Essays in Librarianship and BibliographyGarnett, Richard
Science
Essays in Librarianship and Bibliography
Garnett, Richard
Bibliography -- Methodology; British Museum; Library science
After the removal of the library had been completed, with the assistance
of Messrs. Watts and Bullen, the next important task was the preparation
of the rules for the new catalogue, in which it is probable that Mr.
Jones took the largest share. They were prepared under Mr. Panizzi's
chief direction, with the co-operation of Messrs. Jones, Watts, Parry,
and Edwards. The extent of time devoted to them, and the extreme
thoroughness of the discussion, appears from Mr. Parry's evidence before
the Royal Commission of 1849, and Mr. Edwards's history of the British
Museum. They were finally accepted by the Trustees and officially
promulgated in July 1839. In one important respect, the rule to be
adopted for cataloguing anonymous books, the judgment of the compilers
was overruled by the Trustees, and this is the source of many of the
criticisms to which the rules themselves have been subjected. As a
whole, they have received almost universal approbation; and their merit
is sufficiently established by the circumstance of their having formed
an epoch in bibliography as the basis of all subsequent work of the same
nature. Very much of the discrepancy of opinion as regards cataloguing
results from the failure to distinguish between the requisites of large
and small libraries. The present writer is bound to say that in his
opinion the alteration introduced by the Trustees is justified by a
consideration of which the Trustees probably did not think, its indirect
effect in providing, in the case of anonymous books, some kind of a
substitute for what was then, and is still, the great deficiency of the
British Museum library, an index of subjects. The same remark applies to
the adoption of the headings "Academies," "Ephemerides," and "Periodical
Publications," the introduction of biographical cross-references, and
other features of the catalogue, perhaps exceptionable in theory, but
assuredly very convenient in practice.
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