Time and The Catalogue

This paper explores the multiple ways in which concepts of time are incorporated in cataloguing and classification to see how these temporal concepts influence how material is organised in library space. It discusses multiple concepts, including the structural influences of the capitalist ‘exchange-view’ of time in how the discipline is organised and its incorporation into the so-called ‘universal’ cataloguing systems. The continued issues of obsolescence within cataloguing systems as language and concepts constantly evolve, and how these are integrated into the systems themselves. The paper also discusses the semantic difficulties with how time itself is expressed within cataloguing systems, as time is one of the most widely expressive subjects in the English language. However, a significant amount of time related words are reliant on socially constructed context for their meaning, making them complicated to effectively express in cataloguing systems. Finally, it discusses how researchers have used the temporal issues in cataloguing as a way to examine the evolution of society and hold up mirrors to both the system and ourselves.