Similarly, many people seem to entertain the misconception that cataloguing in a library means simply the making of a list of the books that it possesses. Had it been so simple, libraries and librarians would have been happier. A perfect catalogue has not yet been devised, and even when the best of classifying and cataloguing methods are adopted, the ideal catalogue is not attained. An efficient catalogue generally consists of three parts, (1) an Authors’ catalogue, (2) a Title catalogue, and (3) a Classified catalogue, though very often many libraries manage with only two of these because of the expenditure involved. The problems of Classification and Cataloguing are so exacting that “Responsible cataloguing should never be undertaken by Assistants who have not been specially trained for the work. Rule of thumb methods may possibly be permitted in some of the aspects of routine; put here they would be worse than useless.” “The main essential for successful cataloguing is a trained and adequate knowledge.” (Doubleday’s Library Routine).
Then there also appears to be an idea in the public mind that libraries spend an unnecessary amount on the staff and very little on books. As a matter of fact, even supposing no new books are purchased the expenditure on staff will be necessary for upkeep and service. Looking to the statements of accounts published by public libraries elsewhere, on an average 40 per cent. of the total expenditure of a public library is spent on the staff, whereas only 14 per cent. is spent on books. The larger the library, the greater the contrast. The cost of the staff necessary for the network of libraries proposed by us must therefore be considerable. Apart from this, binding of books alone, in a library, takes up about 7 per cent, of its total expenses. In the present case it will be higher for obvious reasons. The Central and the Regional libraries will have also to provide larger space by extending their buildings, if our recommendations are accepted. They will have to put up additional shelving, additional furniture and will have to make additional provision for binding their
own books as well as copyright books that will be received. They will have to make additional arrangement for the cataloguing, management and up-keep of the copyright libraries also, and will have to increase their staff in order to carry out all the functions stated above.
If the Bombay Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society is entrusted with the work of the Central library, they also will have to purchase a number of reference and general books and in some cases duplicates of some of the books which they already have, and will have to keep a number of periodicals to which they do not normally subscribs. All this will be necessary in order to make it a good Reference Library and to supplement the resources of the Regional and other libraries as we have already mentioned above. Additional accommodation will have to be immediately provided for readers in the Cental library. We understand that even now the Society’s library wants more accommodation for its own use. We find that the South portion of the Town Hall is utilised by Government for the occasional use of some Committee or Commission etc. or other or for some temporary department. It may be possible for Government to allot that portion of the town Hall to the Society for the purposes of forming a reading room for students as well as for providing the additional accommodation that will be immediately needed.
Another urgent need will be to make an additional copy of their catalogue for the use of the readers in the Cental library, as one copy only of the catalogue cannot be conveniently used for reference at both the places and by a large number of people.
The greater problem of the Union Catalogue also will have to be undertaken. This will involve a very large expense in the beginning. All these additional needs, mentioned above will necessitate an additional trained staff as well as menial staff, as the work of Reference at the Central Library, its co-ordination work with the
libraries and its part in the movement will have to be attended to. The Copyright Library also will have to be run by the Society.
The requirements of the Regional libraries will be more or less on the same basis but on a smaller scale. At Ahmedabad the immediate need would be an extension in addition to the one already planned by the Municipal Library. If an initial building and shelving grant is not possible, we recommend that the Library be allowed to divert some portion of its annual recurring grant for this purpose, say, during the first four or five years. We recommend the same procedure for grants at Poona and Dharwar. At both these places the institutions recommended have space available for the necessary extension of accommodation, but the immediate expenditure involved will have to be made up gradually if it cannot be met in one year.