Part 8 (1/2)

Lord Mahon (afterwards Earl Stanhope), one of the trustees, dealt with this matter very satisfactorily in his examination. He said:--

”I will take the heading 'Account' as I find it in the _Catalogue of the Letter A_, printed in 1841. Under that heading I find seventeen entries of different books, and I am of opinion with respect to all the seventeen that the heading 'Account' is one of the least convenient under which they could stand. The entries are such as these:--

_An Account of Several Workhouses for Employing and Maintaining the Poor._ London, 1725. 4.

_An Account of the Const.i.tution and Security of the General Bank of Credit._ London, 1683. 4.

_An Exact Account of Two Real Dreams which happened to the Same Person._ London, 1725. 8.

_An Impartial Account of the Prophets, in a Letter to a Friend._ Edinburgh. 4.

_An Account of the Proceedings in Order to the Discovery of the Longitude._ London, 1765. 4.

It seems to me, that these works could be entered far more conveniently under the headings respectively of 'Workhouses,'

'Banks,' 'Dreams,' 'Prophets,' and 'Longitude.' Now, to take only the last case, the book upon the longitude, it should be considered that probably a reader would only be directed to that book through one of two channels. In the first place, he might desire, by means of the Catalogue, to have an opportunity of examining all the publications that have appeared on the subject of the longitude; and if he do not find these publications collected under the heading 'Longitude,' in what a labyrinth of perquisitions must he become involved![24] Or, secondly, he may have seen the book in question referred to by some other writer on science. But in such a case the reference is seldom given at full length; it is far more commonly comprised in some such words as the following: 'The proceedings to discover the longitude up to 1763 are well described in an anonymous tract published in the same year;' or, 'An essay, without the author's name, published in 1763, gives a good summary of the proceedings so far towards the discovery of the longitude;' or again, 'For these facts, see the _Proceedings towards the Discovery of the Longitude_ (London, 1763).' Now with such a reference, if the book in question had been entered under 'Longitude,' it would be found readily and at once; but if not, how is the inquirer to know that he should seek it under 'Account' rather than under 'Essay,'

'Treatise,' 'Dissertation,' 'Remarks,' 'Observations,' 'Letter,'

'History,' 'Narrative,' 'Statement,' or any other similar heading?”

(p. 812).

Mr. C. Tomlinson referred in his evidence to the effects of rule x.x.xIV., by which the name of a country is adopted as a heading. He instanced the anonymous work (known, however, to have been written by John Holland) ent.i.tled, _The History and Description of Fossil Fuel; the Collieries and Coal Trade of Great Britain_. He says: ”This book has occasioned me a great deal of search. I looked under the head of 'Coal,' I looked under 'Collieries,' and I looked under 'Fuel,' and it is not to be found under any of those t.i.tles, but it is found under 'Great Britain and Ireland'” (p. 305).

Mr. Panizzi alludes to this in his reply to criticisms. He says that under his own rule it would appear under ”History,” but under the system of taking the main subject it properly comes under ”Great Britain” (p.

677).

Mr. John Bruce objected to _L'Art de Verifier les Dates_, _The Art of Cookery_, and _The Art of Love_ all coming under the heading of ”Art,”

and here I should agree with him; but when he proceeded to suggest that a book ent.i.tled, _Is it Well with You?_ should be entered under ”Well”

because that is the emphatic word (p. 423), I think he is wrong. This is a distinctive t.i.tle similar to the t.i.tle of a novel, and likely to be completely quoted and to remain on the memory, and therefore the book should be entered under ”Is.”

I hope enough has been said to show that the system adopted by Mr.

Panizzi, however clear and logical, is not a convenient one for the person who wishes to discover the t.i.tle of an anonymous book in the catalogue.

There seem to have been two reasons for adopting this system: first, that it was simple; and, secondly, that the other plan of putting a t.i.tle under a subject-heading was confusing cla.s.sification with alphabetization. Lord Wrottesley put this point as a question: ”Any other system of cataloguing anonymous works than the system which you recommend does in point of fact confound two different things, a cla.s.sed catalogue and an alphabetical catalogue?” To which Mr. Panizzi answered, ”Yes.”

With respect to the first reason, I allow that the rule is simple, and can be rigidly followed by a staff of cataloguers, but a catalogue is not made for the convenience of the cataloguer. It is intended for the convenience of the consulter; and if the t.i.tles are placed under headings for which the consulter is not likely to look, the system signally fails in this respect.

With respect to the second reason, I do not see that the only alternative to the use of the first substantive or first important word is cla.s.sification. And, further, referring to the work on fossil fuel lately alluded to, is it not as much a cla.s.sification to make the heading ”Great Britain” as to make it ”Coal” or ”Fuel”?

The great object should be, not to cla.s.sify, but to choose as a heading the word which is likely to remain in the memory, instead of one which is as likely to escape it.

To give an instance of what I mean. Suppose we had to catalogue a publication issued during the course of the Crimean War, ent.i.tled, _Whom shall we Hang?_ This I should put under ”W,” and not under the Crimean War, because the whole of this sentence is likely to remain in the memory. Again, in a foreign t.i.tle, I should take the prominent word as it stands on the t.i.tle, and not translate it. It is the t.i.tle of the book that we have to deal with, and not the subject of it.

In cataloguing a library, I think the only safe way is to keep all the anonymous t.i.tles together to the last, and then make headings for them at the same time and upon one system. Errors are likely to occur if the heading is finally made when the book is first catalogued, and such errors have crept into the British Museum, as maybe seen from the following extracts:--

Champions, Seven Champions of Christendom. See ”Seven Champions.”

Seven Champions of Christendom. See ”Christendom.”