College and Research Libraries IivProcess Records By D O R O T H Y E . C H A M B E R L A I N 1 ' s ON E O F T H E P R O B L E M S of a large cata-l o g i n g d e p a r t m e n t is to locate quickly books " i n process" in t h e d e p a r t m e n t . I n a l i b r a r y w h e r e h u n d r e d s of books are re- ceived weekly a n d may be assigned to ten or f i f t e e n catalogers, it is o f t e n difficult to locate w a n t e d items a n d f r e q u e n t l y search- ing f o r them involves a considerable ex- p e n d i t u r e of time on the p a r t of one or pos- sibly several catalogers. T h e only w a y to insure a quick a n d easy f i n d i n g of any title, be it p a m p h l e t , book, or serial publication, is to have a system of records f o r books in process w h i c h carries t h e m f r o m their ar- rival in t h e c a t a l o g i n g d e p a r t m e n t t o their d e p a r t u r e f o r the shelves of the stacks or the d e p a r t m e n t f o r w h i c h they are destined, a n d to keep this record u n t i l the catalog c a r d is filed in t h e public catalog. Such a record is also a n aid to the ac- quisition d e p a r t m e n t in checking o r d e r s to d e t e r m i n e w h e t h e r or n o t requests f o r p u r - chase are duplicates of titles a l r e a d y in the l i b r a r y . I n a l a r g e i n s t i t u t i o n w h i c h con- tains m a n y d e p a r t m e n t a l libraries, several copies of one title may come in^at intervals and each copy may be assigned to a d i f f e r - e n t cataloger. T h e in-process file w o u l d list all copies a n d t h u s p r e v e n t unnecessary duplication of L . C . c a r d o r d e r s or of mechanically reproduced cards. T h e in-process record has n o t been con- sidered at l e n g t h by w r i t e r s on c a t a l o g i n g d e p a r t m e n t procedure—possibly because only in t h e last f e w years has the acquisi- tion of n e w books in sufficient n u m b e r s m a d e it difficult t o locate titles in process. I n C a n n o n ' s Bibliography of Library Economy t h e r e a r e t w o references in the index to " P r o c e s s w o r k . " O n e is an article 1 w h i c h described the use of process slips in the P u b l i c L i b r a r y of the D i s t r i c t of Co- l u m b i a a n d in the C a m b r i d g e P u b l i c L i - b r a r y . I n the f o r m e r , the process slip w a s used in c o n j u n c t i o n w i t h the o r d e r d e p a r t - m e n t records and w a s destroyed as soon as the book w a s cataloged. I n t h e l a t t e r , the process slip remained in the v o l u m e u n t i l it had gone t h r o u g h the various processes of p r e p a r a t i o n f o r the shelves, being initialed by each person w h o dealt w i t h it, a n d then w a s filed in the catalog d e p a r t m e n t and used to obtain the c o u n t of classified acces- sions f o r t h e m o n t h . T h e o t h e r r e f e r e n c e is to a n article by H e n r y A . S h a r p , 2 which is concerned w i t h the routines t h r o u g h which books a r e supposed to go before reach- ing t h e clientele. Library Literature contains no direct r e f - erence to in-process records and no men- tion of them is m a d e by A k e r s , Bishop, or I r w i n in their books on cataloging. M a n n discusses briefly the w a s t e of time in search- ing f o r books in process.3 W y l l i s E . W r i g h t , in his article " T h e I n t e r n a l O r g a n i z a t i o n of t h e C a t a l o g D e - p a r t m e n t , " 4 discusses the in-process c a t a l o g in use at the N e w Y o r k P u b l i c L i b r a r y . T h e r e the o r d e r card is held as a record in the catalog d e p a r t m e n t u n t i l the official catalog card is filed. M r . W r i g h t stresses the i m p o r t a n c e of records at each stage of the j o u r n e y of m a t e r i a l in the catalog d e p a r t - 1 Bulletin of Bibliography vol. 8, 1914. 2 Library World vol. i s , 1913. 3 Introduction to the Cataloging and Classification of Books. 2d ed. Chicago, American L i b r a r y Association, 1943, p. 238. . . . * Randall, W . M „ ed. The Acquisition and Catalog- ing of Books. Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1940. OCTOBER, 1946 335 ment and says: Accurate records of work done and of loca- tion of material at all times seems to me one of the fundamental needs in efficient organiza- tion. The time spent looking for the book which one is sure was on this shelf only yesterday, the time wasted because the staff member who had this is not in the room just now, the time and temper lost by a patron because a book in process cannot be found, are marks of bad management. On the other hand, we must beware of excess records, beyond the needs of the system. If there is sufficient material so that a single piece can be lost, or enough of a staff so that too many people have to be interrupted to find material, records of the position of the material in the department are necessary.5 In an effort to gather information con- cerning active process files, visits were made by the writer to four research libraries in New York City. T w o of these, New York University and Teachers College, are not very large but they are research libraries, serving a clientele similar to that of the two larger institutions, Columbia Univer- sity