Bibliographies of printed (book) catalogues are rare and are to be welcomed, especially when published as inexpensively as the item under review. Listed are 3,355 separately printed catalogues including supplements covering the period 1801‐1875. The scope of the work is all institutional libraries, including law libraries, state agencies, legislative bodies, railroad libraries and libraries for linguistic minorities as well as the more conventional public, academic and religious.
Having been engaged for ten years on a similar project on a much more modest geographical scale which is unlikely to see the light of day this side of retirement, I find it interesting to note similarities and wonder how universally applicable they are.
Most of the items listed are essentially local publications being printed and distributed locally and were rarely recorded and distributed through the book trade. More than a quarter are known only in one copy, indicating a low survival rate and are held in libraries near to where they were first published. Many are not held by major research libraries. The compiler estimates that about 1,000 have disappeared or not been traced.
Statistical analysis of bibliographies of printed catalogues yield valuable data to the library historian and there is some here. Almost one‐third of the catalogues emanate from one state, Massachusetts, and only one from Texas, an opportunity to confirm old prejudices? In the bibliographic records themselves many items are recorded as having 50 pages or less, a reminder that, in the printed catalogue, we are dealing to a large extent, with pamphlet literature. Perhaps in the bibliographic record an opportunity has been lost. The value of the record would have been greatly extended if the number of volumes held in the library had been indicated, if known, the existence of regulations and information about the library, an indication of the arrangement used and whether a set of cataloguing rules was used in compilation. As the compiler himself points out, these catalogues are a valuable source for the history of cataloguing and the addition of relevant details would have extended the value of the bibliography.
Nevertheless, the work is a real quarry and will be of value to social and cultural historians as well as librarians. As the compiler points out the analytical possibilities of individual catalogues or groups of them are enormous.
