College and Research Libraries


By D O R I S H I G G I N S 

Catalog Adviser Service 
at California 

THE LIBRARIAN who likes people, en-joys variety in his work, and has a 
good knowledge of the principles of cata-
loging, will find the position of catalog 
adviser a most desirable assignment. 

T h e catalog information desk at the U n i -
versity of California Library is in f u l l view 
of visitors and students as they enter the 
main hall. M a n y persons obviously are 
relieved to find someone at a central desk 
who can answer their questions and give 
directions. Students soon learn that the 
catalog adviser will help them to use the 
catalog, show them how to find material, 
and answer a wide variety of miscellaneous 
enquiries. 

T h e catalog adviser is a member of the 
catalog department and understands the 
records and has access to them, and her 
desk serves therefore as a center for cor-
rections and improvements in the catalog. 
Faculty members find it convenient to leave 
complaints and suggestions with her, and 
librarians f r o m other departments give her 
notes about errors in filing, duplicate call 
numbers, and other mistakes which she can 
correct without bothering the workers in 
the catalog department proper. Hence, al-
though the catalog adviser must be ap-
proachable and must avoid the appearance 
of being too busy, she finds time for various 

• activities which lighten the burden of the 
catalogers. 

A final aspect of the position is most im-
portant to a catalog adviser whose chief 
interest is the making of a good catalog— 
the opportunity to observe critically the use 

of the catalog, to discover its weaknesses, 
and to suggest principles which should be 
followed in making it usable. I t is this 
phase which seems of greatest significance, 
and the following paragraphs provide a 
report of the observations of the catalog ad-
visers1 in one library on the use of the cata-
log by students and faculty members. 

I n studying the use of the catalog the 
most simple approach seemed to be to keep 
in mind two points: first, why was a given 
question asked, and, second, could the 
question have been prevented? T h e r e are 
several reasons for certain questions. Inex-
perience in the use of the catalog, lack of 
complete information or the presence of 
incorrect information concerning entries, 
and inability to decipher abbreviations, are 
examples. Lack of knowledge of entry 
rules or filing rules is also involved. T h i s 
concerns ( I ) entries for societies, institu-
tions, government bodies, and conferences 
and committees, and ( 2 ) the works of 
voluminous authors, the names of rulers, 
compound names, and names with prefixes. 

I n addition to the questions on the find-
ing of cards, there are some concerning the 
information on cards. F o r example, often 
it must be pointed out that " E d u c . D e p t . 

Another copy" means Educ. 
D e p t . another copy and not only copy. 
Also, symbols on the cards, such as the 
double star, result in many questions. 

T h e n there are the students who look in 

1 W h e n this paper was w r i t t e n , M r s . Lisl Loeb a n d 
t h e w r i t e r j o i n t l y held t h e position of catalog adviser. 
Each w a s assigned to t h e catalog i n f o r m a t i o n desk f o r 
t h r e e h o u r s a d a y . 

64 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES 



the w r o n g catalog, since there are more 
than one. Although some confuse the sub-
ject with the author-title catalog, most 
cases of looking in the w r o n g catalog are 
due to a fundamental misunderstanding of 
what librarians mean by " a u t h o r . " Once 
it is explained that an author is not neces-
sarily a person, users have little difficulty in 
understanding which catalog to consult. 
T h e few cases where the line of demarca-
tion between the catalogs is indistinct cause 
little trouble. Finally, there are questions 
which are due to errors and weaknesses in 
the catalog itself, such as the omission of 
cross references, the occurrence of cross 
references which are not clear, errors in 
typing of call numbers, occasional misfiled 
cards, and worn out and illegible cards. 

O n e could go on at great length giving 
examples of questions but, in spite of the 
fact that many of the examples are some-
w h a t humorous, the list would soon tend 
to assume the aspect of a mere recital of 
woes. A n d furthermore, too many examples 
along this line would be unfair to both the 
public and the catalog. M o s t people work 
•at the trays without requiring h e l p ; so, in 
general, the students and faculty are able 
to use the catalog, and the catalog does 
fulfil its function well a great deal of the 
time. W e are searching for, and empha-
sizing, failures and defects, not successes 
and points of excellence, because uncover-
ing problems and finding solutions are a 
direct means of making improvements. 

I t is true that catalog entry rules are 
complicated—there are rules and excep-
tions, and exceptions to the exceptions. But 
the rules are complicated, not because any-
one likes them that way, but because they 
were devised to bring some degree of unity 
to a mass of material which is almost hope-
lessly diverse. T h e catalog indexes all 
types of publications in all languages and 
must take into account usage peculiar to 
innumerable races, countries, governments, 

institutions, rulers, religious bodies, and 
persons throughout all periods of history. 
And as if all this were not enough, it even 
has to cope with the idiosyncrasies of mod-
ern publishers. Even assuming that the 
rules are to be streamlined, it is impossible 
to believe that catalog entries will ever be 
simple for the average user of the catalog. 
It looks as though librarians must always 
be on hand to assist with difficult problems 
and perhaps supplement individual instruc-
tion by class instruction. 

But what can the catalogers do about 
the problems? Perhaps the first step is to 
keep in touch with the difficulties of the 
public and to watch for opportunities for 
improvement, no matter how slight. T h i s 
entails such efforts as are indicated below. 

Consider the habits of users of the cata-

log. F o r example, we know that students 
remember titles rather than authors. T h e n , 
for recent books of general interest as well 
as for fiction, distinctive title entries should 
be made. H o w we can get the titles out of 
the catalog again when their usefulness is 
past is another problem; but, unless students 
a r e expected to use t h e Cumulative Book 
Index, those titles are needed now. i 

Continue to emphasize cross references. 

T h e author-title catalog is strong in cross 
references. Of course practical use of the 
catalog will always reveal gaps which are 
not foreseen, and one of the chief activities 
of the catalog advisers is to fill in these gaps, 
not only through their own experience but 
by promptly a c t i n g ' u p o n suggestions f r o m 
various divisions of the library. M o r e sub-
ject cross references may be made as the 
checking of subject headings progresses, 
and it is well to continue to watch for sub-
ject references which are desirable even 
though they do not appear in the Library 
of Congress list. 

Use more visual aids. A device w h i c h 
is important and in which the catalog at 
California is weak rather than strong is a 

JANUARY, 1946 65 



system of guide cards. Students have had 
difficulty in finding periodicals such as Time 
and Life. An assistant at the periodical 
desk in the University of California Li-
brary had also been aware of this problem 
for a long time and she suggested a guide 
card for each periodical indexed in the 
Readers' Guide. These guide cards were 
made, and a drop in the number of ques-
tions was observed. M o r e guide cards are 
needed in all the catalogs. 

Make the meaning of the cards clear. 

Such terms as "see his" and "see its" are 
confusing in cross references. Conse-
quently, the rule for making cross refer-
ences was changed several months ago and 
no new references with this specialized li-
brary terminology are being added at Cali-
fornia. T h e change from the "Period. 
Stack" designation to a call number im-
mediately cut the number of questions. 
T h e adding of "Reading Room" under old 
class call numbers which formerly were only 
preceded by an R, to indicate "Reading 
Room," is in line with the principle that 
we must say what we mean and avoid sym-
bols whenever possible. A member of the 
staff has been working on ways to clarify 

the meaning of the two stamps " F o r other 
editions see" and " F o r fuller information 
see," and students are to be asked to ex-
press their opinions about a set of sample 
cards which carry these stamps. 

Recognize problems caused by systems 

peculiar to the library. Jens Nyholm has 
already discussed certain experimental 
changes in the method of recording periodi-
cal holdings. T h e fact that this is a closed 
stack library adds to the difficulties of mak-
ing cards which are adequate. Contents 
notes and notes about indexes for sets in 
several volumes become more important be-
cause readers cannot go to the shelves. 

In conclusion, it should be mentioned 
that the catalog advisers have found their 
experience at the catalog information desk 
helpful in their work as catalogers. One 
cannot strive to put oneself in a student's 
place, in order to study the catalog, with-
out having one's own viewpoint modified. 
Criticism of the catalog in general terms 
cannot be evaluated and certainly cannot 
help to solve problems; but if cooperation 
can consist of specific suggestions, integra-
tion of the catalogers' and public viewpoints 
can be achieved. 

66 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES