College and Research Libraries


By R A L P H E. E L L S W O R T H 

T h e Administrative Implications for University 

Libraries of the N e w Cataloging Code 

Mr. Ellsworth is director of libraries, Uni-

versity of Colorado, Boulder. 

N o w that it is my turn to level my lance 

at the sails of this dangerous and seemingly 

impregnable windmill, I wonder why I 

was chosen to speak for university libraries. 

Perhaps because someone had to be the 

goat and because my ignorance could be 

written off on the grounds of youth and 

innocence. O r , perhaps because M r . 

Coney felt that someone who had been ex-

posed to the chilling and biting drafts 

which sweep around the Chicago Gradu-

ate Library School corridors would be suf-

ficiently tough to stand up under the re-

buttal blasts which are sure to follow the 

approach I intend to make. 

If you think that each university library 

should have a catalog which will aim at 

giving a reasonably complete bibliographic 

description of all its books regardless of 

the nature and importance of these books, 

the purpose for which they were bought 

and used, and the characteristics of the 

clientele using the books, if, in other words, 

you accept the assumptions underlying our 

present cataloging practices, then I think 

you have to take one of two attitudes to-

ward the new code. 

Y o u may say that the wise cataloger will 

welcome the codification and will use it 

as a useful tool and not as an end in itself, 

or you may feel that the code will drag 

us deeper into that kind of perfectionistic 

cataloging which D r . Osborn has de-

scribed so ably.1 

But as an administrator, I dare not ac-

cept these assumptions and I think the pub-

lication of the new code is a propitious mo-

ment for a critical analysis of them. I 

present the following eleven reasons for 

pursuing this analysis. 

Reasons for A nalysis 

First, from the time of volume one of 

the Library Journal, there has been much 

critical discussion about the relation be-

tween catalogs and bibliographies, and the 

proponents of subject cataloging have 

embarked upon a program without recog-

nizing and meeting the objections of the 

proponents of subject bibliographies as a 

substitute for subject cataloging. In fact, 

I have thought, after reading the literature, 

that the latter group were more logical, 

scholarly, and realistic than the first even 

though they were not able to organize 

themselves into a successful pressure group 

in the profession. 

Second, a casual scanning of the new 

code with its hundreds of rules and excep-

tions to rules leads me to wonder how we 

are to expect our student bodies to compre-

hend such a system in a manner that will 

enable them to use the resulting tool. One 

is forced to the conclusion that our catalogs 

are librarians' and not users' tools. 

1 O s b o r n , A . D . The Crisis in Cataloging. A m e r i -
can L i b r a r y I n s t i t u t e , 1941. 

134 C O L L E G E , AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES 



T h i r d , observation of the behavior of 

students leads me to the conclusion that w e 

are aiming far over their heads. T h e ma-

jority seem merely interested in locating a 

specific book title which someone has asked 

or told them to read. A minority ap-

proach the catalog from the subject point 

of view and these aren't interested in the 

subject approach as w e librarians think of 

it. 

F o u r t h , discussion w i t h members of the 

faculty, at Colorado and elsewhere, re-

veals that many of them do not even know 

w h a t the catalog has to offer and when this 

is explained to them, they wonder w h y in 

the w o r l d librarians go to all this trouble 

to produce a tool which has so little rela-

tionship to their use of the records of schol-

arship. 

F i f t h , one of the truisms of educational 

psychology is that learners differ in their 

ability, the extent of their knowledge, and 

the rate at which they acquire knowledge. 

Y e t , w e offer one single tool which w e as-

sume can be used by all students and mem-

bers of the faculty w i t h equal success. 

Differences in Materials 

Sixth, if it can be whispered that the 

catalog's clientele differs in its character-

istics, it can be shouted that the publica-

tions listed in our catalogs differ in 

purpose, scope, method, significance, suita-

bility, and relevance. A bibliographic tool 

which ignores these differences must neces-

sarily fall short of its aim of bringing the 

reader and the book together. 

Seventh, every adult in this audience has 

lived to witness the out-moding of most 

of the truths which were regarded as im-

mutable in his or her youth. In all realms 

of knowledge the researcher is carefully 

peeling off layer after layer of prejudice, 

ignorance, misconception, and mistaken re-

lationships. A t the same time, our knowl-

edge is increasing at a geometric ratio and 

our terminology is changing as rapidly. 

A s an administrator, I see that w e can-

not afford to change our cataloging termi-

nology fast enough to keep within sight of 

the front lines of research. N o r can most 

of us afford large enough staffs to do the 

reclassification which needs to be done if 

our subject classifications are to avoid be-

ing the laughing stock of an alert con-

temporary. A s a librarian, I am ashamed 

to admit that my profession has been un-

able to think of a w a y in which these t w o 

problems can be met. I am not satisfied 

w i t h the plea that w e need to take the 

long-time point of view, because I see no 

indication that the rate of change w i l l slow 

down. It is more likely to increase. 

