The Pragmatic Basis of Catalog Codes: Has the User Been Ignored?

This article discusses the major catalog codes published in the United States and Great Britain since 1841. The main point made is that, although a number of the authors of these code had the catalog user in mind when creating their codes, not one c the codes was significantly influenced by the findings of empirical investigations of user needs. The article concludes with the idea that authors of future codes should consider taking into account the research findings of catalog use studies when creating their codes.