The so-called or PI (English: Prussian instructions) are a
cataloging
In library and information science, cataloging ( US) or cataloguing ( UK) is the process of creating metadata representing information resources, such as books, sound recordings, moving images, etc. Cataloging provides information such as auth ...
set of rules for libraries which was used in
scientific libraries in German-speaking countries and beyond. First published in 1899, the PI were replaced by other sets of rules such as the (RAK) from the 1980s onwards,
which in turn have been replaced by the
Resource Description and Access
Resource Description and Access (RDA) is a standard for descriptive cataloging initially released in June 2010, providing instructions and guidelines on formulating bibliographic data. Intended for use by libraries and other cultural organization ...
(RDA) rules since 2015.
History
Already in 1874 (hectographed edition) and 1886 (printed edition),
Karl Franz Otto Dziatzko
Karl Franz Otto Dziatzko (27 January 1842 - 13 January 1903, Göttingen) was a German librarian and scholar, born in Neustadt, Silesia. of the University Library at
Breslau had presented a set of cataloging rules under the title "", also known as "" (English: Wroclaw instructions).
In there, the order of the titles was defined, but not the
bibliographic record A bibliographic record is an entry in a bibliographic index (or a library catalog) which represents and describes a specific resource. A bibliographic record contains the data elements necessary to help users identify and retrieve that resource, as ...
ing.
In 1890, the in Berlin created "instructions" that regulated the admission but not the order of entries.
In 1899, a compromise arose from these two sets of instructions, resulting in the first uniform set of rules, the "" (PI). They were first published on 10 May 1899 under the title "".
, a later employee of
Friedrich Althoff
Friedrich Althoff (1839-1908), was head of the university department in the Prussian Ministry of Education, and played a leading role in developing the research university in Prussia. This system became the model for research universities in the U ...
, played a decisive role in the creation of the PI. The second edition appeared in 1908.
The PI formed the basis for the , the later (English: German General Catalog).
During their time, the PI were a major step forward in the German library landscape and they were occasionally adopted also outside of
Prussia
Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an em ...
. Despite their role model, it was often not possible to achieve a uniform and fully consistent application of the guidelines in the cataloging of some important libraries in Bavaria, Hesse, Saxony and at other traditional German library locations before the introduction of digital computers. In the international network of libraries, those rules which were tied to the structure of the German language and therefore difficult to transfer into other languages, have been replaced by other sets of rules.
One of the peculiarities of the PI is that multi-author writings (with four or more authors) and factual title writings were sorted according to the principle of ''grammatical order''.
This means that typically the first independent
noun
A noun () is a word that generally functions as the name of a specific object or set of objects, such as living creatures, places, actions, qualities, states of existence, or ideas.Example nouns for:
* Living creatures (including people, alive, d ...
is relevant for the classification in the
(card) catalog. Articles and prepositions are ignored. In addition, there are no entries in the PI under corporate bodies.
Titles are arranged grammatically not mechanically, and literature is entered under its title.
There is no difference between the letters "I" and "J" to be made, and German
umlauts are sorted alongside their non-diacritical letters.
Scientific transliteration
Scientific transliteration, variously called ''academic'', ''linguistic'', ''international'', or ''scholarly transliteration'', is an international system for transliteration of text from the Cyrillic script to the Latin script (romanization). Thi ...
of Cyrillic into Latin was first introduced in 1898 as part of the standardization process for the PI. The publications of an author are divided into groups: first, editions of works are listed, then partial collections, fragments and excerpts from works, only then followed by individual writings.
The application of the rules is comparatively complex and unsuitable for online catalogs such as
Online Public Access Catalogue
The online public access catalog (OPAC), now frequently synonymous with ''library catalog'', is an online database of materials held by a library or group of libraries. Online catalogs have largely replaced the analog card catalogs previously u ...
(OPAC), consequently they are rarely used today. In the case of
library catalog
A library catalog (or library catalogue in British English) is a register of all bibliographic items found in a library or group of libraries, such as a network of libraries at several locations. A catalog for a group of libraries is also c ...
s following
keyword
Keyword may refer to:
Computing
* Keyword (Internet search), a word or phrase typically used by bloggers or online content creator to rank a web page on a particular topic
* Index term, a term used as a keyword to documents in an information syste ...
s or correspondingly structured directories, knowledge of these rules is still helpful, however. Also, historical holdings still exist in libraries which are organized in catalogs based on the PI system.
See also
*
DIN 1505
DIN or Din or din may refer to:
People and language
* Din (name), people with the name
* Dīn, an Arabic word with three general senses: judgment, custom, and religion from which the name originates
* Dinka language (ISO 639 code: din), spoken by ...
*
Paris Principles Agreements and declarations resulting from meetings in Paris include:
Listed by name
Paris Accords
may refer to:
* Paris Accords, the agreements reached at the end of the London and Paris Conferences in 1954 concerning the post-war status of Germa ...
(PP)
* (BA)
* (RAK)
*
Scientific transliteration of Cyrillic
Scientific transliteration, variously called ''academic'', ''linguistic'', ''international'', or ''scholarly transliteration'', is an international system for transliteration of text from the Cyrillic script to the Latin script (romanization). Thi ...
*
References
Further reading
*
*
*
*
*
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Preussische Instruktionen
Library history
Library cataloging and classification
Science and technology in Prussia