[p.33]
The final revision of the catalog consists of the correcting and completing of inaccurate and incomplete descriptions, verification of all entries, and a review of the relative positions of all cards in the file. It entails a strict examination of the entire file, card by card, and, consequently, the close supervision of expert catalogers is required. This work is performed at the completion of all other project activity.
In a great many cases the revision process takes more professional catalogers than ordinarily can be supported by a WPA project. However, where it is decided to undertake a final revision process, the sponsor may provide catalogers and the work can be conducted simultaneously with the combining process, using WPA clerks as searchers and typists. The revision will be performed somewhat as follows.
The basic authority for the final revision is a Library of Congress depository catalog. This catalog may be photographed, or, if it is convenient for a library maintaining an LC depository catalog, to lend trays from it, one by one, to the union catalog, comparison can be made directly in the verification of completeness of information found on the cards copied for the Union Catalog. Additional reference tools, which may be used as authorities, are the British Museum Catalogue, Encyclopedia Britannica, the Union List of Serials and other standard lists of library resources.
The clerk takes a tray from which the duplicates have been removed in the combining process. Each card is examined and compared with the corresponding card record on the authority film, or, if the corresponding entry does not appear on the film, the other authorities mentioned are consulted. In this card by card examination, LC cards may be accepted [p.34] without verification. If the union catalog entry (author’s name, corporate heading, title) is not complete, or is inaccurate, the reviewer shows on a p-slip the information to be added, or, the items to be corrected, indicating in the catalog card, by an appropriate symbol, the authority for the revised entry, e.g., LC for Library of Congress, BM for British Museum, ULS for Union List of Serials, etc. The correction slip and the card on which the entry is to be changed, or added to, are clipped together and turned end up in the tray. All following cards, with entries identical to that of the card to which the correction slip is attached, are turned end up, indicating that identical changes in entry are required.
Cross references in the tray and those appearing on the authority film should be traced to all possible locations in the catalog, and all entries under any other form of the same name in other sections of the catalog log should be traced from the official entry of the name. Similarly, if the filing order of the LC depository catalog places a name under another form of that name in a position other than that in which it was found in the union catalog, accept the LC filing order. Cross-references found on the LC authority film and followed in the union catalog, must be made, if they do not already appear in the union catalog, and filed in their correct positions. Those cross-references should bear a symbol indicating the authority consulted in making them. If any cross-references, not suggested by any of the authoritative listings are thought necessary, the initials of the reviser making them should be found on such cross-reference cards.
The reviser should be extremely careful to distinguish between different authors of the same name or of similar names by referring to one or more of the authorities.
[p.35]
Besides the strict verification and searching necessary for standard entries, all other names (joint authors, editors, joint editors, corporate names, etc.) mentioned in the body of the title, are searched throughout the catalog in order to bring all entries for the same work under the established official entry.
The reviser also should see that the cards are in the sequence necessary for the final arrangement of the catalog. Improperly filed cards should be refiled.
Entries for classical or “voluminous” authors, which were originally filed in chronological order for convenience in eliminating duplicates (p.28), should be placed in the order which the cataloger decides is best for the union catalog. It may be found suitable to arrange the works of such authors alphabetically by title, and chronologically by date of publication under title.
The reviser should arrange in chronological order various versions of the same title of an author, not in the “classical” or “voluminous” category. Issues of the same title within the same year should be arranged alphabetically by place of publication or by publisher. When the information, given on cards for the same title, is not sufficient to make this arrangement possible, the cards should be filed in order of completeness of information.
Then each card in a tray has been compared with the authority film or other lists, the revisions are checked by the supervisor who disposes of all questions of entry remaining and routes the tray to the typist.
The typist follows the instructions given on the p-slip clipped to each up-ended card, either by inserting the revised information on the card, or by preparing a new card. After typing, the tray is reviewed by the supervisor for errors in correction and in final filing arrangement. [p.36]
Another separate process for a reviser is the checking of the serial entries in the Union Catalog against the entries in the Union List of Serials and its supplements. Each entry in the Union List is searched in the catalog. If there are any variations of titles indicated in the Union List of Serials these should also be searched in the catalog. All variant cards including all duplicate cards for the same serial are gathered. Accepting the entry in the Union List of Serials as standard, the official entry is written on a slip. ‘See references’ from these variant entries as well as from title variations given in the Union List of Serials, to the official entry are written on slips, each of which is clipped to the corresponding variant card. These together with all duplicate entries, gathered in one group and covered by the ‘master’ slip carrying the official entry, are sent to the typist. Upon completion of the typing, the cataloger checks the entries and the stamper is instructed to place the location symbols for all duplicate cards on the one official entry card.