College and Research Libraries


Cataloging 
Cataloging Sampler: A Comparative and In-

terpretative Guide. By Laura C. Colvin. 
Hamden, Conn.: Archon Books, The Shoe 
String Press [ cl963] 368p. $10. 

This is a guide "developed as a visual ref-
erence manual of the cataloging process." It 
was originally compiled as a manual that 
students at Simmons College library school, 
where Professor Colvin is a member of the 
faculty, have used in their cataloging courses. 
Now it is available to the library profession 
at large. 

The sampler includes eleven sections: cata-
loging control records (involving multiple 
order forms, serial processing slips, searching 
slips--primarily from the Library of Con-
gress operations, Michigan and Yale-au-
thority cards, official catalog entries, and 
subject authority cards); the dictionary card 
catalog (involving all kinds of catalog en-
tries); monograph publications (with refer-
ences to rules and examples of publications 
which demonstrate the application of the 
rules, including European and Oriental 
names); serial publications (including gen-
eral serials, government serials, and news-
papers); publications issued in series (in-
cluding types of series entries and the variety 
of approaches in treatment); analytical en-
tries (including monographic publications 
and serials); works related (abridgments, 
adaptations, commentaries, etc.); relation-
ships in the card catalog (main and sec-
ondary entries and references); works of 
special type and special collections (theses 
and dissertations, technical reports, works 
for the blind); nonbook materials (art pho-
tographs and slides, manuscripts, maps, 
globes, atlases, etc.); and the shelf list (offi-
cial record, types of en tries, call numbers 
vs. numerical location vs. location designa-
tion, reference works, and shelflisting for 
branches). In addition, there are eight ap-
pendixes dealing with book numbers, Li-
brary of Congress cataloging process case 
study, branch cataloging (Boston Public Li-
brary), classified catalog (Boston University), 
brieflisting catalog (University of California 
at Los Angeles), synchronized book process-
ing (Wayne County, Michigan, library), col-
or band card system for instruction (non-

NOVEMBER 1963 

book) materials (Montgomery County Public 
Schools, Rockville, Maryland), and corporate 
body under successive names (National Li-
brary of Medicine). 

The work contains a bibliography which 
lists compilations of sample cards which are 
used in other library schools-eleven of 
them. Some of these are similar in content 
to the present work by Professor Colvin, but 
none approaches its sweep and scope. The 
various control records, and the _ materials 
in the appendixes, as well as a wider range 
of sarriples, contribute to make this a major 
reference source of cataloging as well as a 
useful work for students and practitioners 
in the field of cataloging. The mere listing 
of the variety of entries and the treatments 
provided by catalogers might well raise 
again a question regarding the complexity 
of cataloging. Professor Colvin has shown 
that it may not be cataloging that is com-
plex, but rather publishing. Perhaps this 
would be a good volume Ior publishers as 
well as administrators and catalogers in li-
braries to study and ponder. There is little 
doubt that it should be useful to all library 
schools, even though they may continue to 
maintain their own instructional sample 
cards in connection with particular courses. 
-Maurice F. Tauber ) Columbia University. 

IFLA 
Libraries in the World; A Long-Term Pro-

gramme for the International Federation 
of Library Associations. The Hague: Mar-
tinus Nijhoff, 1963. 62p. 4.20 guilders. 

The growth of the International Federa-
tion of Library Associations to include rep-
resentation from fifty-two countries is a testi-
mony to the increased interest of all li-
braria,ns in the development of libraries 
throughout the world. This interest has been 
reflected in a change not only in the struc-
ture of IFLA, which now has a permanent 
secretariat, but also in the attitudes of oth-
ers towards libraries. The monograph which 
was developed by many hands but especially 
by Sir Frank Francis, F. B. G. Hutchings, 
Dr. Hermann Liebaers, and Professor L. 
Brummel, who apparently edited it, con-
siders not only the framework and back-
ground of IFLA, but major problems of 

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