and the New York Public Library Ref- erence Division. A l l four have a frequent demand for information about books in process. T h e New York Public Library Refer- ence Division, which catalogs annually forty thousand books and pamphlets in addition to fifty thousand serial volumes, holds some material in the department for two years before it reaches the shelves. The in-proc- ess catalog thus becomes a necessity. In this library there are three in-process files— one for documents, one for serials, and one for the general cataloging division, includ- ing personal authors or nonserial titles. The documents and serials in-process cata- logs, in the main, follow the procedure of the general cataloging section, so a descrip- tion of the processes of cataloging a book and the part the in-process catalog plays 5 Ibid., p. 131-32. I 336 CO will explain the system in sufficient detail. The order card or a similar card for a gift forms the basis for the in-process catalog. On the in-process card are recorded the author, title, imprint, source from which title was taken, dealer and date ordered, date received, date given to the cataloger and cataloger's initials, class mark, the tem- porary number assigned if the material is held in the department, an indication whether the material is to be bound, and the date the copy slip is sent to the printer. T h e books are arranged chronologically by date of receipt before going to the cata- loger, so they can be found easily. For bound books published within the last two years, a temporary card is sent to the cata- log and also to the divisional catalog if necessary when the book has been cata- loged and sent to the shelf. It takes two or three weeks for cards to go through printing, and after the cards come back it may be six months before the headings are added to the cards and they are filed into the catalog. When the official catalog card is filed, the in-process card is removed and destroyed. Since there is a delay of some months in cards reaching the catalog, older books for which no temporary card is made can be located only by the in-process file. This seems to be a satisfactory system and as nearly foolproof as possible in a large library. The cataloging department of the New York University Library, Washington Square, presents a great contrast in the size of its staff and the number of books it handles. About fifteen thousand books are cataloged yearly. In this library the order department sends two slips to the cata- loging department when the book is ordered. One slip is used for the L . C . card order, and the other, stamped " L . C . cards or- dered," placed in the book when received. While waiting for the L . C . response to the LLEGE AND RESEARCLI LIBRARIES order, no card record is kept, but the books are alphabetically arranged on the shelves where they can be easily found. If there is to be a delay in obtaining L . C . cards, a temporary author card is filed in the public catalog and the book is held. If the book is sent on temporarily cataloged, as new books sometimes are, the " L . C . cards ordered" slip is placed in the L . C . order file, which forms an in-process catalog. Books for which L . C . cards cannot be ob- tained are promptly cataloged, and the cards are kept in alphabetical order until filed in the catalog so that a title can always be found. Temporary cards for important monographs and new open en- tries are put in the catalog. T h e official catalog and shelflist are in the catalog de- partment and hence all records are acces- sible. W i t h so small a number of books and cards going through fairly rapidly, books in process are not difficult to locate. Teachers College Library handles about six thousand books a year. In addition to the regular order file in the acquisition de- partment, which contains a card for each book ordered, stamped with the date of its receipt, a manifold of six slips is used. One of these slips goes to the dealer, one to the departmental library, and one is filed according to order number. A fourth slip is used as a temporary card in the public catalog, marked "ordered," and remains there until the cards are filed. Another slip is used as the order sent to Library of Congress. T h e remaining slip is filed in the L . C . outstanding order tray while wait- ing for L . C . cards, if the book is cataloged immediately. If the book is held in the cataloging department until L . C . cards come, the slip is kept with it. For gifts of recent publication date, a card is made and filed with the order cards in the acquisition department. N o record is made for older books, which are kept together on the shelves until cataloged. W i t h a small num- ber of books and duplicate records at hand for all titles ordered, any book should be easily found in a department of this size. T h e last cataloging department consid- ered, that of Columbia University Libraries, is more nearly comparable with that of N e w Y o r k Public Library, although its book collection and staff are somewhat smaller—Columbia handles about twenty- four thousand new titles a year, not in- cluding the law or medical divisions and not counting serials. T h e documents and serials divisions both keep their own in- process files, which are much more com- plete than that of the general