Description and annotation in catalogues: reader requirements

THIS IS AN account of an exploratory study into a particular aspect of catalogue use which formed part of a large and broader based enquiry. There have been many signs, in recent years, of growing enthusiasm among British librarians to investigate the use made of catalogues, the significance of various parts of what has come to be accepted as a typical full entry, and the kind of information which readers bring to a catalogue when commencing a search. In 1969, the Library Association Cataloguing and Indexing Group initiated a programme for a planned national catalogue use study to be organised on a co‐operative basis by the schools of librarianship. This began with a pilot survey and eventually led to the fuller study of Spring 1971—the larger and broader based enquiry mentioned above. At the time of writing, the statistics from this are still being analysed and correlated by computer, although a description of the background, methodology and problems has appeared. The comments made in both this enquiry and its pilot survey have, however, been analysed and they suggested that certain further studies devoted to particular aspects of the catalogue might prove rewarding, although it was realised that these might produce ‘impressionistic’ rather than strictly scientific results As a result, the Manchester and Belfast schools combined to carry out a short study on the value of various items of description and of notes or annotation in catalogues.