Inner forms of Library Catalogue

INNER FORMS OFA CATALOGUE
The inner form of a library catalogue refers to the arrangement of a catalogue entry in a logical and systematic order to fall into a helpful sequence for storage and retrieval. The chart below depicts the various inner forms of a catalogue.
INNER FORMS OF CATALOGUES

There are three types of inner forms of a catalogue, viz. alphabetical, classified and alphabetico-classed. Author, Name, Title, Subject and Dictionary catalogue fall in the
category of an alphabetical catalogue. A Classified Catalogue is so named because it is arranged in a classified order. Classified order is an artificial order which may be difficult to use. Hence a classified catalogue has two parts the other part being alphabetical which is easy to use and leads the user to the classified part. Alphabetico-classed catalogue is a variation of the classified catalogue. It overcomes the shortcoming of the artificiality of a classified arrangement by making it classified alphabetically.

Types of Inner Forms of Library Catalogue:

While enumerating the types or inner forms of library catalogue James Ormerod observes, “Catalogues like sentences or grammar, are of three kinds: simple, compound and complex. A simple catalogue may be either an author, title, or subject catalogue; a compound catalogue is a combination of two simple entries (author and title, for instance, or author and subject); and a complex catalogue is one containing subjects, titles, and series in subordination to the principle (author) entry. The last group belongs to the dictionary and classified types” (the style in card catalogue). Ormerod has mentioned the types or divisions of inner forms based on nature. This is also correct. However, it will be more beneficial to divide the internal forms on the basis of mode or order of arrangement of entries because the inner forms are determined and recognized by the order in which these are arranged.

Based on arrangement, we can have the following types of inner forms:

Alphabetical catalogue: An alphabetical library catalogue is a type of catalogue in which entries are arranged based on alphabets (and not based on any number of notations) is known as alphabetical catalogue. In other words, an alphabetical catalogue is arranged alphabetically.
Classified catalogue: Classified catalogue is primarily a subject catalogue arranged based on notation. This is its original form. Margret Man had defined a classified catalogue thus. But arrangement by notation or class number alone can satisfy only the subject approach, and author approaches will remain unsatisfied, resulting in limited use of classified catalogue, and
Alphabetico-classed catalogue: It is a form of subject catalogue which combines the qualities of an alphabetical catalogue and a classified catalogue both. The alphabetical catalogue is appreciated for its easy arrangement of entries.

The alphabetical catalogue can further be divided as under:

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