Centralized Cataloging in College and University Libraries

A COMPLEX PROBLEM in some college and university libraries is the administration of departmental libraries.2 This paper is concerned with the administrative problems and policies of the central catalog department in cataloging for dePartmentat libraries.The study is pursued only from the viewpoint of the catalog department.The viewpoint of the departmental library is not considered except insofar as the catalog department attempts to meet it in providing the best possible cataloging service with the resources at its disposal.In I94I and I945 through questionnaires sent to twenty-four college and university libraries holding from I 50,000 to 300,000 volumes, answers were sought to the following questions: What catalog records are kept for department libraries and where are they kept?Who makes and < maintains those records?Are variations from the central library routine cataloging procedures necessary for departmental libraries?Who is responsible for decisions?In other words, Is cataloging centralized in a single department?Is it decentralized, each departmental library cataloging its own material?Or is • there a division of labor and responsibility between the central catalog department and the departmental library?How are the attendant problems handled?Definition.A departmental library, in library literature, has been used to cover various types of special collections, brows-