Eighth, as a pseudo or sometime social 

scientist, I know that in time of crisis, and 

especially in the period immediately pre-

ceding the crisis, the pamphlet and other 

elusive materials become of supreme impor-

tance. I see that w e cannot afford to 

handle these materials in our regular 

cataloging process, and so we resort to other 

means of handling them. Social science 

scholars have been known to wonder w h y 

w e don't use these "other means" more 

often. T h e y seem so simple and inexpen-

sive. 

Duplication 

N i n t h , I see within my own state several 

state-supported institutions of higher learn-

ing and t w o private institutions all w i t h 

curricula which overlap to some extent 

and all w i t h book collections that duplicate 

one another to some extent. Each of these 

institutions maintains its own cataloging 

staff and catalogs its own books, even 

though a substantial share of this w o r k is 

outright duplication. 

MARCH, 1942 12 7 



And what is true of Colorado is even 
more true of the country as a whole. 

Timid voices which have raised this 
question before have been smashed down 
with the answer that each university is 
different from all the rest and each one 
therefore has to adapt its catalogs and 
classifications to meet its own unique needs. 
Unique indeed! Some of us are wonder-
ing if our own incompetence isn't what 
we mean by our uniqueness. 

Y o u may say the Library of Congress 
card system answers my objection, but if 
so, can you show me a library that reduced 
the size of its cataloging staff after it 
started to use Library of Congress cards? 
O r , can you show me one that does not 
study the Library of Congress cards and 
alter them to such an extent that the sav-
ings are practically wiped out ? 

T e n t h , a university exists primarily for 
a community of scholars. T h e r e are many 
in our midst that are not scholars, but 
even so the majority have some degree of 
Wissendurst. If the catalog is the best 
tool we can devise for scholars, it would 
seem logical that catalogers should either 
be scholars themselves, or at least be schol-
arly enough to understand the language of 
scholarship. Frankly, it does not seem to 
me that many of us have been successful in 
staffing our departments with large num-
bers of catalogers who from the point of 
view of education and training have 
reached a high enough level to produce 
scholarly cataloging. H o w many Ph.D.'s 
are there among our catalogers? Even if 
we could get such people, the salaries we 
pay, the academic status we offer, the 
working conditions we impose, and the 
kind of work we expect would soon drive 
most real scholars out of the field. W e 
administrators are guilty of tolerating a 
situation when we ought to be protesting, 

nationally, in a manner that would lead 

to a different course of action. 

Catalogs and Bibliographies 

Eleventh, I have read the literature of 
the subject rather carefully, and I find that 
we librarians have not come to grips with 
the problem of the relation between cata-
logs and bibliographies. W e have come to 
assume that our subject catalogs coupled 
with our subject classifications are subject 
bibliographies or can be used as substitutes 
for them. It is within the realm of this 
problem that we have strayed farthest 
from realities. W e defend our assump-
tions by saying that the catalog shows what 
one library owns but the bibliography 
shows what is available elsewhere. For 
the beginning student, this distinction 
may be all right, but for the researcher, it 
is meaningless. For what purpose are our 
union lists and catalogs, our interlibrary 
loan services, and our microfilms, if not to 
enable the scholar to secure whatever he 
needs? In other words, for the researcher, 
when he uses the library as a researcher, 
the catalog is slightly irrelevant. 

Scholars have found that our catalogs 
do not reveal the literature they need in 
the way in which they need it when they 
need it. Consequently, they have devel-
oped various kinds of abstracts and indexes, 
such as Chemical Abstracts, Biological Ab-
stracts, Chemical Reviews, Review of Edu-
cation Research, Annual Bibliography of 
the Modern Language Association, etc. 

And still, we librarians usually go on 
with our subject cataloging without regard 
to these publications and without seeming 
to understand why they exist. A n d so 
with other bibliographic work. H o w 
many of us, for instance, now that the new 
Cambridge Bibliography of English Liter-
ature is available, will integrate this tool 

136 C O L L E G E , AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES 



w i t h our future subject cataloging of E n g -

lish literature? H o w many of us know 

how to do this or know why w e w o u l d be 

doing what w e w o u l d be doing? 

T h e s e are some of the implications of 

the new code for me as a university library 

administrator. It seems to me that some 

of these questions w i l l have to be faced by 

the profession. T h e solution w i l l come 

only if w e start by examining the funda-

mental assumptions underlying our prac-

tices. 

In order that my paper may not seem 

entirely negative in tone and purpose, per-

mit me to suggest an outline of how the 

problem might be met. 

