How to Make an Index

Classes

tter, which (to speak the truth) is but thinly spread. But I know all this is fair in trade, and you have a right to expect that the publick should purchase freely when you

those of names and places, which only require care and proper alphabetical arrangement. The makers of these often plume themselves upon t

their perseverance. John Marbeck stands at the head of this body of indefatigable workers who have placed the world under the greatest obligations. He was the first to publish a concordance of the Bible, [17] to be followed nearly two centuries later by the work of Alexander Cruden, whose name has almost become a synonym for a concordance. After the Bible come the works of Shakespeare, indexed by Samu

letters of the ABC ye maie redely finde any worde conteigned in the whole

but rather to point out that a dictionary such as those of Liddell and Scott, Littré, Murray, and Bradley, reaches the high watermark of

ng the most difficult to deal with. The indexing of books of logic and ethics will call forth all the powers of the indexer and show his capabilities;

great help to the indexer; but if the author does not present such headings, the index

a different method. A book must be thoroughly indexed; but the index of Journals and Transactions may be confined to th

r short. Sometimes it is not necessary to adopt the full index-frequently it is too expe

t. This ought to be the marked characteristic of the good i

s of the lady who confessed that she only indexed those points which specially interested her. We have fair warning of incomp

appendix and foot-notes, but a selection only is given of those

this is should be thoroughly indexed. However learned and judicious an editor may be, we do not

the Institution of Civil Engineers or of the Institution of Electrical Engineers. In the former, dynamos, transformers, secondary or storage batteries, alternate and continuous currents would p

ears, and that to the Catalogue of the Athen?um Club Library (1851) is an early specimen. The New York State Library Catalogue (1856) has an index, as have those of the Royal Medical a

tles of books are not drawn up on the same system or with any wish to help the indexer. Titles are seldom straightforward, for they are largely concocted to attract the readers, without any honest wish to express correctly the

in consists the great objection to the index composed of short titles, as in Dr. Crestadoro's Index to the Manchester Free Library Catalogue. Books almost entirely alike in subject are separated by reason of the different wording of the titles. It is much more convenient to gather together under one entry books

for those who cannot find what they want in the index, from having forgotten th

h by the same writer, who summed up the whole controversy. "A Scholar" expressed himself strongly against the proposal, and as he himself confesses he used very arrogant language. In consequence of which, most readers must have

catalogue proposed by the authorities of the British Museum would be a waste of money; (2) That

s to be said with aut

rtescu

rary.' I can assure you that the surprise of the studious public and of Europe in general cannot have surpassed my own when I thus learned of what the authorities were seriously contemplating. Nevertheless, it left me able, I thought, to discern that their vast conceptions had not been so fortunate as to gain the approval of 'a Scholar' and to marvel whence The Times and other great journals had drawn their truly surprising i

e-yearly indexes M

ident of The Library Association I should say 'in quinquennial') volumes. The Museum sweeps its net so wide and in such remote seas that a more or less complete collection of books on almost every subject or historical event is gathered within it for future students. To take only two incidents from the last year or two, the next index will contain not less than a hun

uminating to the readers in free libraries, most of whom are probably not versed in the niceties of bibliographical arrangement, but are more likely to want a book on a particular subject than to requir

a waste of power, because if several large libraries of a similar character do the same thing, there is constant repetition and considerable loss by the unnecessary outlay. If a fairly complete standard index we

as the voice of one crying in the wilderness-that the dictionary catalogue has won its battle-but even so, perhaps the more so, do I feel it the part of a serious and immovable conviction to declare my belief that-for student and librarian alike-this twofold catalogue, author and subject each in its own division, is the best catalogue a library can have, and that the dictionary cata