College and Research Libraries


Efficiency of Indexing 
Systems 
ASLIB Cranfield Research Project, Report 

on the First Stage of an Investigation into 
the Comparative Efficiency of Indexing 
Systems. By Cyril W. Cleverdon, Cranfield, 
England, College of Aeronautics, 1960. 166 
P-

In 1957, the British National Science 
Foundation awarded a grant to ASLIB (Asso-
ciation of Special Libraries and Information 
Bureaux) to study the comparative efficiency 
of four indexing systems. T h e indexing sys-
tems selected were the Universal Decimal 
Classification, an alphabetic subject catalog, 
a faceted classification scheme, and a Uni-
term system of coordinate indexing. This 
report covers the first phase of this study, the 
indexing of eighteen thousand journal arti-
cles and reports in the field of aeronautics. 
T w o other variables were also selected foi 
this experiment: the training of the indexer 
(whether technical knowledge of the subject 
but no indexing experience, indexing experi-
ence in the subject field, indexing experience 
in another subject field, or theoretical knowl-
edge of indexing) and time allotted for in-
dexing a document. 

T h e detailed discussion of problems en-
countered in indexing should be required 
(though not easy) reading for anyone in-
volved with installing or revising indexing 
systems. T h e U.D.C., faceted classification 
system, and alphabetic subject catalog are 
discussed extensively. T h e alphabetic subject 
catalog, for example, is discussed in terms 
of cross references, structure, relationship 
among component parts, word order, and 
specificity of subject headings. Cleverdon's 
decision on one of these points, the indica-
tion of relationships among component parts 
of a subject heading, warrants further dis-
cussion. This point can best be illustrated 
with an example. If the subject of missiles 
controlled by gyroscopes were to be indexed, 
subject headings with and without indica-
tions of relationships among the subject 
heading's component parts would be: 

Missiles—controlled by—gyroscopes (with 
relationships) 

Missiles—gyroscopes (without relation-
ships). 

T h e recent history of indexing systems is 
not without its paradoxes. Advocates of tra-
ditional indexing systems have cited as one 
of their systems' advantages the fact that 
relationships among component parts of the 
index entry can be brought out. In recent 
years attempts have been made to bring out 
relationships among concepts in coordinate 
indexing systems, thereby reducing the co-
ordinate index's false drops (though also its 
flexibility). In this study Cleverdon decided 
to omit indications of relationships among 
component parts of the alphabetic subject 
headings in view of the difficulties involved. 
Whether an indication of relationships is 
required in either traditional or coordinate 
index entries will be answered at least in 
part in the second step of the study, the 
testing of the indexes with 1600 questions. 

While merits and faults of indexing sys-
tems are reported on at great length, com-
parative studies of indexing systems based 
on experimental work are rare. Cleverdon's 
work is such a study and is a real contribu-
tion to our knowledge of the subject.—Ger-
ald Jahoda, Esso Research and Engineering 
Company, Linden, N. J. 

Guide to Art 
Guide to Art Reference Books. By Mary W . 

Chamberlin. Chicago: ALA, 1959. xiv, 
418p. $10.00. 

Until the appearance of this excellent 
guide neither the librarian nor the student 
working in the burgeoning field of art his-
tory had available a satisfactory English-
language tool for finding the basic reference 
books and sources on the subject. 

Mary Chamberlin, fine arts librarian a l 
Columbia University, has surveyed the tre-
mendous volume of literature in the field 
and skillfully selected a large core of titles 
that will help both the beginner and the 
advanced scholar locate authoritative infor-
mation and materials. Her selection is based 
not only on long experience in art reference 
work during which she could observe actual 
use of the titles, but also on extensive per-
sonal use of American and European art 
libraries and on consultation with a consid-
erable number of distinguished specialists. 
Her interpretation of the term reference 
books is a broacl one and ranges all the way 

228 C O L L E G E A N D R E S E A R C H L I B R A R I E S 



from useful introductory texts for the gen-
eral reader to specialized collections of docu-
ments and sources basic for research. Her 
emphasis, clearer in her preface than in her 
title, is on materials for study and research 
in art history. 

So vast indeed is the literature on art that 
a number of important limitations were 
considered essential. T h e six basic areas cov-
ered are architecture, sculpture, drawings, 
painting, prints and engravings, and applied 
arts. Many peripheral fields had to be omit-
ted, including (among others) advertising art, 
book arts, landscape gardening, numismatics, 
and interior decoration. Much of special in-
terest to this last area is to be found, how-
ever, in the section on applied arts. Also 
certain types of art books were excluded, 
among them how-to-do-it books and catalogs 
of museums, exhibitions, and private collec-
tions. Monographs on individual artists, 
monuments, and sites are understandably 
not included since even a selective guide 
covering these would constitute another 
whole volume. Some of these omissions will 
cause inevitable disappointment, but in many 
cases the reader will find in the Guide val-
uable leads to other sources for discovering 
them, including such titles as the still very 
useful 1952 Harvard List of Books on Art 
by E. Louise Lucas. Once the limitations 
of the Guide had been decided upon, there 
remained a tremendous amount of material 
from which to select for the areas the author 
proposed to cover. Given such a situation, it 
is inevitable that each serious user will find 
a favorite title or two not included, but the 
selection on the whole is extremely good. 