Suggestions 

First, w e must free ourselves of the 

burden which w e are carrying as a result 

of our assumption that cataloging for all 

types of libraries is much the same prob-

lem. T h e university as a social institution 

exists for a different reason than does the 

public l i b r a r y — e v e n the large public li-

brary, the junior college, or the liberal 

arts college. Its purpose, its clientele, and 

its materiel are different. It follows, 

therefore, that its cataloging w i l l be differ-

ent. T h i s means, specifically, that the L i -

brary of Congress C a r d Division might 

w e l l study the possibility of issuing various 

kinds of cards for various kinds of li-

braries, if it is to continue issuing cards. 

Second, w e should study the three 

fundamental needs of location, identifica-

tion, and subject approach in terms of the 

various groups in our clientele and of the 

various kinds of publications. A n d in 

making this analysis w e should constantly 

keep in mind the specific functions of the 

catalog and the bibliography. 

F o r example, the learner w h o is a be-

ginner in a specific subject may be faced 

w i t h the problem of locating a specific 

title or he may be looking for titles which 

w i l l outline the field and furnish defini-

tions. T h e learner w h o is a specialist or 

a researcher in the same specific subject 

needs location, identification, and subject 

guides which are entirely different from 

those needed by the beginner. O u r cata-

logs minimize these differences as do most 

of the existing subject bibliographies. O u r 

problem is one of providing tools which 

w i l l recognize and meet these differences. 

T h i r d , w e should assume that it is now 

possible to organize our approach to the 

problem on a national basis, not on the in-

dividual library as a base. 

I f , for example, w h a t w e need is less 

subject cataloging in card form and more 

printed bibliographies of various kinds for 

various purposes, then instead of main-

taining hundreds of small groups of cata-

logers all over the country, w h y not group 

these people together in a f e w centers and 

put them to w o r k compiling bibliogra-

phies ? 

W e should not forget that the L i b r a r y 

of Congress, the H . W . W i l s o n Company, 

and the publishers of the various indexing 

and abstracting services are all essential 

segments of the same circle. A t the pres-

ent time the w o r k of these three groups 

is disastrously unrelated. T h e three 

should be brought together into one single 

program. W h o w i l l have the imagina-

tion and ingenuity to do this? 

Changing Eras x 

Fourth, w e must remember that an era 

in American history is ended. N o longer 

can institutions embark upon enterprises 

or maintain practices without reckoning 

the costs or disregarding them even if the 

product seems good. M o s t of us w i l l re-

turn from this conference facing the prob-

MARCH, 1942 
12 7 



lem of reducing our expenditures to meet 

a declining enrolment. Most of us have 

already cut so deeply that further cuts can 

be made only by major amputations. W e 

have been spending staggering sums on 

cataloging our collections and I am in-

clined to think that our faculties and ad-

ministrations do not think the money well 

spent. T h e arguments we have been us-

ing will, I think, be insufficient. 

Fifth, it is a commonly heard observa-

tion that we librarians resist changes in 

our technical processes with a fervor that 

approaches fanaticism. It is my guess that 

unless we can break ourselves of this 

rather primitive attitude toward our tech-

nical processes, we will lose control of 

them just as we are losing control of uni-

versity libraries through our failure to un-

derstand that a community of scholars 

needs a library "of the scholar, by the 

scholar, and for the scholar." 

If my remarks today seem irrelevant to 

the question, please accept my explanation 

that these are the implications which I as 

an administrator of a university library see 

in the new code. I speak for myself, not 

for my colleagues. 

The Significance of the Joint University Libraries 
(Continued from page 107) 

possible. T h r o u g h the plans which you 
have perfected and through the building 
which you have added to the enduring 
resources of these three institutions, you 
have made a contribution to the extension 
and enrichment of education, the full 
significance of which cannot now be fore-
seen. 

Y o u have placed here at the center 
of these campuses a library building func-
tionally designed to serve the varied 
interests of a distinguished community of 
students and scholars. Rooms for leisure 
and required reading and for the consulta-
tion of periodicals and reference works are 
available to the undergraduate; carrels in 
the stacks and special reading rooms are at 
the disposal of the graduate student; semi-
nars and studies are set apart for the 
faculty member; space for bibliographical 

apparatus, for microphotography, for the 
exhibition and use of special collections, 
and for the administration of the library 
as a whole, rounds out the full comple-
ment of the requirements of a modern 
university library. And all of these essen-
tials have been skilfully organized in a 
building which in beauty of line and im-
pressiveness of form stands as a symbol 
of the dignity and worth of learning. 
These are the obvious results of your 
conscious collaboration. But what you 
have so splendidly begun will, I am 
confident, demonstrate what has so fre-
quently been demonstrated of the work of 
planners and builders heretofore. It will 
demonstrate that, splendid as have been 
your vision and accomplishment, you have 
actually planned and built better than you 
knew. 

138 C O L L E G E , AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES