THE PHILADELPHIA BIBLIOGRAPHICAL CENTER
| Pages | 21-25 |
| Published date | 01 January 1945 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/eb026059 |
| Date | 01 January 1945 |
| Author | RUDOLF HIRSCH |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management,Library & information science |
THE PHILADELPHIA BIBLIOGRAPHICAL CENTER
by RUDOLF HIRSCH
Director
(on
leave)
of the
Center
THE
Philadelphia Bibliographical Center and Union Library Catalogue
developed out of two separate organizations: the Union Library Catalogue
of the Philadelphia Metropolitan Area and the Bibliographical Planning
Committee. It attemps to combine the function of a union catalogue—the
location of books—with a more ambitious programme, to render assistance
in work of bibliographical nature to individuals and librarians, and to act as
a focal point of library co-operation. The individual library, in Philadelphia
as in any other book centre, is primarily concerned with serving its own
stock to its own clientele. Any activity which is concerned with the com-
munity or the nation as a whole, which reaches outside the library's own
sphere of influence, has to be attended to in spare time. In contrast, a biblio-
graphical centre serves no specific group; it is concerned with all printed
material available in the area and, so far as bibliographical research is con-
cerned, with all such records available anywhere. Its function therefore
starts exactly where ordinarily that of the individual library ends. The
history of the Union Library Catalogue, the Bibliographical Planning
Committee, and the Bibliographical Center is the story of slow but steady
progress towards better documentation on a regional basis.
The Union Library
Catalogue.
The catalogue owes its inception to the
despair of five enterprising and far-sighted history professors; discouraged
by the difficulties of finding particular printed items needed for their research
or for teaching purposes in the 175 odd libraries of the area, they decided to
do something about it. In 1933 they formulated the need for a central
inventory to the rich but scattered resources of greater Philadelphia. Quite
logically the next steps taken were the definition of scope, experiments to
ascertain the most satisfactory method of compilation, and a campaign to
raise the necessary funds. By the end of 1935 plans had reached a definite
stage, and support had been secured from the federal government in the
form of labour (one of the many WPA projects) and from private founda-
tions and individuals in the form of grants. The actual compilation was
started in January 1936 under the able direction of Mr. Paul Vanderbilt,1
assisted by a small professional
staff.
The method of compiling the catalogue has been described in full in
Vanderbilt's Brief
account
(Philadelphia 1937), and is contrasted with other
methods in Union
catalogs
in the United States (ed. R. B. Downs, Chicago
1942).
Main entries and cross-references in the catalogues of the 151
libraries which had agreed to be included were photographed on 16-mm.
1 Then librarian of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, now connected with the Library of
Congress.
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