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An investigation into the theoretical foundations of library cataloguing and a critical analysis of the cataloguing of the South African national bibliography, 1981-1983

Includes bibliographical references.

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: De Jager, Karin
Other Authors: Smith, Janet Gretchen
Format: Thesis
Language:English
Published: Library and Information Studies Centre (LISC) 2016
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access_status_str Open Access
author De Jager, Karin
author2 Smith, Janet Gretchen
author_browse De Jager, Karin
Smith, Janet Gretchen
author_facet Smith, Janet Gretchen
De Jager, Karin
author_sort De Jager, Karin
collection Thesis
description Includes bibliographical references.
format Thesis
id oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/17860
institution University of Cape Town (South Africa)
language eng
last_indexed 2026-06-10T12:32:08.355Z
license_str Not specified — see source repository
provenance_str_mv Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
publishDate 2016
publishDateRange 2016
publishDateSort 2016
publisher Library and Information Studies Centre (LISC)
publisherStr Library and Information Studies Centre (LISC)
record_format dspace
source_str UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
spelling oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/17860 An investigation into the theoretical foundations of library cataloguing and a critical analysis of the cataloguing of the South African national bibliography, 1981-1983 De Jager, Karin Smith, Janet Gretchen Library and Information Science Includes bibliographical references. This thesis proposes that the foundations of the library catalogue are not rooted in a coherent, encompassing and comprehensive theoretical structure. Instead, it shows that it rests upon a number of principles that evolved during the nineteenth century from the work done by cataloguing experts such as Panizzi, Jewett and Cutter. These principles are shown to be either principles of access or of bibliographical description, and they still form the basis for the construction of modern catalogues according to the Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules, 2nd edition (AACR2). The South African National Bibliography (SANB) is then used as an example of an actual catalogue constructed according to the AACR2. A study is conducted of the cataloguing records in the SANB in order to establish how these Rules are put into practice, and how usable a catalogue may be produced according to these Rules and principles. It is concluded that the SANB is a high quality catalogue according to the standards set by the AACR2, but that such a catalogue may not be optimally useful from the point of view of the user. Certain ideas from Artificial Intelligence are then employed to find out to what extent a user is able to utilize the library catalogue as a channel of communication in order to gain maximum benefit from the information available in the catalogue. It is found that the user is indeed not equipped to make full use of the catalogue, and it is suggested that the potential for increased access facilities brought (v) about by computer technology may be employed to bridge the communication gap between the user and the cataloguer. The thesis therefore concludes that the established principles according to which catalogues are constructed, are inadequate for the formulation of a comprehensive theory of cataloguing, but a search for such a theory is shown to be ultimately inappropriate. Cataloguing is essentially a problem-solving pursuit which aims at the production of a tangible object; a usable catalogue. Modern computer technology has brought the library catalogue to a crossroads in its development, and a detailed study of user needs will have to form the basis for the development of additional principles according to which the new technology will most successfully be applied to library catalogues. 2016-03-17T07:05:50Z 2016-03-17T07:05:50Z 1984 Master Thesis Masters MBibl http://hdl.handle.net/11427/17860 eng application/pdf Library and Information Studies Centre (LISC) University of Cape Town
spellingShingle Library and Information Science
De Jager, Karin
An investigation into the theoretical foundations of library cataloguing and a critical analysis of the cataloguing of the South African national bibliography, 1981-1983
thesis_degree_str Master's
title An investigation into the theoretical foundations of library cataloguing and a critical analysis of the cataloguing of the South African national bibliography, 1981-1983
title_full An investigation into the theoretical foundations of library cataloguing and a critical analysis of the cataloguing of the South African national bibliography, 1981-1983
title_fullStr An investigation into the theoretical foundations of library cataloguing and a critical analysis of the cataloguing of the South African national bibliography, 1981-1983
title_full_unstemmed An investigation into the theoretical foundations of library cataloguing and a critical analysis of the cataloguing of the South African national bibliography, 1981-1983
title_short An investigation into the theoretical foundations of library cataloguing and a critical analysis of the cataloguing of the South African national bibliography, 1981-1983
title_sort investigation into the theoretical foundations of library cataloguing and a critical analysis of the cataloguing of the south african national bibliography 1981 1983
topic Library and Information Science
url http://hdl.handle.net/11427/17860
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AT dejagerkarin investigationintothetheoreticalfoundationsoflibrarycataloguingandacriticalanalysisofthecataloguingofthesouthafricannationalbibliography19811983