Znt. Libr. Rev. (1981) 13, 201-209

Cataloguing Indian English Language Newspapers : A Bibliographical and His torical Study

DOROTHY WALKER*

Full cataloguing, as opposed to listing, of newspapers is a relatively recent innovation. In 1975 the Library of Congress inaugurated “a cataloging program under which each title will be given full biblio- graphic treatment. Heretofore, the Library of Congress has not at- tempted to catalogue newspapers, nor have many other libraries. Under this program the Serials Division, in cooperation with elements of the Processing Department, will develop the data and make them available in several formats-e.g. printed cards and MARC-Serials tapes. Work has begun on US domestic titles now in the collection and will proceed to include foreign titles”1 A newspaper cataloguing manual is being prepared by the Library of Congress, and bibliographic guide lines will be available late in 1979 to participants in the US Newspaper project.2 The British Library, published its Catalogue of the Newspaper Library, Colindale in eight volumes in 1975, and included details of volume numbering, and a useful index by place. Lack of time and staff resources for this undertaking excluded the possibility of including a great deal of information concerning for example, mergers, or other bibliographical detail which is usually included when cataloguing periodicals.

A card catalogue of the Newspaper Collection in the India Office Library was completed in 1975, with main entry by title, and a place index with full unit entries to save referring back to the title entries. The catalogue was edited and published in 1977.3 The Newspaper Collection whilst large in no way compares in size with the two national

* India Office Library, 197 Blackfriars Road, London SE1 8NG, England.

1 Qmterly 3ournal of the Library of Congress, 32, 1975, 232. 2 National Prcseruafion Report, 1, no. 1, April 1979, 9. 3 Dorothy Walker (1977). Catalogue of the Newspaper Collection in the India O&e Library,

Occasional publications no. 2, pp. ix+ 19. London: India Office Library and Records.

OOZO-7837/81/020201+09 $02.00/O 0 1981 Academic Press Inc. (London) Limited

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collections mentioned above, but is important as the largest collection of English-language South Asian newspapers. It contains many rare and some unique titles, but in cataloguing it, and even more since then, I have become aware of how many titles, or parts of titles, have not been preserved at all. The main reasons for this are the sheer size and bulk of a newspaper collection and the poor quality of much of the paper on which newspapers are usually printed. This, in turn, is also a reason, taken together with inadequate and cramped storage, why the cataloguing of newspapers has been slow to develop. When the Newspaper Collection of the India Office Library was moved into a new repository it was possible to prepare a catalogue in place of the previous brief list, which gave only year dates and place of publication. Since the cataloguing was completed it has been possible to make some fuller, or revised, entries as a result of the collation of volumes being prepared for microfilming, and also from additional information about the history of the press in India found in other sources in the India Office Library and Records.

The India Office Library and Records is including its holdings of periodicals and newspapers in the computer held University of London Union List of Serials, following AACR (2) and ISBD (S). It will be possible to provide the basic information from our existing catalogue, but there are aspects of cataloguing newspapers which are, I think, not adequately covered in AACR (2) or ISBD (S). Experience in cata- loguing a medium-sized, specialised collection of newspapers has raised the following points considered in the same order as in AACR (Z), ch. 12.

12.1, Title, etc. The recording of a title, and a sub-title may seem a simple operation, but for newspapers there are various pitfalls for the unwary. With short-title listing only the subtlety of such changes as from Madras Mail to Mail tend to be overlooked. Sub-titles, or enlarged descriptive titles, and discrepancies in the running title, or even the leader title, are not adequately covered for newspapers. The most satisfactory way of dealing with such problems is often in the form of a note. For example the Bombay Times,’ one of the forerunners of the Times of India had as its full title the Bombay Times and journal of com- merce. In some earlier published union lists, which did not include volume numbers, this was listed as a separate title. In printed catalogues

1 The inclusion of the definite article before a title is not usual when catalog&g serials, and it does not seem to be necessary to diverge from this convention when cataloguing newspapers. Hart’s Rules allow The ‘Gime~ and The Economist to be exceptions, but cata- loguing practice, rather than the conventions of bibliographical description have been followed in this article. The absence of The before a title does not therefore preclude its presence as part of the title.

