College and Research Libraries


Rare Book Cataloging 
How to Catalog a Rare Book. By P a u l 

Shaner D u n k i n . Chicago, American L i b r a r y 
Association, 1951. vii, 85p. $1.75. . 
I t will be a surprise to many a reader to 

learn t h a t a cataloger f r o m the Folger 
Shakespeare L i b r a r y has succeeded in de-
scribing in simple, layman's English the in-
tricacies t h a t are the foundations of r a r e 
book cataloging. In a mere 85 pages he has 
lifted the iron curtain behind which most 
catalogers of ordinary books (as he calls 
t h e m ) have been too timid to look. 

T h e r e is a serious danger, however, t h a t 
catalogers and library a d m i n i s t r a t o r s may be 
misled by this simplicity and assume t h a t the 
task is as simple as this explanation of it. 
T h e critical r e a d e r will soon discover t h a t in 
spite of the opening chapter entitled " W h y s 
and W h e r e f o r e s , " t h e r e are many questions 
l e f t unanswered. I n his first p a r a g r a p h , M r . 
D u n k i n says t h a t "catalogers dream of a 
brave new w o r l d in which simplified catalog-
ing will answer all needs of all books." H e 
then promptly explains t h a t w h a t he has 
suggested in the following pages f o r r a r e 
book description is really simplified cataloging 
and he falls into his own t r a p . H i s dreams 
of simplified descriptions f o r r a r e books 
should answer the needs of all r a r e books. 
H i s basic fallacy as I see it is his f a i l u r e to 
attempt to define a r a r e book which he says 
is not the cataloger's job. Even if one ac-

cepts his premise t h a t "any book which has 
value as a physical object is a r a r e book," 
it is possible to concede this in a day of 
good photoduplication services one must admit 
t h a t different physical qualities may have 
caused the rarity, and correspondingly dif-
f e r e n t descriptions may be required to catalog 
such books adequately w i t h o u t giving un-
necessary i n f o r m a t i o n . T o suggest t h a t if 
the convention of quasi-facsimile transcription 
of title pages is not adopted, the transcription 
must give line endings in every case ( " T h e 
general cataloger . . . will do well to m a r k 
line endings in all transcriptions because it is 
so little trouble t h a t omitting them results in 
no saving") is to provide guidance to be fol-
lowed w i t h o u t the discriminating mind t h a t 
it is necessary f o r a cataloger of r a r e books to 
have. 

Intelligent cataloging requires that the 
cataloger see the relationships between books. 
T h e cataloger of r a r e books in many cases 
must make finer distinctions in the relation-
ships and be able to express clearly and con-
cisely w h a t he has discovered. T h i s brief 
treatise may be a godsend to guide the be-
ginner in the presentation of his bibliographi-
cal data, but it needs to be supplemented by 
a guide t h a t leads the cataloger to the sources 
of information t h a t tell him why his particu-
lar book is rare.—Lucile M. Morsch, Li-
brary of Congress. 

ILO Publications 
Catalogue of Publications in English of the 

International Labour Office, 1919-1950. 
Geneva, T h e Library, I n t e r n a t i o n a l L a b o u r 
Office, 1951. 379P- ( M i m e o g r a p h e d . ) 
Limited f r e e distribution. 
T h i s volume, issued as Bibliographical 

Contributions No.5, is the first a t t e m p t at a 
complete listing of the English language pub-
lications of the I n t e r n a t i o n a l L a b o u r Office. 
T w o years ago a corresponding catalog w a s 
issued f o r F r e n c h language publications 
(Bibliographical Contributions N o . i ) and a 
supplement f o r 1949 publications followed. 
Since the F r e n c h catalog is out of print, the 
librarian, Joseph W i l s o n H a d e n , has an-
nounced t h a t the library is preparing a new 

edition covering the period 1919-1950, which 
they hope to bring out later this year as 
N o . 6 of the series. 

T h e Catalogue of Publications in English 
is a r r a n g e d in two p a r t s : T h e first p a r t is a 
dictionary catalog w i t h full bibliographic in-
f o r m a t i o n f o r each e n t r y ; the second p a r t is 
a checklist a r r a n g e d by conference, committee 
or other body, and by series. T h e l a t t e r 
should be exceedingly useful f o r libraries in 
checking their holdings and in identifying the 
somewhat complex publications of inter-
national labour conferences. F o r prices of 
I L O documents reference m u s t be made to 
t h e Abridged Catalogue of Publications 
which is f r e q u e n t l y revised. 

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