Normative Principles of cataloguing

The Normative Principles of Cataloguing are fundamental rules, standards, and guides designed to evaluate, develop, and apply catalogue codes effectively. These principles govern the entire process of cataloguing, from drafting a catalogue code to interpreting rules to meet new situations and guiding day-to-day cataloguing work.

The principles guide cataloguing work in conformity with the Basic Laws and the Laws of Library Science, providing a scientific and systematic approach to the field.

I. Ranganathan's Normative Principles for Cataloguing (CCC)

S.R. Ranganathan provided an integrated theory of library classification and cataloguing, formulating a comprehensive set of normative principles, including Basic Laws, Fundamental Laws, Canons, and Postulates. The Classified Catalogue Code (CCC) explicitly incorporates the fundamental laws and canons of cataloguing in its structure.

A. Fundamental Laws of Library Science

The five Fundamental Laws of Library Science (proposed by Ranganathan in 1931) serve as the highest level of normative principles, providing the philosophical base for the entire discipline of library science, including cataloguing. These laws are applicable to any problem in library science and practice:

1. Books are for Use.
2. Every Reader His Book (or Her Book).
3. Every Book Its Reader.
4. Save the Time of the Reader.
5. A Library is a Growing Organism.

B. Canons of Cataloguing

Ranganathan specifically applied the concept of "canons" (rules, regulations, standard tests, or criteria) to the division of library science disciplines, such as classification and cataloguing. The canons are invoked in the design of a scheme of library classification or cataloguing.

Although the sources detail Ranganathan's 43 canons primarily in the context of classification, CCC applies these principles to its structure. They are grouped into three planes of work:

1. Idea Plane (Thinking/Policy): Deals with the intellectual analysis and structuring of subjects, defining characteristics, arrays, and chains.
2. Verbal Plane (Terminology/Language): Deals with the language and terminology used in the scheme, requiring terms to be current, non-critical, and context-specific, avoiding homonyms and synonyms.
3. Notational Plane (Symbols/Mechanism): Deals with the notation system used to mechanize the arrangement of subjects, requiring the removal of homonyms and synonyms in class numbers, reflecting hierarchy, and ensuring hospitality.

C. Basic Laws

Ranganathan also formulated six basic laws that govern the general thinking process and may be invoked when two or more Laws of Library Science or Canons lead to conflicting or equally valid decisions. These include:

• Law of Interpretation: Requires the interpretation of canons, principles, postulates, and rules of classification (or cataloguing) like a legal text.
• Law of Impartiality: Requires that preference between alternatives (e.g., choice of first position among two facets, or the needs of different user categories) should be made only on sufficient, non-arbitrary grounds.
• Law of Symmetry: Prescribes that if two entities are symmetrical counterparts, and one is given weight, the other should also be given a corresponding weight.
• Law of Parsimony: Directs that the alternative leading to the overall economy of manpower, material, money, and time, considered together with proper weightage, is to be preferred.
• Law of Local Variation: Directs that techniques should provision for users to secure alternative results for strictly local use compared to general use.
• Law of Osmosis: Prescribes the procedure for introducing a new code or scheme (recataloguing only the frequently used and newly acquired materials) to satisfy the canons of context and the law of parsimony.

II. AACR Normative Principles

The Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules, Second Edition (AACR2), which emerged in 1979, was compiled to respond to increasing mechanization, the growth of centralized and cooperative bibliographic services, and the introduction of new media.

A. Objectives of AACR2

The main objectives of AACR2 reflect its normative principles, focusing on standardization, integration, and responsiveness to media changes:

• Integration and Uniformity: To create a single code that covers all library materials and conforms to the International Standard Bibliographic Description for monographs (ISBD(M)).
• Standardization: To ensure the bibliographic description of all types of materials adheres to the principles of standardization.
• Centralized Cataloguing: To meet the needs of large research libraries and support centralized and cooperative bibliographic services.

B. Structure and Description

AACR2's structure embodies key principles for standardization in description and access:

• Two Parts: Part I covers rules for standard description of all kinds of library material (often based on ISBD). Part II deals with the determination and establishment of headings, or access points, under which the descriptive information is presented to users.
• Levels of Description: AACR2 prescribes three levels of description (First, Second, and Third Level) to allow libraries flexibility in their cataloguing policy, providing minimum, medium, and maximum detail respectively. This ensures conformity with bibliographic standards while allowing for material-specific needs.
• Source of Information: Rules, such as those in AACR-1, emphasized taking details from the title page of the item catalogued rather than outside sources.
• User-Centric Headings: AACR-1 sought to correspond more closely to the patterns of intelligent users, giving preference to the form of name preferred or used by the author.

III. General Cataloguing Principles

Beyond the specific codes, general principles guide the construction of catalogues:

• Cutter's Objectives (The Foundational Principles): Charles Ammi Cutter (1876) formulated core objectives that serve as cataloguing principles:
  1. To enable a person to find a book if the author, title, or subject is known.
  2. To show what the library has by a given author, on a given subject, or in a given kind of literature.
  3. To assist the user in the choice of a book as to its edition, content, or physical form.
• Collocation: The principle that the catalogue should facilitate the location of all books of an author, bringing them together in one place.
• Specific and Direct Entry: A document must be assigned directly under the most specific subject heading that accurately represents its content.
• Convenience of the Public (Pragmatism): Cutter declared that the convenience of the public is always to be set before the ease of the cataloguer. This favored flexibility over strict consistency when user habits clashed with systematic rules.
• Standardization: Jewett's principle of standardization required that rules for cataloguing be stringent, leaving nothing to the individual taste or judgment of the cataloguer to ensure uniformity among libraries. The effort toward standardization led to the International Conference on Cataloguing Principles (ICCP) in 1961.