalogue.

Consideration in the choice of physical form
In choosing the physical form of catalogue, the
following requirements should be kept in
mind.
 To keep it up to date
 To bring together entries
 Accessible
 Portability
 Easy to handle and consult
 Economical to produce and maintain
 Compact in size
 Reproduction
 Fast speed of search.

Outer Forms
Book Form: As the name suggests it
resembles to a book or a register in
appearance.
 The entries are printed on separate sheets as
per a desired arrangement and the sheets are
then bound together to form a book or
register.
 It is easy to prepare, however, lacks
flexibility. Entries for newly coming books
cannot be accommodated at proper places,
hence, requires frequent revisions.

 As such it is not economical to keep it
up-to-date. Moreover, it cannot be used
by more than one user simultaneously;
only a single user can use it at one time.
 It has the advantage of portability. Its
use is not subject to the availability of
electricity. It is free from any machinery
fault.

Merits and Demerits of Book Form
The merits are
 Book form is the easiest form to consult.
 Portable and easy to handle
 Several entries can be seen on a single
page quickly and at time.
 It occupies much less space
 Very useful as bibliographical tools to the
scholars and researcher students.

The demerits are
 It is too expensive
 This can never be kept up to-date.
 No place for new entries
 Used by limited number of readers

Sheaf Form: This form consists of separate
sheets preferably of manila paper on
which a couple of entries are printed.
 The sheets in turn are punched at one side
and loosely bound either with a spiral
thread or a comb spine.

 This form resemble to the book form as it
shares most of the advantages of the book
form.
 It is a bit superior to the book form in the
sense that it partly overcomes the non-
flexibility problem faced by the former.
However it becomes much voluminous

Merits and Demerits of Sheaf form
The merits are
 Flexilibility of insertion and with drawl of
entries.
 Easier and cheaper to produce
 Easier in handling and can be moved one
place to another
 Occupies less space
 Duplicate copies can be prepared cheaply by
simply carbon copies.

Demerits are
 Only one entry is recorded on the paper
slip, much wastage of space on the slip.
 The operation of withdrawal and insertion
of entries is not very easy.
 Handwritten entries get distorted and
defaced, and time of labor is wasted in
preparing the same entries.
 Guiding is not satisfactory
 Library using sheaf catalogue cannot take
advantage of co-operative cataloguing.

Card Form: The non-flexibility problem faced
by the previous physical forms of the
catalogue was gravely felt.
 In order to eradicate it fully, stiff paper
cards of the dimension of 3 x 5 in. size and
0.25 mm. thickness are used to prepare
different catalogue entries discussed earlier.
 One card is used for every individual entry,
main or the added. The card has a small hole
in the lower middle part, so that each card
can be inserted into a steel rod.

 The cards held together by the steel rod
are arranged as per the desired sequence
in wooden trays.
 The wooden trays are then placed in the
pigeonholes of the catalogue cabinet.

 Each tray on its outer face is marked by an
appropriate label in alphabetical or classified
sequence, the sequence in which the cards are
arranged inside. Entries for newly coming
books can be accommodated at proper places,
hence, does not require frequent revisions. As
such it is economical to keep it up-to-date.
 Moreover it can be used by more than one
user simultaneously; each user can use one or
the other tray at a particular time. Its use is not
subject to the availability of electricity. It is
free from any machinery fault. However, such
catalogue is voluminous and lacks portability.

Merits and Demerits of Card form
Merits are
 Far from growing obsolete or congestion.
 Allows flexilibility and maximum case of
insertion of new entries.
 Capable of infinite expansion and
manipulation without any hindrance.
 Easily changed at any time by replacing
new ones and can be arranged in any order.
 Easy to consult and handle by many readers.
 It can be easily guided.

Demerits are
 Card cabinet occupies much space and as
such it creates the problem of space.
 It is not portable and cannot be consulted
like a book form.
 In a busy library when a single reader
monopolizes the whole tray or section of the
cabinets he kills the time of other reader.
 The cards can be easily removed or distracted
by errant reader who can create problems.
 Only one title can be located by the reader at
the time.
 These days cards are too expensive
 It is not economical

Computerized Form of Catalogues/ OPAC:
The problems faced by the previous forms
of catalogue have been addressed to a
great extant by the computers.
 With the advent of computers the library
activities ranging from acquisition to
withdrawal of books from the library
records can be automated. Same is the fate
of cataloguing.

 The process not only helps in preparation
of different catalogue entries, but also, in
generation of book type or card type
printouts.
 In addition it has revolutionized the
storage and retrieval mechanism of the
libraries through its electronic version. As
a matter of fact OPAC (on line public
access catalogues) are nowadays available
in libraries.

Merits and Demerits of
Computerized Form of Catalogues/ OPAC
Merits are
 Micro forms inexpensive to reproduce COM
catalogue and can be placed in many
locations inside and outside of library.
 There can be separate film for other entries,
title entries and subject entries.
 Several records can be viewed at one time
 Entries can be easily copied if a microform
rear/printer is available.
 Equipment for the use of COM is relatively
inexpensive.

Demerits are
 Microforms are often not easily read
compared to print form.
 It is not easily updated.
 Updating is by supplements which may
confuse the catalogue user who must look
in several files.
 Rearrangement of information is difficult
 Equipment requires.

Inner Forms
 By simplest definition catalogue is a list of
Books and other material in a library or
collection.
 The entries in the list being arranged in same
systematic order. This order, or the mode of
arrangement of entries determines the “ inner
form” catalogue.
 JamesOrmerod in his book style in card
cataloguing Ed.2 1932 mentioned that
catalogues likes sentences in grammar are of
3 kinds

The 3 kinds can be divided as
1. Simple
Author, title and Alphabetico-subject
2. Compound
Author-Title
Name- Subject
3. Complex
Dictionary
Classified
Alphabetico-Classed

Main Inner Forms
1. Author Catalogue
2. Name Catalogue
3. Title catalogue
4. Alphabetical subject Catalogue
5. Dictionary Catalogue
6. Classified or systematic catalogue
7. Alphabetical-classed catalogue

Author Catalogue
 Generally accepted that author catalogue is
supreme in value and important, because it is
the only catalogue from which a reader can be
perfectly certain of ascertaining whether a
library has a particular book,
 Assuming that he has the author's name
correctly, for the author name is the one
indisputable thing about a book.

 Cataloguers have felt justified in
giving the author catalogue first
place, and no library is complete
without some form of it.
 British Museum, which possess one
of the finest examples of printed
author catalogue, and also provides
an equally valuable subject index.

Name Catalogue
 Which is arranged in a single alphabet of
authors and of people written about,
whether biographies descriptions and
criticisms of their work.
 Within its limits it is a catalogue of great
value, and one that may be used to
advantage in conjunction with a classified
catalogue, taking the place of author index.

Title catalogue
 The catalogue in which titles are
arranged alphabetically
 And the totally documents available in
the library are arranged title wise.

Alphabetical subject Catalogue
 Alphabetically arranged under each
subject.
 And under each subject to show on which
specific subject or topic.
 With the help of chain procedure process
can be carried out.

Dictionary Catalogue
 It appeals particularly to people who
want very specific information, or
who are not pursuing a detailed
investigation of a wide branch of
Knowledge
Ex: The gardener who wants books
about roses only.

Classified or systematic catalogue
 Here entries are made under class symbols
or class numbers.
 One scheme is chosen i.e CC, DDC,UDC
 Subject arranged accordingly
CC-A-Z
DDC 000-999
330 Economics
331 Labour and Lobour problem

Alphabetical-classed catalogue
 In an Alphabetico-classed catalog, the
headings of bibliographic records are
arranged alphabetically, but subject
headings display the generic relationships
of subjects.
 While this type of classed catalog is
generally useful it requires titles sometimes
to be forced into the subject-headings. This
is particularly true for inter-disciplinary or
multi-disciplinary works

Conclusion
Both catalogues have their advocates who
strongly support their favorites.
 While the opponents of the classified
catalogue argue that it was a complicated
tool difficult to decipher by users.
Its supporters have held the view, which
they constantly propagate that there is no
substitute for it.
There is a lack of objectivity on the part of
both groups because very few people are
familiar with both types of catalogue

 The dictionary catalogue as certain weaknesses,
but a carefully worked out network of cross can
help to reduce limitations resulting from the
absence of a classified arrangement.
 However, there is no doubt that very often
careless use of cross references can prove
irritating to users.
 Choice of catalogue by a library would depend
upon certain factors –type of library, avalibility
of printed catalogues cards ,types of catalogues
used by neighboring libraries ,kind of training
of the chief librarian and chief cataloguer ,and
the attitude of authorities.

Forms of catalogue

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