Cataloging and Classification

1. Cataloging and Classification INF 389F: Organization of Records Information Irene Travis November 5, 2003

2. Topics for This Class Session • Library classification and cataloging: • “Why?”, “What?”, “How?”, “When?”, “Where?” “Who?” • An Overview of Original Cataloging • Description • Access Points • Classification • More detail as possible: classification & authority files

3. The “Why?”, “What?”, “How?”, “When?”, “Where?” and “Who?” of Library Cataloging

4. Determiners of Information System Practice • System focus/orientation--Why? • Objectives--Why? • Content--What? • Economics and Technology --How? Who? and Where? • The Built infrastructure--Why? (The Scream)

5. Cataloging Practice: System Focus: Why? • Content (cataloging) design vs. interface design • Cataloging is generally content-focused • More user-focused approach is possible when the target audience is narrowly defined and money allows

6. Cataloging Practice: Objectives: Why? • Many different formulations • Svenonius’ formulation as example • Based on goals developed by the International Federation of Library Associations (IFLA) for their Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records (FRBR). (Pronounced “Furbur”.) http://www.ifla.org/VII/s13/frbr/frbr.htm

7. Objectives: Why? • Locate • To find a singular entity • To find sets of entities: same work, same edition, given author, given subject, other • Identify (or distinguish) • Select • Acquire or obtain • Navigate

8. Cataloging Practice: Content: What? • Primarily manifestations of published materials of all sorts • A manifestation is an abstraction that corresponds roughly to an edition of a book, a particular format of a film, etc. • For a unique item, it would be the item itself. • Cataloging is based on the item-in-hand that is taken as a representative copy of the manifestation • Types of materials constantly expanding and changing

9. The Catalog Is More Than the Sum of Its Parts • Catalogs are systems that recognize and include information about and means to move between • Many kinds of relations among the cataloged items. • Relations between and among subjects. • Examples • Between and among the members of a superwork, a work, and a manifestation or edition of a work. • Between or among the different names an author might have used. • Between broader, narrower, and related subjects.

10. Can You Read This? • Svenonius discusses many relations, but often uses set-theoretic, formal definitions of relations. • For Example: Wi= def {x:x is a copy of awi or x is a revision, update, abridgment, enlargement, or translations of awi} Translation: The set of entities that is a particular Work (Wi) equals by definition the set of all entities such that the entity is a copy of the work or the entity is a revision….of the a copy of the work.

11. Economics and Technology: How? • Nature of library materials lends itself to shared and/or centralized cataloging. • Shared cataloging leads to standards. • Sharing, centralization, and standards date back more than 100 years but have been accelerated by ICT. • Shared cataloging/standardization have made possible enormous databases of interoperable catalog records and related authority files (TBD), which support finding and navigation.

12. Economics and Technology: Who, When and Where? • Cataloging comes in two flavors: • Original cataloging (“from scratch”) - later • Copy cataloging: basing local product on records available through shared or centralized services • Proportion varies, but copy cataloging is often 80 or 90% of production. • Copy cataloging done by library assistants. • Original cataloging should be done by someone who has been thoroughly trained as a cataloger.

13. Copy: Where Do Little Catalog Records Come From? Books • Library of Congress (LoC) receives galley proofs, creates Cataloging-in-Publication (CIP) record complete except for pagination and publication data. • Printed on the back of the title page of the book • Entered into the LoC MARC database and distributed. • After publication LoC completes the record; updated version replaces the CIP. • Bibliographic utilities mount LoC records (and other records from members and international cataloging agencies.) • Libraries download and modify copy through the utilities.

14. Another Case: Commercial Films • LoC is the depository for films, and catalogs theater version when released. No CIP. Does not catalog home video/DVD editions--ever. • A member of a bibliographic utility modifies the LoC record to reflect changes in format and publication data for the home edition(s). • These records, which may vary considerably in quality, become available to other users through the utility. • Often multiple records for the same item.

15. Why? Again: Built Infrastructure: (The Scream) • Current practice and tools were established between 1840 and 1910. Even the MARC format is 35 years old. • Rules were established for book or card catalog technology • Lots of improvements, but more evolution than revolution • Huge databases (10’s of millions of records) in current formats place very high barriers to radical change.

16. The Process for Original Cataloging: An Overview

17. Steps in the Process • Cataloging • Descriptive Cataloging • Description • Access points • Choice of main and added access points • Choice of name • Form of name • Subject cataloging • Classification and item (“Cutter”) numbers

18. Catalog Card: Unit Card Z693 Taylor, Arlene G., 1941- .W94 Introduction to cataloging and classifica- 1991 tion / Bohdan S. Wynar. -- 8th ed. / Arlene G. Taylor. -- Englewood, Colo. : Libraries Unlimited, 1992. xvii, 633 p. ; 24 cm. -- (Library Science Text Series) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-87287-967-4 (paper) 1. Cataloging. 2. Classification -- Books. 3. Anglo-American cataloguing rules. I. Wynar, Bohdan S. Introduction to cataloging and classification. II. Title. III. Series

19. The Tools for Descriptive Cataloging • Cataloging • The Anglo American Cataloging Rules, 2nd Ed., 2003 revision (or latest) (AACR) • MARC 21 Bibliographic Format • Library of Congress and other manuals and reference materials on rule interpretations, practice • The bibliographic utilities such as the Online Computer Library Center (OCLC) and the Association of Research Libraries Information Network (ARLIN) and their manuals

20. The Tools: Cataloging: Continued • Databases of catalog records in MARC format available through the utilities or downloadable from libraries • The Library of Congress (LoC) Name and Title Authority Files/ Getty authority files for artists • Much is available in electronic form but mostly on a subscription basis.

21. Preliminaries--Descriptive Cataloging • Determining the unit to be cataloged • Examining the material: The cataloger’s eye • Determining the sources of information about the entity available on/in/with the entity • Assessing the basics • Looking for problems, inconsistencies, unusual “stuff” • Searching for existing cataloging copy

22. Descriptive Cataloging: Description • Key tool: AACR, Chapters 1-13. • Objectives supported: identification, selection. • Svenonius: Mostly document language • Process: Largely a transcription of the chief source of information plus physical description. • Product: Title, statement of responsibility as appear in chief source of information, edition statement, publication data, physical description, series, notes. • Enter data into MARC fields (2xx-5xx).

23. Access Points: Main and Added Access Points (Entry) • Tools: AACR, Chapter 21. • Objectives supported: Work ID, finding, navigation • Svenonius: Work language • Process: Determine main access point (MAP) according to AACR rules and added entries by rules and judgment. • Content: Access points by role--”first author”, “director”, “title”, “performer”, “editor”, etc

24. Access Points: Choice and Form of Name • Tools: AACR Chapters 22-26; LoC Name and Title Authority Files; other reference information • Process: Check all names against LoC authority files to see if LoC has “established” them. If found, use LoC choice and form of name. • If not found, use AACR rules to choose name (if applicable) and determine form. • Product: Access points in controlled form. • Enter main entry into MARC 1xx and added entries into MARC 7xx or 8xx.

25. Name and Title Authority Files • Separate databases in a different (authority file) MARC format. • For each name or title record • The preferred name (or names) • The references that should be made to or among them • Source(s) of information used by the cataloger to establish the name or title. • Publicly available online at http://authorities.loc/gov

26. Cataloging: Subject • In large libraries may be done by a different department from the descriptive work. • Tools: Library of Congress Subject Headings or Sears List of Subject Headings or specialized lists; LoC Subject Cataloging Manual or other instructions • Objectives: Finding documents on the same subject (headings) and navigation (headings and references). Occasionally finding specific work.

27. Cataloging: Subject • Svenonius: Subject languages • Process: • Determine whether item gets subject cataloging. • Examine the work and note overall subject and other subjects (at least 20% of the text). • Translate each subject into one or more subject headings from the list being used. • Product: Up to 10 subject headings including subdivisions. • Enter headings into the MARC 6xx fields.

