i BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE CATALOGUES OF THE LIBRARY OF HARVARD COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE: PRINTED AT THE LIBRARY. 1867. 1 t CATALOGUES OF THE LIBRARY OF HARVARD COLLEGE. Books received before Sept. 1st, 1833, appear in the printed Catalogue which lies at the desk hi the Reading- room. Later accessions are entered on cards, which are kept in drawers in a private alcove, and may be consult- ed through the officers of the Library. A new catalogue or “Index,” on smaller cards, contained in the cases of drawers which occupy the middle of the hall, is freely accessible to all. It is intended ultimately to embrace the titles of all the books, maps, and pamphlets which the Library may possess. At present (April, 1867), about half of the books in the Library have been enter- ed upon it, — including every bound volume received since Nov. 1, 1861, with a selection of other volumes and of pamphlets. It is in two parts : — I. Index of Authors. Books are here entered under the names of their auth- ors , if known; — under the initials of the authors’ names, when those alone are given; — under the names of editors of collections ; — under the names of countries , cities , so- cieties, or other bodies which are responsible for their publication. If no such name appears, they are entered/ under the first word of the title not an article or a prepg. sition, usually with references from some important wo(.j or words in the title; — but an anonymous biograplft ca y work is put under the name of the subject of the/y^g. r '! 2 raphy, and arranged after works bjj him. Pseudonymous works are entered under the assumed name, unless the real name of the author is known. Periodicals are entered likewise under the first word of the title, unless the mime of the society of which they are the organ forms a part of the title , in which case they are put under that name. Ancient G reek and L a t i n A u t h o r s and F a t h e r s of the Church are not entered in this Index: ip. Index II. they form the classes Greek Authors, Latin Authors, and Fathers. Editions of the Bible and of its separate books also appear only in Index II., in which Bible forms a class. The shelf-number is on the left-hand side of the card. It is not put upon references, nor upon cards written in the following style : — Everett, Edward. Biographical Memoir of the Public Life of Daniel Webster. (Webster, Daniel. Works, 1851, 8vo, pp. xiii.— clx.) In such cases the volume referred to in parentheses as containing the work whose title precedes, must be sought in its proper place in the Index of Authors; — here, under Webster. Cards containing a title without place, date, and form of publication, and with a note : “ Reviewed in the N. Amer. Rev. ” (or in any other periodical or book), are intended merely to refer to the review, and do not imply that the Library possesses the book reviewed. The arrangement is alphabetical. The name of a place follows the name of a person when they are alike; e. “ Worcester, Mass.,” comes after “ Worcester, Noa k 3 as a heading. If the same word should also occur as the first word of an anonymous title, it precedes the name of the person ; e. g. “ The Worcester Talisman, ” with no heading, precedes the “Worcesters” named above. II. Index of Subjects. Here the arrangement of the classes is alphabetical ; but under many of them there are three kinds of sub- divisions , technically termed “groups,” “sections," and “branches.” These are distinguished by their place on the cards, and succeed each other in the order in which they are named above, forming three distinct alphabet- ical series under the primary class. The two first lines of the card are reserved for the designation of the class and its various subdivisions, the name of the author be- ginning on the third line from the top. Specimen of Card. Geog. - Eur. Paris. (1851.) 10 . 118 Head, Sir F. B., Bart. A Faggot of French Sticks. 2 pt. N.Y. 1852. 12mo, The preceding example illustrates the place of the class (here Geography), branch (Europe), and section (Paris) on the card. The place of the group is on the middle of the second line of the card. We designate by this term certain classes of comprehensive works, as Diction- aries, Periodicals, Tables, which it is convenient to bring together, separating them from the mass of general works relating to the subject, 4 Class. Groups. Sections. Branches with Sections. The following example of the arrangement under a particular class will further illustrate the system : — Music. [General Works.] ( Dictionaries . ) ( Periodicals. ) ^Esthetics of Music. Church Music. Works on. Influence of Music. Military Music, Works on. Opera, Works on the. Sacred Music, Works on. Music — Bibliography . ( Includes Thematic Catalogues. ) §§ Chopin, Mendelssohn, Pianoforte, Songs, etc. „ — Biography . (Includes Critical Notices.) §§ Beethoven, Gluck, Mozart, Weber, etc. „ — History. §§ Boston, France, Germany, Italy, Opera, etc. „ — Instruction. §§ Flute, Organ, Pianoforte, Violin, Voice, etc. „ — Instrumental. §§ Marches, Organ, Pianoforte, Strings, Violin, etc. „ — Instruments of. §§ Organ, Pianoforte, Stringed Instruments, etc. „ — National. (Airs, Dances, etc. of the People.) §§ Danish, Norwegian, Scottish, Welsh, etc. „ — Theory. §§ Harmony, Instrumentation, Notation, etc. „ — Vocal. §§ Masses, Operas and their Librettos, Oratorios, etc. Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2017 with funding from University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Alternates https://archive.org/details/briefdescription00abbo_0 5 The preceding example illustrates the fact, that in the present “Index” many subjects, as (in this case) Flute, Organ, Pianoforte, Violin, instead of appearing in their alphabetical place in the primary arrangement, are brought together under a general head ; here, one or more of the branches of Music. Where it is deemed neces- sary, cross-references are made from the names of these specialities to the class under which they are placed ; but such references are dispensed with when a slight exam- ination of the catalogue supersedes their necessity. For example, what relates to the history or geography of par- ticular countries, cities, &c. being brought together under the great classes Geography and History, and this being a prominent feature of the catalogue, the names of places will not be fomid in the primary alphabetical series of subjects. A similar remark may be made in respect to persons , concerning whom information must be sought under Biography, where their names are arranged alphabetically. The classes just mentioned, however, do not exhaust what relates to persons and places. Concerning the former, further information may sometimes be found under Anecdotes, Autographs, Biblical Biography, Bib- liography (including Literary History and Criticism ), Epitaphs, Portraits, Sermons (under the branches Bio- graphical, Consecration, Funeral, Installation, Ordina- tion), Shipwrecks, Trials, and Wills. Many classes, as Chemistry, Medicine, Music, Painting, Philosophy, Sci- ence, Sculpture, have a biographical branch, where will be found, besides the lives of persons eminent in those arts or sciences, criticisms on their works , which do not appear under the class Biography. In like manner the classes Geography and History are far from containing fill that relates to the subjects which they embrace. Biblical Geography, Biblical His- tory. Ecclesiastical Geography, and Ecclesiastical Histo- ry must sometimes be consulted, Moreover, the branches of the following classes are wholly or in part geograph- ical : — Antiquities, Banks, Benevolent Societies, Bibliog- raphy, Biography I, (that is, Collective), Canals, Ceme- teries, Characters, Chronology, Clubs, Colonization, Commerce, Costume, Directories, Docks, Ecclesiastical Antiquities, Eccl. Councils, Eccl. History, Emigration, Ethnography, Ethnology, Fairs, Finance, Flags, Forests, Freedmen, Hospitals, Hydrography, Immigration, Labors ing Classes, Language, Law, Learned Societies, Legisla- tion, Libraries, Literary Societies, Military Antiquities, Military Art ( branch Organization and Administration ), Military Biography, Military History, Mines, Missions, Museums, Naval Antiquities, Naval Biography, Naval History, Naval Warfare ( branch Organization, etc.), Newspapers, Numismatics, Palaeography, Patents, Polit- ical Economy, Politics, Portraits I., Prisons, Railroads, Registers, Religions (Various), Roads, Serfdom, Slavery, Statistics, Treaties, Trust Companies, Views. — And works treating of the following subjects with special re- lation to a particular country are given in a branch “Geographical” under those classes: — Agriculture, Botany, Games, Geology, Horticulture, Medicine, Miner- alogy, Natural History, Palaeontology, Sports, Supersti- tions, Zoology. Travels in a country appear under the Geography of that country; Voyages will be found either under the Geography of the countries touched at, or ( for the more general works ) under “ Geography — Voyages. ” The following classes are divided according to the 7 language in which the works were originally written : — Ana, Ballads, Charades, Dialogues, Drama, Fables, Fic- tion, Humor, Hymns, Inscriptions, Legends, Letters, Miscellaneous Authors, Mottoes, Orations, Parodies, Quotations, Rebuses, Rhetoric, Riddles, Satire, Toasts. Works in the less known literatures which belong to none of these classes appear under such headings as Chinese Literature, Irish Literature. In Drama and Fiction references are made from the titles of works to their authors’ names (under the same class ), where will be found a fuller title and the shelf- number. For want of room, the labels on the outside of the drawers and the blocks within, represent only a selection of classes, branches, etc . ; others, and especially many other sections , will be found among the cards, in the proper alphabetical order.