The Use of Overseas Cataloging in Australia with Special Reference to library of Congress Cataloging

LIBRARY OF CoNGRESS cataloging as a form of central cataloging has taken place of British cataloging in British coun­ tries, and in particular Australia. It. is, however, one library's cataloging, and on all important subject cataloging or in­ formation retrieval side, in its subject headings and their arrangement, it is, in its own words, the product of evolution­ ary forces from 1897 to date. Not all its headings are fittest to survive; they are not evenly up-to-date in choice, and they are inconsistent in form, so that for information retrieval they are a function­ ally inferior mixture. This paper does not propose to be an exhaustive proof of these propositions, nor is it result of an exhaustive study; it is rather evidence that there should be one-constructive as well as destructive­ of by-product central cataloging becom­ ing cataloging not only of libraries in its own country, not only of libraries fair­ ly contemporary with it, but also of new libraries-new bottles in which old wine turned to vinegar is being increas­ ingly poured; of libraries in foreign coun­ tries (which are however close, free world allies of America in every re­ spect).