28. Classification • Tools: In US almost exclusively Library of Congress Classification, Dewey Decimal Classification, or Abridged Dewey. • All available in hardcopy and electronic versions (by subscription). For LoC public access to the outline only. No public access for Dewey in electronic form. • Objectives: Finding and navigating (browsing); acquiring • Svenonius: Subject languages

29. Classification: Process and Product • Process (“Marking and Parking”) • Examine work (if not already done) to determine primary subject • Use indexes or other tools to find potential class numbers • Go to the schedule and check the context • Select the best placement given your collection and users. • Add item numbers . • Enter into appropriate MARC 0xx field. • Make spine label for item and shelve.

30. Detailed Discussion Classification

31. Classification: What Is It? • Two activities • Classifying: building systems of classification • Classing: Sorting entities into existing schemes. • Classifying usually includes • Determining categories and relationships • For shelving or filing systems: organizing categories into a linear sequence and applying a notation to implement that sequence. • Note that the notation is a secondary, enabling feature of the classification--NOT the classification itself.

32. Classifying • Knowledge of how to classify is basic to building all sorts of indexing languages, including alphabetical lists. • Older schemes based on organizing completesubjects (title like phrases including terms for one or more concepts). (Library of Congress Classification) • Newer approaches incorporate faceting, which allows classifiers to build or synthesize class numbers. (Dewey has some.)

33. Distributed Relatives and Dewey’s “Relative” Index • “Principles of division” -- in most library schemes, discipline is the first. • Application scatters “Concretes” like “Gold”, across the disciplinary approaches--“Distributed Relatives”. • Dewey’s Relative Index attempts to compensate by bringing different aspects together. • Also, subject headings, collocate concretes naturally and can serve as index to shelves. • Subject headings and classification complementary.

34. Classing (Dewey as Example) • Typical components of a classification scheme: • The “schedules” that are the lists of subjects or facets with notation in linear order (vocabulary and semantics--Svenonius) • Notation: in Dewey expresses hierarchy & other • An alphabetical index to the scheme(semantics) • Tables such as geographic names, languages, • Instructions on how to synthesize headings, if allowed (grammar--Svenonius) • Other instructions on use--e.g. what to do when the entity is about several subjects (pragmatics - Sv.)

35. Details Authority Files

36. Name and Title and Authority Files: Content • Name authority files have: Names of real people, jurisdictions, and organizations that are creators or subjects of documents cataloged by LoC or cooperating agencies. Includes expeditions, ships, exhibits, conferences, etc. • Name/Title authority files: Works whose MAP is a person or corporate body, listed under the personal or corporate name. • Title authority files: Some titles for works whose main access point is title, e.g. films, anonymous classics.

37. “See” and “See Also” References • If choose one name for an entity, you make “see references” from all other choices.Example: Lady Bird Johnson, • If use successive names (serials, corporations) or multiple bibliographic identifies (Victoria Holt/Jean Plaidy) make “see also” references among them. • Make “see references” from forms of a name not used (entry element, fullness of name, transliterations, etc.)

38. Authority File Examples • http://authorities.loc.gov • Also DRA catalogs including Austin PL. • Subject • Name • Name/Title • Title • For full interpretation of MARC tags refer to MARC format for authority files. Some displays use labels, for instance DRA in its catalogs.

39. Subject Authority Files • There are subject authority files, but basically repeat the same information as the LCSH. • Publicly available online, but harder to use for subject work, although the show all subdivisions that have been used with a heading. • Include sources for heading decisions, which do not appear in the LCSH.

40. Subject Authority Files: Content • Same as LCSH, which includes • Topical subject headings (, e.g. Dogs) • Geographic subject headings for geographic features, not jurisdictions, e.g rivers, buildings. • Form/genre subject headings (poetry, encyclopedias,) • Name headings for FICTIONAL people, places, etc. (Potter, Harry (Fictional character)). • DOES NOT REPEAT INFORMATION IN THE NAME, TITLE and NAME/TITLE AUTHORITY FILES.

41. Where to Find Some Tools • Subscription sources (usually) available to IS students in the IP Lab (not campus generally) • The Cataloger’s Desktop and Classification Plus (LoC) -- on IPL machines. • Classification Web – available on campus, but not from home (I think) http//:classweb.gov/Auto. • OCLC - R ead only access. In the IPL.