cataloging division, but a description of the latter will suffice for this paper. T h e Acquisition Department of the Co- lumbia Libraries uses a nine-slip correlated order form, allocated as follows: Form I, record copy; Form 2, bursar's copy; Form 3, original purchase order; Form 4, outstand- ing order record; Form 5, Library of Con- gress card order; Form 6, departmental copy; Form 7, rider copy (kept in outstand- ing order file until book arrives, then sent on with book) ; Form 8, claim copy; Form 9, supplementary slip (sent to cataloging department and kept there as a duplicate of the order sent to the Library of Con- gress). A separate file is kept of those items for which there is no order c a r d — gifts, exchanges, and purchases en bloc. For these, two copies of the searcher's slip are made, one going to the cataloging de- partment with the book, and the other put in the "Received Orders" file. T h e cata- loging department retains these slips with the books, and subsequently, with the cards, through the card proofreading process, after which the slips are date-stamped and returned to the acquisition department. Since the return of the slip to that depart- ment is a signal that cards have reached OCTOBER, 1946 337 the public catalog, the corresponding slip in the "Received O r d e r s " file is removed, and both are discarded. If the book is sent to a departmental library for consideration, the slip is filed in a separate d r a w e r marked " O f f e r e d to Libraries," until a departmen- tal library indicates t h a t it w a n t s the item, when the slip is t r a n s f e r r e d to the " R e - ceived O r d e r s " file and the book is sent to the cataloging department, a f t e r which the procedure follows the routine described above. If a title is p u t in the duplicate collection, a slip bearing a broad subject heading is placed in the book, and a dupli- cate slip is put in the file of " D u p l i c a t e s . " T h i s system ensures the prompt locating of a title in the acquisitions d e p a r t m e n t , but the records kept in the cataloging de- p a r t m e n t are by no means as complete, and once a book reaches there, it is not always f o u n d easily. T h e in-process catalog f o r the general cataloging division, which was begun about six years ago, is not intended to be com- plete—it is mainly to cover the titles which remain in the cataloging d e p a r t m e n t for some time. If the title is already in the Columbia catalog, the preliminary cataloger removes that card and puts it in the book, and if there is an L . C . card in the depository which is not in the Columbia catalog, he also puts that in the book and sends it on to the cataloger. If the cataloger completes w o r k on the book at once, or plans to do so within a f e w days, a record, ordinarily either the searcher's duplicate slip or preliminary cata- loger's w o r k slip, w i t h the addition of the cataloger's initials and the date, is put in the in-process file. T h i s slip is necessarily re- moved w h e n the cataloger proceeds to cata- log the book, since it carries the i n f o r m a - tion needed f o r cataloging. A temporary card is put in the catalog for all books for which L . C . cards are delayed, f o r all new books of any importance, and for older books if the subject or author seems to w a r r a n t it, while L . C . cards are going t h r o u g h the cataloging department. H o w - ever, no temporary card, as a rule, is made for books for which cards are being typed or mimeographed. Hence, in many cases the only way to find a book a f t e r it is cataloged but before the cards reach the public catalog is through the shelflist and the trays of cards, alphabetically arranged, w a i t i n g to be handled by the typists. I t is interesting to note that three of these libraries use a duplicate of the order card, or the order card itself, as their in- process records, thus avoiding unnecessary duplication of w o r k . Of course, there is always the danger of the w r o n g entry on the order card not being caught w h e n the book is cataloged under a different entry, but each of the cataloging departments tries to detect any such differences and note them on its in-process slips. Probably the ideal method is to put a temporary card in the public catalog f o r every title, but for a large library cataloging many thousands of books each year this w o u l d involve con- siderable time and money, and it is a ques- tion w h e t h e r it w o u l d be w o r t h while. T h e only sure way of locating a title quickly and easily in a large cataloging de- p a r t m e n t is to keep a complete in-process record for every book or pamphlet in the general cataloging division until the cards are filed in the catalog. Catalogers are burdened w i t h a great many records of varying usefulness, but probably most of them will agree t h a t for any department h a n d l i n g thousands of books annually, an in-process catalog is a great timesaver. I t need not be an added expense if a duplica- tion of the order card or of the preliminary cataloger's w o r k slip is used. I n case of g i f t s and exchanges, the use of f o r m s which provide at one typing slips f o r L . C . card or- ders and temporary records is suggested. 338 COLLEGE AND RESEARCLI LIBRARIES