[p.2]
The establishment and maintenance of a union library catalog depends essentially upon the close cooperation of all library agencies whose holdings are represented in such a catalog. Likewise, it is important that some one agency assume the obligations of housing the catalog, and of maintaining the bibliographic service possible through the union catalog.
A union library catalog is an alphabetical list, by the names of authors and by other designated forms of main entry, of the books and other significant library materials contained in the libraries of a given area or region. Thus the ‘holdings’ of such a group of libraries are recorded in one alphabetical list which is located in one library acting as a central agency or clearing house of the union catalog service.
The primary purpose of the union catalog is to render the following service: to supply, in one place, one approach to the library resources of an area or region, where, without the union catalog, generally it would be necessary to consult the individual catalog of libraries scattered over the area or region. Thus, the union catalog greatly reduces the expenditure of time and effort on the part of the reader searching for specific printed materials. This element of time is particularly important in the case of scholarly, technical and industrial research.
From the standpoint of library service, the union library catalog may be expected to extend its influence in the following directions: (1) amplify, unify and standardize sources of bibliographic information, with the consequent increase in the effectiveness of bibliographic services; (2) stimulate the exchange of needed books and other library material between libraries; (3) supply the means by which libraries can effect administrative economy through borrowing expensive materials, which are [p.2] located by the union catalog in a cooperating library of the area or region, instead of purchasing such materials, and through a cooperative agreement specifying each library’s responsibility in purchasing expensive materials in special fields of knowledge; and (4) lead to the establishment of an authority and basis for cataloging procedure in the area or region for which the union catalog is compiled.
Each area or regional union library catalog constructed, should be significant from a national viewpoint, as well as of local significance. It should give impetus to the plans for a more efficient national bibliographic service if uniform methods of construction and inclusion are employed. Specifically, catalogs of this type undoubtedly disclose additional unusual or rare material of which the union catalog of the Library of Congress has no record and which is of particular value in increasing the effectiveness of the bibliographic services rendered by this country’s national library.
The area or regional union library catalogs can be the elementary steps leading to an efficient network of unified and regularized bibliographic services on a national scale.
Prior to the final decision of undertaking the formation of a union library catalog, the professional librarians, scholars and research workers of the area or region should study, through a representative committee, the advisability of creating such a catalog. It is suggested that the committee should be interested in the following points; (1) what a union catalog is, (2) what its purpose and practical functions are, (3) the need of a union catalog in the specific area or region, (4) the inaccessibility of library materials because of scattered locations and lack of uniform recording, (5) the existence of special collections of books, and of all [p.3] significant collections, (6) the economic allocation of library administrative funds which may be expected (Page 1, Item 3) and the saving of the time of personnel formerly lost in fruitless searching of separate library catalogs, (7) the responsibility of each cooperating library to the union catalog, (8) the responsibilities of the agency housing and administering the catalog, and (9) the willingness of all cooperating agencies to perpetuate and maintain the catalog. Financial support and the continuously active interest of professional librarians are among the most important elements to assure the permanently useful life of the union catalog.
It follows then that the initial step in establishing a union catalog is the formation of the committee, whose functions hove been indicated just previously, to prepare and present the definite proposal and suggest an outline of procedure. This planning should take into account not merely the compilation, Which is but the basis of a working union catalog, but also the means of accomplishing the revisions constantly necessary, of keeping the catalog alive and up-to-date and of obtaining the continuous financial support for permanently sustaining the catalog.
If the definite plans of the Union Catalog Committee results in the application for a WPA project to prosecute the plans, the obligation of co-operating libraries falls into four categories: (1) Each library must allow its card catalog to be photographed. This entails, at the most, an assignment of a “small amount of working space to the”photographing crew" to set up the equipment and to select the catalog cards to be photographed.1 (2) Each library must agree to supply a typed or printed card for each of its books acquired after photographing, and supply also a card or slip for each book withdrawn from its collection, (3) supply professional assistance to the “photographing crew” when there are questions which arise from the peculiarities inherent in the cataloging procedure used by the particular [p.4] library, and (4) librarians of the cooperating libraries should maintain a real interest in the progress of the whole union catalog project, familiarize themselves with all elements of operation and consider it their project to the point of giving whatever constructive criticism they feel is necessary.
It has been found that WPA projects are particularly well adapted for making the initial and basic compilation of a union library catalog. The work distinctly is of the ‘mass production’ type which depends upon a sufficiently large personnel to create the basic catalog in a reasonably short period of time. The financial resources of most library agencies will not permit such methods, with the results that the catalog would be interminably delayed, if ever realized, using the existing resources and personnel of these libraries.
The inference will be noted that the “microphotographing” process is preferred in the operation of the WPA union library catalog project. Briefly, the catalog cards selected for inclusion in the union catalog are photographed on film. Developed in 100-foot rolls, the film is placed in projectors by which typists read the filmed cards and make typescript copies which, in final form, are filed in the union catalog trays. This method is more expensive, and more liable to error, than that of photographing and making ‘photo-prints’ of the cards instead of typed copies. On the other hand, ‘microphotographing’ is obviously more desirable than typing copies directly from the cards in the library catalog.
Microphotography, then, has been specified as satisfying, with good results, the Work Projects Administration’s raison d’etre, that of employing needy people. The greater proportion of any saving effected by ‘photo-print’ methods, would be at the expense of certified employment.
With respect to accuracy in the transcription of filmed cards the [p.5] experience of large union cataloging projects in Philadelphia and Cleveland, and that of a relatively small Nebraska union cataloging project, indicates that this element of possible error is not the serious problem which it seems to be, when contemplated prior to actual project operation.