Simple presentation about the lessons learnt from the on-set of learning to catalogue botanical books as a Graduate Library Trainee at Kew.

2. Botanical Books Display
One of my tasks as a library graduate
trainee is to do cataloguing.
These four books that I catalogued
for this display are going to
demonstrate the type of mistakes I
made when first learning to
cataloguing and the lessons I learnt.

3. Punctuation
Where to put a space, full-stop or pipe (| or $) will determine
whether you can be a cataloguer. For a catalogue record to
be accurate they must go in all the right places.
300: :|a224 p. :|ill.(chiefly col), facsims., port . :|c29 cm
Source: Google
The pipe has the function to create a space which makes
catalogue record easier to read from an OPAC point-of-view.
For the physical description field (300) the descriptive
information will always follow :|a (number of pages)  :|b
(does it include illustrations, facsimiles, maps, portraits
etc.?)  ;|c (the length x width of the item) followed by a
full-stop.
300: :|a224 p. :|bill. (chiefly col.), facsims., port. ;|c29 cm.
A space is needed after the
abbreviation of illustrations
Source: Google
Abbreviated words such as
portraits to port. must have
a full-stop afterwards
without a space

4. Classification System
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•
•
•
The classification of item in a library is vital to
ensure it is placed correctly within the library.
Working in a botanical garden library the
classification system is extremely specialised.
Here at Kew Gardens, we use the BenthamHooker Classification System.
Frank Egerton’s “Roots of Ecology : Antiquity to
Haeckel” very much focuses on the naturalist
Ernst Haeckel and the emergence of natural
history and darwinism. Thus, why I classified
under his book natural section (575.41).
However, the book puts emphasis on the
subject of antiquities surrounding ecology.
Therefore, it falls into the classification of
“general conditions of life: relation between
living things and their environment, general
ecology” (577.4).
Source: Google
098:
098:
N.B. Bolded words are entered into the subject heading
field (650) and person subject heading field (600)
:|a575.41 EGE
:|a577.4 EGE
3 letter suffix of the
author’s name is
needed also.

5. Copyright ©
• Copyright in the publication area.
To do or not to do?
• If the book has a copyright symbol
followed by the author’s name is
means that they reserve the
copyright for the text and/or photos.
Therefore, it must be mentioned on
the catalogue record.
• The one thing I still get very
confused about is when publishers
have a copyright symbol. Sometimes
it is not always clear from the
colophon or title page verso
whether the publisher had a direct
part in writing the book or if they
are just a contributor.
Source: Google
260: :|aAuckland Park, South Africa
:|bJacana,|cc2013.
Simple rule: If the publisher is just a
contributor and a copyright symbol does
not come before or after the authors
name, do not put it in the catalogue
record. In this case, Andrew Duminy does
have the copyright.

6. Lessons learnt and the future
• Everyday I am still learning about the rules of cataloguing and happy
to say that I am in-between second and third-level description
cataloguing. YAY!
• Cataloguing takes practice and can be subjective in certain
areas, especially if you work in a specialise collection. So I am grateful
I can have my work checked by the Head Cataloguer on a daily or
weekly basis. Shadowing a cataloguer is a good way to learn about
cataloguing in your department
• My grasp of cataloguing has allowed me to gain more knowledge
about the field. I am now being trained to catalogue even more
specialised books about mycology/fungi and to authorise authority
headings using Library of Congress.
• I am definitely looking forward to my next step in my cataloguing
adventures.
Thank you!