History of Cataloguing

Libraries have made use of catalogs in some form since ancient

times before the Christ.

The library Ashore Bani Paul of ancient city of Ninevah, had the
first classification and cataloguing system which is located in
present-day Iraq.

The first known cataloging occurred with ancient library

consisting of clay tablets.

A list of available type of material was displayed at the entrance of

each room.
 History of Cataloguing
• There is evidence of catalogs dating back to
approximately 310-240 B.C. in Sumer.

• The library of Alexandria is reported to have catalog

called “Pinakes” consisting of the Greek literature
prepared by Callimachus, the librarian of the ancient
library of Alexandria before the Christ.

• Pinakes means list and there were originally 825

fragments of “Pinakes,” but only 25 of them have
survived and are present in the British Museum London.
 History of Cataloguing
• The Chinese Imperial Library of the Han Dynasty of the
3rd century A.D. had a catalog listing nearly 30,000 items.

• In the Islamic world a comprehensive catalogs called ‘’Al-

Fehrist’’ was prepared by Ibn-e-Nadeem during the period
of Banu Abbas and was consisted of books available in the
libraries of Baghdaad city. Another catalogue in 11th
century, listed the books donated to libraries by persons in
the community and it was arranged by donor order, not by
bibliographic information, but they provided a record of
the library's inventory.
 History of Cataloguing
• Many early and medieval libraries in Europe were associated with
religious institutions and orders, including the Papal Library in
Rome.

• The Sorbonne library in Paris had accumulated more than one

thousand books, and in 1290 their catalog pioneered the use of the
alphabet as an organizing tool for arrangement of catalogues.

• The first Vatican Library catalog was prepared in the late 14th
century. These catalogs generally used a topical arrangement.

• The Vatican Library published 'rules for the catalog of printed

books in 1939. These rules were then translated to English and
published in the United States in 1949.
 History of cataloguing codes

• The English-speaking libraries have shared cataloging

standards since the early 1800s.

• The first such standard is attributed toAnthony Panizzi,

the Keeper of the Printed Books of the British Museum
Library London.

• His 91 rules, published in 1841, formed the basis for

cataloging standards for over 150 years and are known
as Panizzi code.
 History of Cataloguing
• in the 19th century Charles Coffin Jewett, head of the
Smithsonian library, proposed the sharing of cataloging
among libraries. His rules for cataloguing published in 1853.

• Jewett earned the role of director of the Boston Public Library

in 1858; during this time the Index to the Catalogue of the
Public Library of Boston was published.

• His systems for cataloguing became a model for other

libraries as he introduced alphabetical arranged card catalogs.

 
 History of Cataloguing

• Charles Ammi Cutter an American librarian

whose Rules for a Dictionary Catalog were
published in 1876. Cutter presented the
concept of "ease of use" for library patrons.

• In the 20th century, library cataloging was

forced to address new formats for informative
materials, including sound recordings, movies,
and photographs etc.
 History of Cataloguing
• Seymour Lubetzky, once an employee of the Library of
Congress wrote a critique of the 1949 ALA rules for
entry ’’Cataloging Rules and Principles: A Critique of the
ALA Rules for Entry and a Proposed Design for the
Revision’’.

• Lubetzky's writings revealed the weaknesses in the

existing rules, and spoke to the need for preparing a set of
standards and rules for a more complete and concise code.

• .
 History of Cataloguing
• Lubetzky "helped remedy the situation by advocating the
concept of cataloging according to 'basic principles,' in place of
a rule for each case that might arise.

• He was tasked to do extensive studies of the current cataloging

rules from 1946-1969.

• His analyses shaped the subsequent cataloging rules due to

increase in the number of digital formats and this is mostly
attributed to the principles developed by Lubetzky who pointed
out and analyzed the weaknesses in the ALA rules for
cataloguing.
 History of Cataloguing
• Important cataloguing codes published:

• Anglo-American rules: Catalog Rules: Author and Title

Entries. 1908.

• American Library Association rules: A.L.A. Cataloging

Rules for Author and Title Entries. 1949.

• Library of Congress rules: Rules for Descriptive Cataloging

in the Library of Congress. 1949.

• AACR: Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules. 1967.

 History of Cataloguing
• AACR2: Gorman, Michaël; Winkler, Paul
Walter; Association, American Library (1978). 
Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules (2nd ed.). 
ISBN 978-0-8389-3210-0.

• AACR2-R: Gorman, Michael; Winkler, Paul

Walter; Aacr, Joint Steering Committee for
Revision of AACR 2(1988). Anglo-American
Cataloguing Rules (2nd revised ed.). ISBN 
978-0-8389-3346-6
 History of Cataloguing
• FRBR created a view of the bibliographic entity from Item,
Manifestation, Expression, to Work.

• Item refers to the physical form of the book.

• Manifestation refers to the publication detail.
• Expression refers to the translation of the book from other
languages.
• Work refers to the content and ideas presented within the book.

• This view was incorporated into the cataloging rules

subsequent to AACR2-R and (RDA) Resource Description and
Access.
 History of Cataloguing

• Cataloging codes prescribe which information about a

bibliographic item is included in the entry and how this
information is presented for the user; It may also aid to
sort the entries in printing the catalog.

• Currently, most cataloging codes are similar to, or even

based on, the 
International Standard Bibliographic Description
 (ISBD), a set of rules produced by the 
International Federation of Library Associations and In
stitutions
 (IFLA) to describe a wide range of library materials.
 History of Cataloguing
• These rules organize the bibliographic description of an item
in the following eight areas:

• title and statement of responsibility (author or editor)

• edition
• material specific details (for example, the scale of a map)
• publication and distribution
• physical description (for example, number of pages)
• series
• notes
• International standard book number (ISBN) and terms of
availability
 History of Cataloguing
• AACR2
• The most commonly used cataloging code in the English-
speaking world was the Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules
, 2nd edition (AACR2) based on (ISBD) International
Standard for Bibliographic Description.

• AACR2 provides rules for descriptive cataloging only and

does not touch upon subject cataloging.

• AACR2 has been translated into many languages, for use

around the world.
 History of Cataloguing
• RAK (A German language code of cataloguing)
• The German-speaking world uses the ’’Regeln für die
alphabetische Katalogisierung’’ (RAK), also based on ISBD.

• RDA (Resource Description and Access)

• The Library of Congress implemented the transition to RDA
from AACR2 in March 2013.

•  Resource Description and Access (RDA) is a recent attempt to

make a standard that crosses the domains of cultural heritage
 institutions and meets the new challenges of the digital world.