Relation of the Federal Government to Research 



24:7 



contributions range from a few selected entries to 

 complete records of their collections. This catalog 

 originated in 1901, in the consolidation of the printed 

 catalog cards of six major libraries. Its present ex- 

 pansion was initiated in 1927 by a grant from Mr. John 

 D. Rockefeller, Jr., of $50,000 a j'ear for 5 years, after 

 which it became a Government-supported unit of the 

 Library. As a result, the catalog now forms an Amer- 

 ican central bureau whose principal functions are to 

 aid scholarly research in indicating what materials 

 exist and to simplify interlibrary book loans by locat- 

 ing them geographically close to the user. In addi- 

 tion, it is a unique source of bibliographical informa- 

 tion, containing as it does, the cataloging experience 

 of the major libraries of the country; specifically, it 

 forms a tool essential in the processes of cooperative 

 or centralized cataloging. 



And the Library of Congress is ambitious to make 

 available all of its bibliographical apparatus and every 

 ability of its staff for reseai'ch to the remotest parts 

 of the United States and to that end is maintaining an 

 informational service which may be drawn upon freely 

 in correspondence. As a result, this Union Catalog will 

 solve the difficulty of many an investigator in quest of 

 a particular book and inform him whence it may be 

 borrowed. 



Supplementing the main author catalog are a num- 

 ber of important auxiliary catalogs to facilitate the 

 identification of unusual books. Such are the Index 

 to Special Collections in American libraries, the card 

 catalogs of the British Museum, Vatican and other 

 European libraries and other lists aggregating over 

 2,000,000 cards. 



The Classification 



The classification is at once the extension and the 

 complement of the catalog; it is in effect a method of 

 cataloging by subject accomplished by the actual ar- 

 rangement of the books on the shelves. "Wlien such an 

 arrangement can be systematically and thoroughly car- 

 ried out the accruing advantages to the searcher are 

 enormous. He can go directly to the shelves for his 

 material — not only to the larger groups (e. g., "Philos- 

 ophy and Religion", class B; "Chemistry", class QD) 

 but to the actual toiiic of his consideration (e. g., 

 "Perseverance of the Saints". BT768; "Sulphoxides", 

 QD341.S6), without the interposition of any catalog, 

 bibliograjjhy, or list. It is only within comparatively 

 modern times that the concentration and diversifica- 

 tion of material, which made such an arrangement im- 

 portant and desirable, also permitted its execution on 

 any considerable scale. The scheme of classification 

 adopted by the Library of Congress in the years fol- 

 lowing 1899 was elaborated by its own experts, for its 



own use, benefiting from a previous century of trial 

 and eiTor. Its virtues are: (1) Comprehensiveness 

 (every phase of human activity is accounted for; there 

 is no "miscellaneous" residue), (2) particularity (topics 

 are logical subdivisions of general subjects; not lumped 

 within them), (3) expansiveness (new subjects find 

 their jjlaces by logical coordination withiii the existing 

 scheme), (4) flexibility (the natural and economical 

 arrangement of wholly different classes of material, 

 and of material in small and large quantities is pro- 

 vided for), (5) practicality (the system is not based 

 solely upon a philosophical classification of knowledge 

 and does not force the material into arbitrary forms 

 for the sake of logic), (6) articulation (cognate classes 

 are at once related and differentiated by position and 

 by necessary notes and cross references in the sched- 

 ules), (7) simplicity (the notation is expressive and 

 uncomplicated), (8) individuality (the scheme is that 

 of the Library of Congress with its responsibility pri- 

 marily to the Congress, and consequently arranges the 

 material from that point of view), and (9) adaptabil- 

 ity (in spite of its individuality the scheme is easily 

 adapted to the use of other large or special libraries, 

 American or foreign). 



The classification as projected is substantially com- 

 plete, but is undergoing a continuous amplification in 

 fields in which material is concentrated. The schedules 

 have been printed and from time to time reprinted 

 as this amplification has proceeded, placing the results 

 at the disposal of other libraries. The bibliothecal 

 worth of the classification and its convenience of ap- 

 plication have been attested by its adoption in nearly 

 200 other libraries, American and foreign, and by its 

 characterization, in the words of the secretary of the 

 British Museum Libi'ary, as the only adequate scheme 

 for use in considerable libraries. 



In addition to enabling direct recourse to material 

 on the shelves, by subject, the classification offers two 

 advantages. (1) The shelf-list (the inventorial cata- 

 log which recoi'ds the books in the exact order in 

 which they are classified) becomes a class-catalog or 

 catalogue raisomue of the classified collections. There 

 is now being developed a classed catalog on cards sup- 

 plemental to the shelf-list. (2) The classification, as a 

 logical develoiDment of related subjects, uses a termi- 

 nology somewhat different from that employed by the 

 catalog, where each subject stands by itself in merely 

 alphabetic order. The varying viewpoints taken in the 

 two processes furnish approaches to the material sup- 

 plementary to each other. 



The application of the classification is to the general 

 collections of books, the collections of the Divisions 

 of Music, Smithsonian, Slavic, and Aeronautics; to the 

 book collections of the Divisions of Maps and Fine 



