Catalogue of the California State Library : General Department, Authors (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from Catalogue of the California State Library: General Department, Authors

At the time the present work was undertaken the catalogue of the Library consisted of the one published in 1870, and one printed and two manuscript supplements thereto. Prepared as these were by different hands, and under no apparent system, a new catalogue was a necessity, and accordingly, in 1885, I was authorized by the Board of Trustees to proceed in the preparation of one. With regard to the Law Department I was given full authority, and the catalogue for this department was com pleted in October, 1886. With regard to the General Department such authority was not given until July 23, 1887. In the meantime, it having been found impracticable to make use of the printed or supplementary catalogues, owing to their inaccuracy and the brevity of the titles, an ad ditional assistant had been employed in cataloguing the books anew. The work thus done was not satisfactory, but until the aforesaid date I was powerless to remedy the difficulty. In August, 1887, a new assistant was appointed, and in the following month the present deputy of the General Department was appointed, and since that date the work on the catalogue has proceeded without interruption. A code of rules, based on those of the American Library Association, was adopted, and the cards written prior to that time were in the main re-written, in order to be brought into conformity with it. It was desired to make this work as accurate as pos sible, but those who have preceded us with similar publications know that perfection is rarely attained in a printed catalogue. It was purposed to have used another style of type on a page of larger dimensions, but the short space of time allowed for the printing made it necessary to employ an ordinary type that, under the circumstances, could be used more ex peditiously. In its two departments the California State Library now contains seventy-seven thousand volumes, and of those included within the General Department we trust that this will prove to be a faithful record.

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