I do not see many corporate author headings. I'm surprised no main editor is listed. I put this on reserve for some reason I cannot recall. Maybe I felt I should read for library reasons.
Kind of a mini-coffee table book. I would type down the book's dimensions but, curiously enough, the LOC cataloging-in-publication data does not list dimensions. In a book about cataloging no less.
Anyhoo. The book has plenty of nice photos of old books, old cat cards, and other ephemeria. The text is a brief history on libraries and how library records were organized. From listing of title and author to the first methods of categorizing by subject.
Keep in mind that most libraries were stand alone institutions with their own record schemes. There was sharing of information among some institutions but finding information could be difficult. The printing press meant some standardization started by listing title, author, publisher, place of pub., and subject matter were easy to find in the front pages.
Records went from bound books listing collections to initial attempts of using playing cards as cat. cards. All the way to the ultimately unwieldy size of card catalog collections that necessitated digitization.
The book was interesting enough to me, I don't know if you will care. The text itself is a pretty fast read as long as no one is interrupting you and you don't mind holding a book with odd dimensions as you lay in bed.
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