Catalog or Catalogue?: Examining a Library Dilemma

Beall, Jeffrey Catalog or Catalogue?: Examining a Library Dilemma., 2004 UNSPECIFIED. (Unpublished) [Other]

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English abstract

The variant spellings catalog and catalogue create problems for librarianship by causing confusion, hindering research, and betraying the standardization the profession values. The predominant spelling in Britain (catalogue) differs from the predominant spelling in the U.S. (catalog), but within the U.S. both spellings are commonly used. Both of these different practices create inconsistencies. Although the spelling catalog has long been prescribed in the U.S., it has not fully caught on. The spelling catalog is far more common on the Web than catalogue. The best solution to this dilemma for librarians may be to not use this outmoded term at all.

Item type: Other
Keywords: catalog, catalogue, cataloging, cataloguing, American English, British English, spelling
Subjects: I. Information treatment for information services > IA. Cataloging, bibliographic control.
Depositing user: Jeffrey Beall
Date deposited: 22 Nov 2005
Last modified: 02 Oct 2014 12:02
URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10760/6859

References

Beall, Jeffrey. “What OCLC and RLIN Don’t Want You to Know about the Future of Cataloguing.” PNLA Quarterly 66, no. 3 (Spring 2002): 9-10.

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Mencken, H.L. The American Language: an Inquiry into the Development of English in the United States. 4th ed. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1965.

Simplified Spelling Board. Handbook of Simplified Spelling. New York: Simplified Spelling Board, 1919.

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Google Advanced Search. Online, http://www.google.com/advanced_search.html Searches performed in February, 2004.

Anglo-American Cataloging Rules. 2nd ed, 2002 revisions, 2003 update. Chicago: American Library Association, 2003.


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