INTRODUCTION

CATALOGING BY AUTHOR AND SUBJECT
For many centuries the feature that gave a work its unique identity was the name of the writer, and users of the library were expected to know the names of the authors whose works they wished to consult. This system was eventually supplemented by the development of a subject catalog.
Many factors have contributed to the rise in importance of the subject approach to information. From the earliest times, librarians recognized that readers would be greatly helped if the catalog entries were arranged in groups of related subjects. General classifications of knowledge such as those of Aristotle and Porphyry, scholarly curricula such as the trivium and quadrivium (expounded by Julius Caesar’s librarian Marcus Terentius Varro and persisting as a major influence on Western education), and practical considerations, such as the governmental needs of emperors and priests, all have formed the basis for the arrangement of subject catalogs. Early in the 7th century the scholar Wei Cheng wrote the bibliographic section of the official Sui Dynasty History, dividing the books into four categories: Confucian classics, historical records, philosophical writings, and miscellaneous works.
Since the late 19th century far more attention has been paid to cataloging the subject contents of books as well as the names of their authors. Most of the impetus for this change came from science and technology, where the practice of working in teams in research institutions largely superseded the practice of single individuals, such as Charles Darwin, working for years to complete their research and then publishing the results as a book. The proliferation of specialist journals that publish short papers charting the progress of teamwork has meant that the names of single authors have become somewhat less important as tools for identifying works in