Library Cataloguing: Principles and Practices

As per the dictionary meaning a ‘Catalogue’ is a complete, usually alphabetical list of items, often with details. In case of libraries, catalogue is a list of all the books or resources of a library. Every library professional and student must be aware of fundamental principles. Though in the digital age cataloguing has become on-line, yet the procedures are same. A brief and authentic account of the same is presented here. In libraries the principal index or list of available materials is called the catalogue. A catalogue is a list of books, maps, coins, stamps, sound recordings, or materials in any other medium that constitute a collection. Its prime purpose is to record, describe and index the holdings of a special collection. The collection may be private or it may represent the resources of a museum or of a library. Cataloguing is the process of preparing a catalogue, or of preparing bibliographic records that will become entries in a catalogue.