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Dissertation Information for Maurice Freedman

NAME:
- Maurice Freedman

DEGREE:
- Ph.D.

DISCIPLINE:
- Library and Information Science

SCHOOL:
- Rutgers University (USA) (1983)

ADVISORS:
- Ralph Blasingame

COMMITTEE MEMBERS:
- Thomas H. Mott Jr.
- James D. Anderson
- John Yolton

MPACT Status: Fully Complete

Title: THE FUNCTIONS OF THE CATALOG AND THE MAIN ENTRY AS FOUND IN THE WORK OF PANIZZI, JEWETT, CUTTER, AND LUBETZKY

Abstract: The alphabetic library catalog has been viewed as having certain functions. These functions are twofold: (1) to enable the user of a library to determine if a particular publication is held by the library; (2) to present and relate for the user all of an author's works, and all of the representations--i.e., editions, translations, etc.--of a work. In the work of Panizzi, Jewett, Cutter, and Lubetzky, these functions have been observed, but only with Lubetzky are they explicitly and fully articulated.

The catalog's functions are understood as a reasonable response to two conditions of book-form (and similarly identified) materials. First, books are representations of works, and a given work may be represented by different titles. Second, authors of works may be identified or known by more than one form of name. Hence, the second or organizational function of the catalog becomes necessary.

The device by which this relatedness of author's works and the representations of a given work is demonstrated is the main entry. The main entry as an instrumentality for the achievement of the catalog's organizational function can be seen in the work of Panizzi, Jewett, Cutter, and Lubetsky. Cutter's definition of the main entry as the full entry was mistaken, and this mis-definition plagued the understanding of the main entry's instrumentality right up to the discussion of its value at the International Conference on Cataloguing Principles, Paris, 1961.

Lubetzky, the fourth of the major theoreticians studied, defined the main entry as the identification of a book (or similar publication) as the representation of a particular work by a particular author. Lubetzky's notion is functionally defined, and unlike his predecessors (and contemporaries), it is not contingent on the length of the catalog record or the technology by which the catalog is created.

Three problems are examined. How did the functions of the catalog and the main entry evolve in the work of Panizzi, Jewett, Cutter, and Lubetzky? How did the technologies of their respective catalogs influence their views of the catalog? And lastly, how does the modern capability of the computer affect the catalog's functions and the notion of main entry?

MPACT Scores for Maurice Freedman

A = 0
C = 0
A+C = 0
T = 0
G = 0
W = 0
TD = 0
TA = 0
calculated 2008-01-31 06:09:37

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