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This article responds to Jonathan Tuttle's article “The Aphasia of Modern Subject Access” in which Roman Jakobson's semiology of “shared codes” consisting of preexisting signs is offered as the explanation for two redundant linguistic tools associated with cataloging: LCSH and LCC. The article criticizes Tuttle's terminology, his semiology, and his argument that selection and combination are both necessary for the operation of language but each are associated with only one of these tools. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article explores the writings of librarian Carlo Revelli as they pertain to cataloging, with particular focus given to the books "Il Catalogo," "Citazione bibliografica," and "La biblioteca come teoria e come pratica: antologia degli scritti." Particular focus is given to the relation between the practices of citation, cataloging, bibliography, and catalog searching. The author notes that cataloging is not an autonomous practice, but that it is connected with a variety of other library activities and literary practices.

Discussions of quality in library catalogs and bibliographic databases often refer to "the perfect record." This paper examines the usage of that phrase in the library literature, finding that its predominant use is as a rhetorical strategy for reducing the complex and context-dependent issue of quality to an absurdity, thus permitting the author to ignore or dismiss all issues of quality. Five documents in which the phrase is not used in this fashion are examined and their value for understanding the inextricably intertwined values of quantity and quality are discussed. The author recommends rejecting both the rhetoric of "the perfect record" and satisfaction with "the imperfect record." [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the presuppositions, goals, and implementations of policies for rapid cataloging in three large academic libraries in the United States. In the first model, The University of Chicago's W-Collection, there was no attempt to catalog materials; the order record alone is used and the items are shelved in a publicly accessible area by accession number. The second model, Princeton's ATA Procedure, made cataloging the initial activity upon receipt, the purpose of which was "to give the future librarians enough information to know if the item is already in the collection or not" and also to serve (with subject headings and classification) the library's users. Finally, Cornell's COR Procedure in which all information in the records is assumed to be temporary and therefore unimportant; the necessary information is expected to be acquired later from commercial sources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A response to David Bade to letters to the editors about his article "Rapid Cataloging: Three Models for Addressing Timeliness as an Issue of Quality in Library Catalogs," in the June 6, 2007 issue is presented.