Modern bibliographic cataloging

Author: Wang Songlin
Editor-in-Chief: Song Anli
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2002-01-01
Features:
Fragment: II. Bibliographic Cataloging
Bibliographic cataloging can be divided into broad and narrow definitions. Broadly speaking, bibliographic cataloging refers to the work of cataloging various types of bibliographic catalogs according to certain rules, including the compilation of various published catalogs, reading catalogs, and book collection catalogs. Among them, the compilation of book collection catalogs can be further divided into the compilation of private book collection catalogs that reflect the status of private book collections, the compilation of bibliographic institution catalogs that concentrate on the collection of documents in a bibliographic institution (usually a library), and the compilation of union catalogs that concentrate on the collection of documents in two or more bibliographic institutions in a region or country. Narrowly defined, bibliographic cataloging refers to the compilation of bibliographic institution catalogs that concentrate on the collection of documents in a bibliographic institution. The compilation of bibliographic institution catalogs refers to the process of analyzing, selecting, recording, and organizing the content and formal characteristics of according to certain rules and scientific methods. In short, this process mainly includes bibliographic description and catalog organization.
Bibliographic description refers to the process of analyzing, selecting, and recording the content and formal characteristics of documents according to certain rules. The result of bibliographic description produces entries, which are records of the content and formal characteristics of the documents being cataloged according to certain rules. Catalog organization refers to the process of arranging the completed entries in a certain order to form a catalog. The methods of arranging entries mainly include alphabetical organization and systematic organization. The former organizes entries into alphabetical catalogs (including titles, authors, and subject catalogs) according to the alphabetical order of the entry titles. The latter organizes entries into classified catalogs according to the subject system revealed by the entries. This textbook mainly teaches the organization methods of Chinese and Western alphabetical catalogs and does not include the organization of subject catalogs.
Another form of broad bibliographic cataloging includes descriptive cataloging and subject cataloging of documents. The former mainly refers to the process of analyzing, selecting, and recording the physical form of the documents being cataloged. The latter reveals the content characteristics of the documents by analyzing the subject content they discuss, with the focus on document classification, subject indexing, and the compilation of corresponding entries. Narrowly defined, bibliographic cataloging does not include document classification and subject indexing, i.e., descriptive cataloging.
III. Bibliographic Catalogs
Bibliographic catalogs are often referred to as "catalogs" or "bibliographies." The character "" originally meant the titles of books and chapters, while "" originally referred to a brief record of the content of a book, the author's deeds, and the evaluation and collation of the book, i.e., a preface. A catalog is the combination of "" and "." During the Western Han Dynasty, Liu Xiang inspected books by "listing their titles, summarizing their meanings, recording them, and submitting them," originally referring to records of book titles and content introductions, later evolving to mean a register of book titles. In ancient China, those with prefaces were "catalogs," while those without were "bibliographies," with specific terms such as "," "," "," "," "," "," "," and "." Today, the two are no longer distinguished. In foreign countries, terms with the meaning of "catalog" include Bibliography and Catalog. The former is translated as "bibliography," referring to book-style catalogs of various types without the scope of a collection; the latter is translated as "catalog," referring to the bibliographic catalog of a specific bibliographic institution.
China's "General Principles of Bibliographic Description" provides a broad definition of catalogs as: "a document reporting and retrieval tool that arranges a batch of entries in a certain order." Narrowly defined, a catalog specifically refers to a bibliographic institution catalog, which is a tool for revealing and retrieving library holdings.
Revealing documents includes recording and reporting documents. The former refers to accurately describing the content and formal characteristics of documents through various entries, providing readers with bibliographic knowledge about various documents to help them understand the content of the library's holdings. The latter refers to promoting and reporting relevant documents to readers based on their needs, from a certain compilation purpose, around a specific issue or situation.
Retrieving documents refers to providing readers with ways to select and obtain documents through the concentration and combination of entries, from aspects such as titles, authors, subjects, and classification. Of course, both revealing and retrieving documents are based on the identification of documents.