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A: Augsburg-Innenstadt, Augsburg, Bayern, Germany

Florian Trefler Builds upon Gessner's Library Classifcation Scheme

1560

Methodus exhibens per varios indices, et classes subinde, quorumlibet librorum cuiuslibet bibliothecae, breve, facilem imitabilem ordinationem published in Augsburg in 1560 provided an innovative scheme for library organization. Written by the Benedictine monk Florian Trefler, the small work attempted to address the difficulty of finding books in uncatalogued libraries in which there was no discernable order.

"He devised a scheme of classification and call numbers quite advanced for his time, in spite of the fact that one unit in the call number was made to represent the color of the binding. He advocated a five-part catalogue which consisted of an alphabetical author catalogue, a shelf list, a classified index to analytics, an alphabetical index to the classified index, and finally, a list of books which, for various reasons, were not kept with the main collection. Catalogues made according to Trefler's plan would have been far ahead of their time indeed. He had a comprehension of the value of providing more than one means of access to a book, something wholly unknown in his day. In another way, too, Trefler showed himself progrssive, i.e., in following Gesner's suggestion for the use of the Pandectarum as a library catalog. Trefler recommended that a checked copy of it be used as one section of his proposed plan for a catalogue, namely the subject index to analytical entries" (Stout, "The Development of the Catalog and Cataloging Codes," Library Quarterly 26 (1956) 263).

Digital facsimile from the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek at this link.

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