INNER FORMS OF A LIBRARY CATALOGUE:
We have given you an overview of the physical forms of a library catalogue w their features, merits and demerits. Closely related to the physical forms is the inner foul' a library catalogue, which determines the qualitative functions of the catalogue. The inner for of a library catalogue refers to the arrangement of catalogue entries in a logical and systematic order to fall into a helpful sequence for storage and retrieval. The cataloguing process comprises two operations.
The first is the creation of varieties entries for documents acquired by a library.
In this Unit, we are concerned only with the file organisation of catalogue entries. While there are many ways of arranging these entries in a helpful order, the three currently existing systems are:
• Alphabetical files
• Classified files
• Alphabetico-classed files
Alphabetical catalogue can be separately designed and constructed for authors, titles, names recording works on and by authors, subjects or all entries of authors, titles, subjects, etc. in one single alphabetical file, known as the dictionary catalogue. In classified files, the main entries are arranged according to the class number of the classification scheme chosen for the shelf organisation of documents in a library. This file is supported by an alphabetical index.