The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-07-09
TILE NEW LIBRARY CATALOGUE.
Librarian Hooper Explains the Difficulties
in the Way Of It's Preparation.

The new catalogue of the Public Library
which was planned and begun by Librarian
| Tyler four years ago, and which nearly 'died a
oornln," is at last issued and will be placed on
| sale at dollar a volume. 1t s strong, chunky
| square, tch-looking book of nearly one thohs-
| and pages, weighing about six pounds, and has
| cost the Board nearly as much anxiety and per-
plexity, to say nothing of $4,000 in money,
as the question of history in the schools, or the
new high school building Heretofore a book
had to be sought through six fractional cata-
logues, to say nothing Of the frescoings cut from
the city papers of new additions pasted on the
walls of the waiting room. Mr.. Tyler carried
the work to the letter Il" which he just natur-
ally seemed to get stuck on, by
July, 1888, when he resigned, having
printed the work through E, when the
present librarian, Mr.. W. Dem. Hooper, 1.-The
and wilowy young Oxford college man, born on
the Crystal Palace grounds, took the helm, and
has steered the thing through to *, Y, L."
| in a little than q year,
and has managed the library faithfully and
efficiently besides. Mr.. Hooper speaks very
highly of the work done by Mr.. Tyler and his
| assistant, Mrs. Cynthia Routh Maxwell, al
| though it was necessary for him and his literary
assistant, Miss E. G. Browning, to 60 over the
| MSS already prepared by Mr.. Tyler Sin order
| to get the flow and scope of the work"
| The writer thought. as most people probably
| do, that to make a catalogue was simple as to
| umpire baseball game, or brand herd &C
| steers-that one simply wrote down the names
of the books cards and had the library girls
sort EN- out alpha betcally in the intervals of
| getting novels for school girls, and crocheting
or eating apples, but Mr.. Hooper soon convinced
| him that to make catalogue rasonne that
nu1n mn RI dc Nf @bn Z
| and b;bliophiles of Indianapolis was no summer
day matter. The librarian says that good
catalogue (like ours) must answer these three
questions; IL Have you certain work in the
| hbraryf T. What works have you by such and
such an author! and (3) what books have you
| treating on some certain TOPPER
| The first question is answered by the authors
entry, where all the works of any writer are
| arranged alphabetically under his name This
seems simple, but it is not The name on the
| title page may be a true name or a pseudonym,
| and 1t may be anonymous
''Then, too" said the librarian, ''the same
name is multiplied: There are six Smiths all
| authors-three plain William Rev, DR. etc.
| or Quincys, as you will see by the catalogue,
| there are four. all wrters-father son. grandson
and eat-grandson. besides brother Edmund
| all OF whom must have their relationships de-
| fined, and dates OF birth, to distinguish them.
Under the names. once rightly entered, must
| come full description of the book-tables of
| contents, notes, remarks and cross references,
the anonymous works, pSeudonyms etc. The
title entry is simpler. 1t gives the first word of
| title. followed by the name Of author. if known.
| But the subject entry is the most difficult as
| each book must be examined to determine what
subject subjects it treats of. TO answer a
| seeker after knowledge in books, What have
| you on my subject or hobby the catalogue must
tell what books treat specially of it. and also
| what books have a chapter on it, among others.
| Hence, entries must be made under
many, different subjects but all referring
/ fHA h. l.
had that enough is said to justify the
| reference. The correlation between similar sub
jects makes it hard to tell where one begins and
another ends. Cross references must be rightly
made; entering books about the horse
under horse and not under mammals,
| or natural history, is a in point. There
must be confusing subdivisions of these
| things and the books must be examined
| This takes time unless a man is a walking
| library himself, or has a memory that never
| fails. Of course the admirable catalogues of
| the Brooklyn and Boston Libraries have been of
| great use to us, but there is infinite time and
| labor for each library, which is, in a sense, an
| organism independent of every other
"A catalogue thus made of the greatest use
| to students telling them what to call for and
| saving hours of trouble in taking books out and
| looking them over 1t is not catalogue merely;
It is the students and scholars map Of all that is
before him, and to the one who uses it rightly
1t becomes as necessary as the coast charts to
! sailors"
Mr.. Hooper explained that the board sold the
catalogue cheap in order to make known as
| widely as possible the contents of the library
and SO to stimulate scholarly as we'll as general
| loose reading. AT the price it is hoped to sell
every copy the library does not need. The in
crease of circulation since the printing of the
first parts is attributed to the of them.
The librarian further explained that the cir
| culation is now fifth in rank in the United
| States, irrespective of the smallness of the
| library or the city. There 2S6, $40 volumes sent
out annually from our library. Cleveland cir
culates Isl 069; Detroit, 14S 749; San Francisco
$50, 30; Chicago 800, O95, and Cincinnati, $780,
ga.
| AS to the cost of running, Mr. Hooper says
the city library strikes the lowest notch Chi
cago has been the "brag" library in this respect
the cost of circulating each book there being 3
and Sc 100 cents. of which and 7I-lOO is for
service; but in our library the total was 3 and
10-100 cents, Of which 2 and &c 100 was for
service. Boston, Cleveland and Cincinnati paid
three times much.
Mr.. Hooper is certainly to be commended that
in circulating 536 coo books the last two wears
only two volumes were lost, which is record
without parallel in the history Of libraries AS
to character of the circu ation the proportion of
fiction read is less and its character higher than
in most libraries; this Mr.. Hooper regards as
parallel with our school and church interests,
and as indicating the sodty of intellectual at
tanment in the State capital
The library tax of one-ffth of a mill gives
fund Of $40 800 used for service and for books
about So 600 for the books The sum for books
cannot be increased as the service is at the
lowest figure of any city In the Union. We
have our own bindery, and the books BEST
cared for for least money. The library will
slowly grow, but reeds substantial additions in
scientific books and in political economy.
County Auditors Report.
County Auditor Adams yesterday submitted
TO the county commissioners his animal ronort