Page 29 - Cataloging and Classification for Library Technicians, 2nd Edition

12 Cataloging and Classification for Library Technicians
Because sup plements have to be pro duced fre quently and attached
to the ex ist ing cat a log, the book cat a log is in flex i ble and cum ber some
for the us ers. The ad vantage of us ing a book cat alog in the form of a
computer printout is that new entries are au tomatically filed, re duc-
ing the la bor cost for li brary per sonnel. Also, many cop ies can be
made available for dif ferent lo cations, such as for branch li braries,
for stu dents’ dor mi to ries, fac ulty of fices, etc.

The Card Catalog

Since the Library of Con gress launched the printing and sell ing of
catalog cards in 1901, the card cat alog, up to the late 1980s, has been
the most widely used type of cat alog. The card catalog uses 3 × 5-inch
cards filed in al phabetical or der in drawers that fit in a specially de -
signed cab inet. Li braries ei ther type or print their own cards, have an
outside printer print the cards, or, more of ten, buy the already printed
cards from the Library of Con gress, a com mercial book dealer, or one
of the many library sup ply com panies.
The card cat alog system of fers flex ibility. New cards are interfiled
in their cor rect or der con stantly. Cards may be re moved eas ily from
the cat alog to re flect changing sta tus, such as with drawal or loss of
the item. Cards are rel a tively in ex pen sive and eas ily ac ces si ble.
The main disadvantage is fil ing. It is la bor in tensive. The li brary
filer has to be very fa miliar with all the fil ing rules and work very
carefully and com petently. A misfiled card rep resents an item with no
reference in the cat alog and may be permanently lost. As men tioned
earlier, cards need to be filed and re moved con stantly, and, therefore,
maintenance of the card cat alog is a bur densome and time-consum-
ing task. With au tomation, fil ing is done by the computer, and the
me chan i cal prob lems of main tain ing the card cat a log have been
solved, ren dering the card catalog sys tem ob solete. In the 1980s,
many li brar ies in stalled com put er ized cat a logs, ceased to file new
cards in the card catalog, and of ten stopped maintaining the card cata-
log. These frozen cat alogs re mained tem porarily for reference pur -
poses and to hold in formation on older materials not en tered into the
database. Finally, when the to tal col lection had been entered into the
computer da tabase, the card cat alog was given a death sen tence and
taken away to make room for com puter ter minals.