Heythrop Library

Now, I’m not being overly pessimistic, but unless you are a cataloguer or meta-data specialist who knows their Marc21, 505 probably doesn’t mean much. Okay, there might the A505 going past your house, or that road might have taken you to places, or there might be another, worldly meaning of this sequence of digits, but unless you create Marc21 records you probably don’t think about cataloguing!

505 is the contents field. Traditionally, cataloguers in the English-speaking world use this field to copy the table of contents, or the descriptions of a multi-volume publication. A lot of bigger libraries would receive their catalogue records, say, for a new ebook when they buy an ebook, and that bought record comes with some kind of 505. Otherwise, many libraries do not bother much with adding a 505 manually, as it can be a lot of extra, manual work – and who has time for that? Everything is supposed to come out of computers… Right? Wrong!

Why do we do it?

Unless you have extremely brilliant and comprehensive bibliographic databases, such as IxTheo or the Atla Religion Database, many books and journal articles will be hidden under the title and sub-title of a book, in a traditional library catalogue. (Some people try to tell me that having ebooks, in themselves, is enough for finding things, but that’s maybe worthy of another blog post). For books, we feel the effort of adding a table of contents is worth our efforts, as someone searching our catalogue will get more results with more books listing the table of contents than if we just have the basic title page information in our online catalogue. But don’t just take my word for it, please see the four following exhibits which hopefully prove my point, why a good 505 in a book record is helpful:

Exhibit A

Treasures of Irish Christianity / edited by Salvador Ryan and Brendan Leahy.

is a publication in three volumes. Let’s say I’m looking for a less-well known, Irish priest: John Stritch (who was a Jesuit priest of the 17th century). If I search our catalogue for his name, I get this book as a result, and then if I use CTRL+f to find something in that page, I can see that one chapter in volume 3 is:

On the other side of the ocean : John Stritch SJ (1616-81) and Irish Catholic missionaries in the West Indies / Matteo Binasco

I doubt that it would be easy to find this reference; well, of course the author has it listed on their page https://unistrasi.academia.edu/MatteoBinasco/CurriculumVitae, but then you would have had to know that he had written this chapter!

Exhibit B

Stretched for greater glory : what to expect from the Spiritual exercises / George A. Aschenbrenner.

illustrates how sometimes a table of contents of a book is not only about the structure of a publication, but reveals also the nature of a book:

Introduction — 1. Ignatius’s Spiritual exercises and the Word of God — 2. Preliminary profound practicalities — 3. A glorious foundation — 4. A forgiven sinner : awed in gratitude — 5. Readied for wise loving — 6. A school of discipleship — 7. A cosmic confrontation — 8. Choosing and loving always for God’s glory — 9. A compassionate joy beyond any disappointment — 10. Daily life : gratefully serving God in all — 11. Methods of praying and some rules — 12. Discernment of spirits in the exercises — 13. A more probing discernment — Epilogue — Notes.

To me the chapter headings reflect a contemplative and practical-minded approach; not like mainstream self-help book with catchy and punchy chapter headings, which suggest that there is action 1 which will bring about 1 definite result/outcome.

Exhibit C

When the well runs dry / Thomas H. Green, SJ.

If the title wasn’t evocative enough, looking at the table of contents here, probably makes the difference between knowing that this book is not academic in nature, but more about spirituality in a devotional manner, giving more inspiration to those who are trying to explore their engagement with God:

Exhibit D

Finding God in the dark : taking the spiritual exercises of St. Ignatius to the movies / John J. Pungente, SJ and Monty Williams, SJ ; foreword by John English, SJ.

Adding the full table of contents here does two things neatly: 1. It lists all the films which this book “covers”, but 2. By doing this in the 4-week-structure of the exercises, and with a concise summary of that week/meaning of the film, it is a powerful indication of what this book will offer to those who are ready to explore the Spiritual Exercises by watching films!

Still here? Still not convinced?

Sometimes having the table of contents for an edition of a book, and seeing the table of contents for a “version” published later, reveals that the same chapter headings are in both, and with the same height of the book, and the same number of pages, we can then presume that we do not need to buy the newer book, as it is often just a reprint. This saves money, which we can spend on other books.

CG