College and Research Libraries


work of locally recruited personnel, a sense 
of humor and proportion, good health, and 
the ability to adapt to a new environment. 
To paraphrase Professor Fuller-For the li-
brarian abroad, his own and his family's be-
havior may be the principal means by which 
those with whom he comes in contact form 
an image of Americans and American li-
brarianship.-Flora B. Ludington) Mount 
Holyoke College. 

Catalog Code Revision 

Toward a Better Cataloging Code; Papers 
presented before the Twenty-first Annual 
Conference of the Graduate Library 
School of the University of Chicago, June 
13-15, 1956. Ed. by Ruth French Strout. 
Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 
1957. ll6p. $3.75. 

These papers from the Graduate Library 
School Conference treat the subject of cata-
log code revision from various points of 
view; the historical background (Ruth 
French Strout and Paul S. Dunkin), "gen-
eral considerations on the function and con-
tent of catalog entries" (Richard S. Angell), 
problems in applying catalog codes (Her-
man H. Henkle and Benjamin A. Custer), 
the cost of cataloging (Raynard C. Swank), 
developments in other countries (Andrew D. 
Osborn and Arthur H. Chaplin), and the 
present state of code revision in the United 
States (Seymour Lubetzky and Wyllis E. 
Wright). 

The papers by Strout and Dunkin trace 
the history of catalog codes from 2000 B.c. 
to the present. Strout concludes her account 
by asserting: "Throughout history codes 
seem always to have envisaged catalogs 
which were far better than their contemp-
orary catalogs ever were ... Codes have 
not been a statement of the usages of their 
day but rather the very means through 
which progress has come." Dunkin details 
the attacks on catalog codes of the past fif-
teen years, beginning with Osborn's "The 
Crisis in Cataloging," pointing out that the 
attacks have ranged around three subjects: 
basic principles, si~plification, and study of 
the user. He notes that today the "crisis in 

NOVEMBER 1957 

cataloging" has become a part of the larger 
crisis in public and academic library ad-
ministration generally and bibliographical 
control in general and wisely observes that 
agreement on functions is much easier to 
come by than agreement on techniques to 
implement functions. 

In his attempt t~ develop "some general 
considerations on the function and content 
of catalog entries," Angell takes a close look 
at some of the basic principles (and alleged 
lack thereof) of our present codes, both for 
entry and for descriptive cataloging. His 
criticism is frequently sharp and incisive and 
will stimulate, if not antagonize, most read-
~rs. He contends that the rules for catalog-
mg books have been too slavishly followed 
in devising rules for other media of com-
munic~tion and suggests that it is possible 
to devise rules for entry of the various media 
which grow "naturally" out of the media 
themselves. Unfortunately, there is no ex-
tended discussion of this point, and no illus-
trations of specific rules are presented for 
our consideration. He also contends that our 
rules are weak in conveying the import of 
the communication, implying that we 
should not rely on subject headings for this 
necessary function. These points are typical 
of many others in an essay which attempts 
to extend the frame of reference of code 
revision considerably beyond its usual bound-
aries. 

Custer attempts to identify some of the 
most pressing problems in public libraries, 
as distinguished from academic libraries, e.g., 
the effect of filing rules on the rules of en-
try and on use of the catalog, the greater use 
of "common" rather than "authoritative" 
names, the probably greater use by patrons 
of names and titles as they appear on the 
works being cataloged, and the need for 
less detailed descriptive cataloging rules. 

Henkle is particularly concerned with the 
problems of application of rules and sug-
gests that the shift from the legalistic to the 
pragmatic theory in descriptive cataloging 
has perhaps been in name only-that opera-
tional research is needed to determine how 
far practicing cat a 1 o g e r s have actually 
changed their point of view. At the same 
time, he points out that practicing catalog-
ers have a unique opportunity to contrib-

513 



ute to catalog code revisiOn by a careful 
consideration of the practical problems 
which arise in everyday work. 

Swank's paper, while not so directly re-
lated to the theme of the Conference, is an 
excellent statement of the factors involved 
in the cost of cataloging and of bibliography 
generally, and ends with a plea for no skimp-
ing on the author code, which he sees as 
the "very heart of the library service." 

The papers by Chaplin and Osborn are 
among the most stimulating and provocative 
in the volume, and it is to be hoped that 
they will be widely read by American cata-
logers and librarians, since they present 
ideas and viewpoints which we tend to ig-
nore in our deliberations. Osborn reports 
on the growing use in Germany of "me-
chanical" or "natural" word order in filing 
title entries, in place of the traditional 
grammatical word order, and mentions the 
introduction of corporate entries in the pub-
lic catalog of the Deutsche Staatsbibliothek. 
Chaplin outlines the rna jor problems which 
must be overcome to achieve an interna-
tional code and comments hopefully on the 
activities of the IFLA working group on the 
international coordination of cataloging 
principles, which has optimistically attacked 
the chief obstacles to international agree-
ment-corporate authorship and title entry 
for anonymous books. 

Wright summarizes in some detail the cur-
rent progress on code revision in the United 
States, identifying the principles and ob-
jectives which have been accepted for the 
new code, including the provision of alter-
native practices for specialized and popular 
libraries. Lubetzky, fittingly, ha~ the last 
word, commenting on several points made 
during the Conference. He emphasizes the 
magnitude of the problem of assembling 
works of an author and editions of a work 
and affirms the professional nature of the 
problem of constructing a catalog code, as-
serting that the authors of a code cannot be 
too much concerned with possible misappli-
cation of the code by practicing catalogers 
or with constructing a code which attempts 
to meet the "needs" and "approach" of the 
library 's patrons. 

In summary, these papers provide a good 
background for, and review of, the main 

problems involved in catalog code revisiOn 
(particularly for the library school student 

and teacher), as given by recognized experts, 
although one looks in vain for a detailed 
consideration of the basic problems in-
volved in the "finding list vs. reference tool" 
dilemma, a question which still has not been 
thoroughly discussed. It is interesting to note 
that several participants minimize the value 
of studies of readers' use of the catalog-a 
far cry from the literature of the forties on 
the catalog and catalog codes, which virtu-
ally always concluded with a plea for such 
studi~s. To ~his reviewer, the most important 
que~tiOn ra~sed relates to the possibility of 
an mternatwnal code. On the basis of the 
evidence presented here, it would seem that 
this is no longer in the realm of unattain-
able ideals. American catalogers and librar-
ians have a serious obligation to examine 
closely our basic concept of main entry for 
works produced by corporate bodies. In view 
of the liberal use of added entries in Amer-
ican catalogs and bibliographies, can we 
consider a wider use of title as main entry 
for such works? Would this really violate our 
concept of "authorship" and, if so, what are 
t~e cons~quences? Certainly, these are ques-
tiOns whtch the Catalog Code Revision Com-
mittee should consider carefully as it works 
on the new ~ode:-Wesley_ Simonton, Library 
School, Unzverszty of Mznnesota. 

Russian Biography 

Russkie biograficheskie i bio-bibliografiches-
kie slovari. By I. M. Kaufman. Moscow: 
Gosudarstvennoe izdatel'stvo kul'turno-
prosvetitel'noi literatur'i, 1955. 75lp. 
3IR 40K. 

This new, revised edition of Russian Bio-
graphical and Rio-bibliographical Diction-
aries, compiled by I. M. Kaufman, has added 
reference works which were published in the 
years 1950-1954 . Published in an edition 
of 12,000 copies, it is obviously a work that 
is finding a home in nearly all Soviet refer-
ence collections. 

It is divided into the following sections: 
(I) all biographical dictionaries and collec-
tions of biographies ot' general character, 

514 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES