The Library World Volume 7 Issue 11 Available to Purchase

Hitherto, we have discussed the advisability of issuing a magazine, and have entered with some degree of minuteness into the underlying financial principles; we now have to consider the arrangement of the contents. So much controversy has raged over the question of classified versus dictionary or alphabetical cataloguing, that it will be unnecessary to recapitulate the pros and cons. On the whole, the classified method has met with most favour, and experience has taught us that it is undoubtedly the better for magazine purposes. In this, we are in accordance with nearly all librarians publishing magazines. Indeed, in magazine work, where as a rule only one entry is given to a book, the alphabetical method is inadequate. It resolves itself into an alphabetical list either under authors' names, or under catchword subjects which is useless in showing the relation of one book to another. A properly classified list—preferably classified according to some recognized systematic scheme—on the other hand, displays the accessions to the library much more effectively, and does fulfil the necessary function just mentioned.