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it is possible to indicate such descriptive additions to the title proper by a different weight of type, or even type face, but in typed and computer listings this is not usually possible. The Bengal Hurkaru had, at times, an extremely complicated form of title heading, which also was not an accurate guide to the ancestry of the paper. The title in January 1828 was: Bengal Hurkaru and Chronicle a new series of the Bengal Hurkaru- Clalcutta Journal-Scotsman in the East --Columbian Press Gazette & Bengal Chronicle. A knowledge of the history of the press in Calcutta is necessary to unravel this tangle, which misled earlier cataloguers. The Calcutta Journal had its licencr revoked in November 1823, and the last issues were published soon after the founding editor, John Silk Buckingham, was deported in April 1823. From 12 February 1824 the presses were used for the Scotsman in the East, which was published until about 1825. The copyright was sold to Smith and Lock, proprietors of the Bengal Hurkaru, and incorporated in its title in January 1828. The other titles listed have a more direct ancestry. The Columbian l’ress Gazette was published from 29 October 1824 to about June 1826, ~\lren the proprietor d’Rozario, obtained a cancellation of the licence in favour of a new title, the Bengal C’hroniAe from about 1 July 1826. However, when this was incorporated into the daily Bengal Hurkaru in -January 1828, it continued until September 1834 as its second edition, published three times a kveek, and still with the title Bengal Chronicle. It is hardly surprising that such complications caused inaccurate bibliographical listings before any detailed cataloguing was attempted, especially when it is realised that some of these titles1 have not survived at all.

L:nless it is possible to indicate such subsidiary or descriptive parts of the title in a lower case, or different type face it seems more satisfactory to confine them to notes and would be essential if the entry is to be machine readable. It is possible too that the unwary can assume that another title existed and was incorporated, c.g. Malacca Government Gazette, when the newspaper was only enlarging its title to Prince oj’ tilale.r Island, Singapore and Malacca G’ouernment Gazette (see also below 12.7).

A feature of Indian English language ne\\.spaper publishing was the editions published mainly for readers in Great Britain. Some “Overland Mail” editions date from the 184Os, when they reached London in from four to six weeks. The opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 shortened the time from three to four weeks, depending on whether they were transferred to the quicker rail route via Marseilles or Brindisi, and these editions now became weekly rather than monthly or semi-monthly.

1 E.g. Lblumbinn Press Gazette.

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The day of publication was often changed to fit in with seasonal variations of the departure day of the weekly mail steamers. Here again, when cataloguing, changes of title are often made clearer when volume numbering the element missing in a list is included. Checking for microfilming also has revealed the earlier, infrequent “Overland” editions bound in with the parent daily. For example the Times of India Overland Summary became the Times of India Overland Weekly Edition in 1869, and then in 1902, the Times of India Mail Edition, with quite separate volume numbering and format from its parent newspaper. In the twentieth century the advent of illustrated weekly editions also caused some confusion especially if their physical format also changed and consequently the bibliographical link was not apparent. A good example is provided by the Hindu Weekly Edition, which became the Hindu Illustrated Weekly in 1928, the Hindu Illustrated Sunday Edition in 1936, the Hindu (i.e. the Sunday number of the daily Hindu, but with continuing separate volume numbering) in 1941, and finally the Hindu Weekly Edition again in 1942, on Sundays, but still with separate numbering from the daily.

12.2 As “Overland” editions are, in effect, separate titles they have been considered above. “Air Mail” editions of newspapers can however be adequately catalogued by rule 12.2.B.l. They are sometimes the successor to an “Overseas” edition, e.g. the Statesman Weekl_v, but with a new format and volume numbering, so again the distinction is blurred because a true “Air Mail” edition would appear to be the same edition as the normal daily, or weekly newspaper, printed on India or Air Mail paper. Distinctions such as late, extra, etc., editions would normally only be of concern to copyright collections.

