The Catalogue Stack, a New-Type Special Technical Library

Abstract

Catalogues containing descriptions of the most recent products are import ant sources of technical information. Catalogues are usually collected by the technical libraries. In the German Democratic Republic, the Textilmaschinen Institut in Karl Marx-Stadt possesses a major stack of catalogues where the material is being stored on the basic of the UDC system which, however, has been converted fcr purposes of their own. In the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic, the catalogue stack constitutes a section of the University Library. Its stock of 180.000 is also being stored according to the UDC.
The central stack of catalogues recently established in Hungary collects the desoriptions of equipment utilizable by enterprises under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Metalurgy and Engineering. The material is being collected partly by the aid of the Hungarian Chamber of Commerce, Technoimpex Foreign Trade Company. The Commercial Department of the Ministry of Metalurgy and Engineering, and the Hungarian Central Technical Library, partly by correspondence with firms abroad. The material is stacked mechanically. The problem of registry was solved by means of hand-sorted marginal punched cards and semi-automatic mechanical selection. A coding system is being employed for the latter by means of which the presumably large number of catalogues covering a great diversity of subjects can be handled in a simple and perspicuous manner.