ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries January 1986 / 7 Rearranging the subject catalog at Trinity University By R ichard H um e W erking R uby E. Miller D irector o f Libraries Assistant D irector fo r Technical Services Trinity University T rin ity University Jay W haley Assistant D irector fo r Collection D evelo p m en t Virginia C o m m o n w e a lth University A chronological arrangement to enhance access. P ro fe s sio n a l conferences occasionally can be a W haley th a t p atrons a t th e subject catalog often o ­ take dow n only a few call num bers, ending th eir n­ s e a rc h e s w h e n th e y th i n k th e y h a v e f o u n d “enough” titles for th e tim e being, w h eth er or not ia, all or even most of th e entries have been exam ined. er­ W hen p atro n s encounter only a fraction of th e en ­ he tries, he reasoned, th a t fraction consisting of the h e m ost recent ones is m ore likely to be useful th a n the as sam e fraction consisting of th e first portion of an al­ ect p h ab et. To be sure, u n d er either filing scheme the ta ­ user m ay miss w h a t are regarded as th e most im ­ er p o rta n t books on a given subject, b u t th e b ibliogra­ n t, phies an d references in th e m ore recent books will er­ usually include th e earlier titles and p ro b ab ly will nt identify, explicitly or im plicitly, th e most im p o r­ m ta n t or useful of th e earlier works. . An obstacle to im plem enting this filing scheme el­ in m an y libraries m ay be th e large am o u n t of tim e n d it w ould take to rearran g e th e cards in a card c a ta ­ a ­ log. T rin ity , how ever, by 1982 h ad h ad a COM gi­ catalog for six years, an d all of its bibliographic rec­ in ords w e re in m a c h in e -re a d a b le form . R uby E. m . M iller, h ead of technical services a t T rin ity , took o n u p th e m a tte r w ith M A R C IV E , I n c ., th e San ith A ntonio-based com pany w hich produces th e Li- source for innovations in libraries. A service in n vation at the T rin ity University L ib rary in San A tonio is a case in point. At the 1982 ALA C onference in P h iladelph Jay W haley, th en h ead of reference a t th e U niv sity of C alifornia-Irvine, presented a p a p e r on t topic of “Research on Use an d Use Studies.” In t course of his p a p e r, W haley noted th a t th e re w likely a benefit to arran g in g th e cards in a subj catalog, or th e subject cards in a dictionary c a log, by im p rin t d ate in inverse chronological ord (the most recent year first). Such an arran g em e he suggested, w ould result in p atro n s’ en co u n t ing, under a given subject heading, th e most rece titles first, presum ing th a t patrons searched fro the front of a given subject file to w a rd th e back Richard W erking, th e n h ead of collection dev o p m e n t a t T r i n i t y , w a s in th e a u d ie n c e a thought he w ould seek im p lem en tatio n of W h ley’s idea at th e T rin ity L ib rary . Such a chronolo cal arrangem ent of bibliographic entries w ith subject headings m ad e a good deal of sense to hi From W er king’s personal experience as a p a tr and observation as a lib ra ria n , he agreed w Television broadcasting - United States 1985 Competitive implications of the seven-station-ru United States. Congr US DOCS Y 4.J 89/2: S.hrg.98-1273 1984 Competition in Television Production Act : heari United States. Congr US DOCS Y 4.C 73/7: S.hrg.98-583 1984 Demographic vistas : television in American cult Marc, David PN 1992.3 US M26 1984 1984 Misregulating television : network dominance and Misregulating televi KF 2840 M58 1984 1983 High tech, high stakes [videorecording] High tech, high stak AUD-VIS PN 4722 157 no. 306 1982 Sign-off : the last days of television Diamond, Edwin PN 4888 T4 D48 1982 1982 Television in the eighties : the total equation Moorfoot, Rex HE 8700.6 M67 1982 1981 Revolution in the wasteland : value and diversit Cass, Ronald A. KF 2840 C38 1981 Stay tuned : an inside look at the making of pri Levinson, Richard PN 1992.3 US L3Ô 1980 Additions and corrections to network inquiry pre United States. Feder US DOCS CC 1.2: M 38/9 1979 The networks : how they stole the show Reel, Adolph Frank HE 8700.8 R43 1976 Television in the corporate interest Bunce, Richard HE 8700.8 B85 1974 To irrigate a wasteland: the struggle to shape a Macy, John W., 1917— HE 8700.8 M33 1974 1972 The age of television: a study of viewing habits Bogart, Leo HE 8700.8 B625 1972 1972 Broadcasting in America: a survey of television Head, Sydney W HE 8689.8 H43 1972 1972 Turn that damned thing off: an irreverent look a Klavan, Eugene HE 8689.8 K5 1971 The left-leaning antenna: political bias in tele Keeley, Joseph Chari HE 8700.8 K4 1971 Television: the business behind the box Brown, Les 1928- HE 8700.8 B75 1969 A pictorial history of television Settel, Irving PN 1992.3 US S4 1967 Due to circumstances beyond our control .. Friendly, Fred W. PN 1992.3 US F7 1966 Crisis in television: a study of the private jud Simonson, Solomon S. PN 1992.6 S47 1964 Equal time: the private broadcaster and the publ Minow, Newton N 1926 PN 1992.3 U5 M5 1962 The great time-killer Mehling, Harold PN 1992.3 US M4 1961 TV, the big picture Opotowsky, Stan HE 8698 065 1958 The age of television: a study of viewing habits Bogart, Leo HE 8698 B6 1958 1956 Television's impact on American culture Elliott, William Yan HE 8698 E45 1955 The book of little knowledge: more than you want Ace, Goodman PN 1992.5 A3 1953 Television and radio in American life Marx, Herbert L., ed HE 8698 M3 1952 Out of the blue: a book about radio and televisi Crosby, John, 1912— HE 8698 C78 Television broadcasting - United States - Addresses, essays, lectures. 1983 American history, American television : interpre American history, Am PN 1992ĕ3 US A48 1983 1982 Television : the critical view Television : the cri PN 1992.3 US T37 1982 [etc] January 1986 / 9 brary’s COM catalog. T he task was to arran g e th e entries in the COM subject catalog by p u blication date under subject. Because th e COM catalog p ro ­ duced by MARCIVE is driven by th e MARC ta g ID (imprint field 260, subfield C, first date), it w as not difficult to retrieve th e pub licatio n d a te an d th en file it as the first filing elem ent u n d er th e subject heading. The com puter th en arran g ed these dates in descending order, thus placing th e most recent book as the first en try u n d er each subject heading. W ith relatively little tro u b le , this re a rra n g e ­ ment was accom plished in 1983. A sam ple from th e Trinity subject catalog appears on page 8 .1 Such a filing schem e should also be as sim ple to implement w ith an online catalog, an d w e u n d e r­ stand th at at least one online system on th e m ark et 1In its COM catalog, T rin ity uses an “index” fo r­ m at of one lin e p e r b ib lio g r a p h ic e n try . T h e smaller num ber of elem ents makes it feasible for the Library, w hich holds over 450,000 titles (in­ cluding docum ents an d audiovisual items) ‚ to u p ­ date the catalog every oth er m onth. W h a t is shown here is a sample of 29 of th e 78 titles in th e T rin ity C atalo g u n d e r th e h e a d i n g “ T e le v is io n Broadcasting— U n ited S ta te s,” an d 2 u n d e r th e subsequent heading, as they ap p e a r in th e catalog. does include this as a feature. Like m an y useful ideas, this one is not b ra n d new . F o r m an y years th e John C re ra r L ib rary , es­ tablished in 1894, em ployed th e a rran g em en t of in ­ verse chronological filing for th e cards in its classi­ fied subject catalog. T h a t system was in place until 1984,a t w hich tim e C re ra r m erged w ith th e U ni­ versity of C hicago L ib ra ry an d th e catalog was closed. At th e C re ra r, an d at th e C olum bia College L ib ra ry in th e 1880s, w ith in each section of the classification th e books themselves w ere a rran g ed on th e shelves by d a te of p u b lic a tio n .2 ■ ■ 2These earlier im plem entations cam e to th e a u ­ th o rs’ atte n tio n only recently, w ell after th e proce­ d u re was ad o p ted a t T rinity. See H e rb e rt Kleist, “Inverse T im e O rd er an d Subject F ilin g ,” College ò- Research Libraries 6 (June 1945):228-31; W il­ liam Stetson M errill, “O rd er of Books by D a te u n ­ d e r S u b je c ts ,” L ib r a r y Q u a r te r ly 4 (A p ril 1934):282-84; W . S. Biscoe, “C hronological A r­ ran g em en t on Shelves,” L ibrary Journal 10 (Sep­ te m b er/O cto b e r 1885):246-47. T he authors g ra te ­ fu lly a c k n o w le d g e in fo rm a tio n a b o u t C r e r a r ’s catalog supplied to them by P atricia K. Swanson, assistant director for science libraries a t th e U niver­ sity of C hicago.