A microfilm edition as opposed to microfilm copies would not yet seem to apply to newspapers but may do in the future. Many libraries1 more concerned with future research needs than with up-to-date news often obtain their newspapers on subscription only in microform, for example from the Library of Congress. A note that holdings are in microform is essential, and should be linked with a library’s shelf location record. Library of Congress in 1979 agreed to accept copyright deposits of newspapers in microform under certain regulations and conditions but these microforms are, of course, prepared from original paper editions.

12.3 The numeric, and/or alphabetical, chronological, or other desig- nation area is a vital element in the bibliographical control of news- papers. Volume and part numbering may cause problems on account of

1 The India Office Library now files eight current titles from the sub-continent in the original compared to 11 on microfilm.

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inconsistencies during rapid type-setting, or, as in the India Office Library collection, through an inadequate knowledge of arabic and roman numerals by the printers. The factor which causes most prob- lems is the readiness with which newspaper printers or publishers launch into new series. Inexperienced staff may miss such changes, and indeed it is easy to overlook them unless regular checks are made on both sides of the date caption. Sometimes part numbering continues, or it may begin anew. If this happens too often in a title published for a century or more surely it is valid to ask if the recording of the sequences of dates and volume numbers is justified? The problem had seemed irrelevant until checking for microfilming revealed so many changes in some titles; my catalogue always records the first and last dates and volume numbering for long runs with no gaps. It has been found that new sequences of numbering are due to various causes. For example, one short-lived Bombay newspaper the Star oJ’ India, published from September 1870 to December 187 1, started a new series when it changed its printing press and therefore its sheet size. The Athenaeum and Dail_v ,‘?^ews, published in Madras, had several changes of title and volume numbering between October 18401.-the earliest known holdings start in 1844 with volume 4--and August 1885 when it seems2 to have ceased publication. On 25 April 1864, as the Llthenaeum and Statesman, it amalgamated with the llai[y News, of which no issues appear to have survived, and changed from being volume 24 to volume 2, number 73, apparently adopting the \rolume and part numbering of the L>aily .h’ews with its change of ownership and printer. The Overland Athenaeum and IJaib New continued however as volume 20, not breaking the con- tinuity of the separate volume numbering when it merged with the Athenaeum and Statesman. It can be seen that it is inadvisable to try to calculate possible volume or part numbers, or the starting dates of newspapers, unless there is either a survi\Gng volume or an accurate primary or secondary source of evidence, such as the granting of a liccnce to publish, or a listing in a contemporary dirrctory. Even the granting of a licence may be suspect unless there is later evidence that this was actually taken up as soon as the licence was issued. Lack of continuous volume numbering may sometimes make it difficult to know if a newspaper is a direct, legitimate, descendant of an earlier news-

1 7hncker’s Indian directory, 1907. 2 A report of a court case on p. 6 of the Madras Mail of 19 September 1885 confirms that

it at least suspended publication at the end of August 1885. It ceases to be listed as a news- paper in the Asylum Press almanac, Madras, after 1885, but is listed in Thacker’s Indian directory up to 1911. Perhaps it did cease and Thhacker’s was inadequately edited, or local rivalries, and because it may have been Indian owned resulted in it not bring listed in the Asylum 1’res.c nlmanu aftrr it resumed publication.

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paper with the same title. There is some doubt as to whether the Bombay Gazette continued throughout the 1840s. This is difficult to resolve as the possibly relevant volumes, between October 1842 and December 1849, have not survived. The volume numbers do not provide reliable evidence as 1850 is volume 10. In the obituary1 of John Connon, one of its most famous owners and editors, the Bombay Gazette reveals that he had also been the editor of the British Indian Gentleman’s Gazette, having taken it over after the previous proprietor, Mr McKenna, had disappeared (in debt) at the end of 1848, and Connon had changed the title in 1849 to the Bombay Gazette. Many bibliographies look upon the Times of India as a continuation of the Bombay Times. The editorial or business link, and the similarity of title, may have been stronger, but the oldest predecessor is the Bombay Courier. The volume numbering when the Times of India was created from the merger of the Bombay Telegraph and Courier and the Bombay Times and Standard (new ser. vol. 24, no. 118), did continue the volume numbering of the latter title, but when the Bombay Times amalgamated with the Bombay Standard, its last independent volume numbering was volume 10, number 310.

12.4 Place of publication is one of the most important elements in the bibliographical description of a newspaper. Some libraries make their main entry sequence under place with an index by title. When cata- loguing a large collection it is hardly practicable, or necessary, to attempt to find the publisher, and it is difficult to distinguish between printer, publisher and owner, especially in older newspapers. News- papers appear to have changed printers with surprising frequency2 even in the twentieth century, possibly for financial or political reasons. The name of a printing press may be noted, especially if it had an intrinsic interest of its own, only to find that within a year a new printer appears on the last page, and very soon yet another. Sometimes a printing press continues to issue a newspaper for many years, and is the name, or part of the name, of the newspaper, e.g. Bengal Hurkaru Press, Asylum Press, and Bombay Gazette Press. It would seem that, except when cataloguing 18th-century newspapers, the “incunabula” of newspapers, it should be stated that place of publication is the only essential element of 12.4.

12.5 The physical description area, as applied to newspapers, may at first appear deceptively simple. If one has a short file, bound in volumes, it would be possible to include the number of volumes. A newspaper file is more likely to be a combination of bound volumes-with the number of physical volumes per year varying and not necessarily related

1 Bombay Gazette, 12 June 1874, p. 2, col. 5-7. 2 E.g. Independent, Allahabad.

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to the bibliographical volumes-boxed or parcelled unbound volumes, and microforms, which may, or may not, also be held in the original. It is difficult in practicable terms, on a standard catalogue card, or computer print out, to convey to the reader the most important part of the possible combination, i.e. is the material he wishes to read available in the original printed form, on microform, or does he have a choice of either form-and where is it ? To include in a public catalogue details of volumes or bundles would seem to confuse further an already con- fusing record. The number of physical and bibliographical volumes would seldom be the same, and would even more rarely be universally applicable as libraries seldom bind or bundle newspapers in the same way. The following information should be on a shelf record: maximum size (height and depth), and the number of physical volumes, boxes or bundles, and, if appropriate, the linear measurement. Microform holdings will be indicated by a domestic location number. Inclusive reel or fiche numbers can be noted unless the public also has access to an index of microform holdings.

12.7 The note area is, as mentioned above, an especially important element in the descriptive cataloguing of newspapers.

12.7.B. I, Frequenq It is necessary to note changes of frequency, but when cataloguing a long file it may not be practicable at first to dis- cover and record changes such as from twice-weekly to three times a week. It is sometimes possible to detect when a change occurs as the size of the bound volume increases. However, while cataloguing the India Office Library collection one title was found, the Bangalore Spectator, where it was not possible to see any physical change, but when the volumes were collated it was found that although published daily from 1885 only the Monday, Wednesday and Friday issues were obtained and filed, as before, from 1885-86; an oversight, or perhaps a deliberate decision, one cannot now tell.

12.7.B.4, Variations in title As discussed above I would recommend that it is better to note sub-titles, and enlargements of titles in the note area. The running-title and leader-title of newspapers may vary, and cross references should be made when necessary.

12.7.B.6, Statements of responsibility Newspapers, especially weeklies, are often published by political and other organisations, and this should be noted if it is openly acknowledged by the newspaper. The name of an editor, if known, is often worth including. Names of editors can sometimes only be found by checking other sources, and there is rarely time to do this at all thoroughly. The name of the proprietor is often in any case of more significance in historical terms as an indication of the political affiliation or philosophy of the newspaper.

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12.7.B.7, Relationships with other serials Aspects of how to deal with relationships with previous titles have been discussed earlier. It was sometimes important for a newspaper, partly in an attempt to retain subscribers, to claim relationship with an earlier title on very dubious grounds, as for example did the Bengal Hurkaru. When a newspaper has a very complicated history of mergers, etc., it is doubtful if an entry is made any clearer by starting a separate entry for each change, linked by continued or superseded notes, unless the major title changes or there is a split. The mergers and splits of the Voice of’ India and the Indian Spectator necessitate separate entries, but a chart is needed to make the bibliographical history clear. It has been seen earlier that changes in volume numbering do not necessarily coincide with changes of title, or ownership. Care has to be taken not to infer the existence of an earlier title even when the phrase “incorporated” is used in the title. The Bengal Times changed its title, to the Eastern Bengal and Assam Era, with which is incorporated the Bengal Times, on 4 November 1905. No explanation was given for this change in the newspaper, although references were of course made to the formation of the new province of Eastern Bengal and Assam, which took place on 16 October 1905. At first, with other listers, I assumed that the Bengal Times had been incorporated into a separate title, the Eastern Bengal and Assam Era, eVeI though I noticed that the volume numbering continued. A check of a contemporary directory’ has now confirmed that there wasjust a change of title, no amalgamation took place.

The amalgamation of the Athenaeum and Statesman and the Daily h’ews in April 1864, mentioned above, was confirmed by a note in the first combined issue of the “Overland” edition--the first issue of the daily is not held-and by the Asylum Press Almanac for 1864, which confirms that the Dai(v News was a recently published title owned by S. Bowie. The same proprietor is given in the Asylum Press Almanac for 1863 as owner of the Spectator and General Advertiser, in 1862 of the Madras Advertiser, and in 186 1 and I860 of the General Advertiser, published three times a week. It is tempting to adduce evidence of a rising entrepreneur taking over the publishing side of the old established firm of Pharoah and Co. Such by-ways of printing and publishing history canrrot be pursued too far whilst cataloguing, it is sufficient to establish that a Daily .hfews did exist before the change of title and ownership.

12.7.B. 7.k, Supplements, or extraordinary editions, are frequently issued, and are usually adequately covered by the note “numerous supplements”. Rare newspapers, certainly those published before 1800, would seem to merit having all supplements listed, in notes, provided

t Thacker’s Indian directory, 1907 (Calcutta) p. 1378.

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not too many years are involved. A solution for long files may be to record supplements on the front end paper of the binding, so that the collation is recorded even if too long to be included in a catalogue entry. If the volume is microfilmed this information can go at the beginning of that part of the film. Here it is necessary to draw a line between a feasible catalogue entry and a bibliographical description of a rare volume.

12.7.B.8, h’umbering etc. The notes “numbering irregular” and “\.olume numbering irregular” are of frequent use vvhen cataloguing newspapers.

Newspaper readers often wish to know Lvhat a library or other libraries, hold for a certain date, usually by country, sometimes by town or area. In a small collection this can bc found quite quickly by checking the place index. In a larger collection, or if the newspapers 01‘ a region are required, this is very time consuming and an important title may be overlooked. It would be useful if computer programmers could allo\%, for access to data in this way. R~lanually prepared charts arc useful, but arc slow and difficult to prepare, and not f*easible for a large copyright collection or for a union list.

C:ataloguing ne\rspapers, especially when it is possible to consult primary sources to clarify their bibliographical history, can be an inter- esting and absorbing task. Cataloguers of newspapers will need to reccivc more guidance to ensure uniformity- and easy incorporation of data into computer files. As more collections of newspapers are cata- logued, and practical experience gained it is to be hoped that chapter 12 of AACR (2) will be enlarged and the special problems of newspapers considered in more detail.