Arrangement of the 2489 bibliographic 
items in the main part of this volume is by 
form and subject. T e n introductory sections, 
comprising nearly a third of the entries, 
cover general reference materials in the field. 
These include sections on such forms as bib-
liographies, indexes, dictionaries, and ency-
clopedias, and also on some types, especially 
important in art history and often elusive, 
such as sales records, reproductions, and 
iconography. These are followed by more ex-
tensive sections on each of the six basic sub-
ject areas, which in turn have their own sub-
divisions, both for kinds of reference books 
and for materials on individual countries or 
regions. Special lists of documents and 
sources, periodicals, and series complete the 

main body of the Guide. An appendix de-
scribing some seventy-five art research librar-
ies in the United States and Western Europe 
precedes in index. 

It is, of course, very difficult to organize 
such a large body of material in a way that 
will satisfy all of its potential users. Many 
librarians will find its arrangement conven-
ient because it to some extent reflects that of 
their own collections, but the specialist may 
not agree. T h e medievalist or the orientalist, 
for instance, will wish to find all his mater-
ials brought together regardless of media, 
and so will the scholar working on the art 
of a particular nation. Happily this problem 
is fairly easily overcome by the excellent and 
detailed index, the intelligent inclusion of 
cross references diroughout the text, and the 
consistent inner arrangement of each of the 
subject sections. 

Bibliographical description of each title 
in the Guide is full and the level of accuracy 
exceptionally high. Contents or special sec-
tions and features are noted when they 
might prove useful or shed light on the scope 
of the book. Exact page references are given 
for bibliographies and indexes, although it 
would seem that in many cases those for the 
latter might have been omitted unless the 
index were a divided one or had a special 
feature important enough to be emphasized. 
T h e brief and often qualitative annotations 
which accompany each entry include espe-
cially useful notes on other editions, transla-
tions, and related works. 

T h e section on documents and sources will 
be a particularly valuable one for the ad-
vanced student beginning to specialize and 
for the librarian needing to go back to 
original sources. Collections in this important 
section cover a number of areas and require 
the use of the index or cross references to 
relate them to other material. 

T h e selection of 250 art periodicals, al-
though it omits museum bulletins, is a good 
one and made especially useful by notes re-
garding change of title and by indications of 
where the titles are indexed. Inclusive dates 
of indexing are given for the Art Index but 
not for the twenty other indexes cited. 

T h e final bibliographical section is a list 
of more than a hundred art series, both cur-
rent and discontinued. Because complete list-
ings proved impractical, only representative 
titles appear under each entry and these 

M A Y 1 9 6 1 229 



selections have not usually been included in 
the index since they are given simply to 
show the type of title to be found in each 
series. 

T h e appendix on art research libraries 
brings together in one geographically ar-
ranged list those libraries and photographic 
archives most important for research. Since 
much of this material can be found else-
where, although not conveniently, the 
strength of the section lies in the author's 
valuable notes on the collections. In most 
cases she was able to survey and evaluate 
them at first hand, and this record is partic-
ularly helpful. 

One serious problem faced by both the 
compiler and publisher of such a work as 
this one is the need to have the book rea-
sonably up-to-date at the time of publication. 
T h i s is of special importance in an era of 
prolific publishing in the subject covered. In 
this case the terminal date of J a n u a r y 1, 1958 
and the publication date of December 1959 
leaves a gap of nearly two years. T h e prob-

lem has been partially met by the addition 
of a number of later titles, either published 
or announced while the volume was in pro-
duction. While it made possible the inclusion 
of the new and important Encyclopedia of 
World Art, the difficulties in this procedure 
are reflected by the inclusion of such things 
as the publisher's projected contents for the 
Spanish Ars Hispaniae from which he has 
since deviated in actual publication, and 
Karpel's important bibliography on modern 
art, Arts of the 20th Century, which has been 
announced repeatedly for years but which 
still remains an aggravating ghost. 

T h i s criticism seems very minor, however, 
when viewed in the light of the total ac-
complishment of the Guide which is so well 
executed that it should create its own de-
mand for some means of keeping it up to 
date. It is a significant contribution to art 
literature of which the author and the li-
brary profession can be immensely p r o u d . — 
Jean M. Moore, Art Librarian, University of 
California at Los Angeles. 

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230 C O L L E G E A N D R E S E A R C H L I B R A R I E S