Using APPARAT: Cataloguing film and sound recordings at the Imperial War Museum Available to Purchase

The article provides a progress report on APPARAT, the Imperial War Museum's off‐line computer system used in the documentation of its archival collections of film and sound recordings. After opening with a reminder of APPARAT's vital role in the Museum's film preservation programme, the report concentrates on the system as a device for cataloguing the holdings. The catalogues and indexes generated by the system are illustrated and explained and the facilities for ad hoc enquiries outlined. Consideration is also given to areas in the system where room for improvement remains, including the resolution of a debate on subject indexing, and the provision of computer typesetting. The latter part of the article considers the system from the cataloguer's, rather than user's, viewpoint, in particular with reference to the conventional assumption that working on a computer cataloguing system is more demanding than operating a conventional system.