Martin Schrettinger's "Complete Textbook of Library Science" (1808–29)

"The librarian's local memory cannot be an inseparable part of a library's organization plan. For if that is the case, whenever one librarian is replaced by another, the collection of books loses its utility and, in that moment, ceases to be a library."

From: Versuch eines vollständigen Lehrbuchs der Bibliothek-Wissenschaft . . . (right), p. 12–13

Faced with the influx of hundreds of thousands of monastery books, Schrettinger realized that the age of the librarian as vivant catalogue had passed. This marked the beginning of "library science" as an abstract discipline of information organization in Germany.

Sample leaf from Schrettinger's Alphabetischer Realkatalog, one of the first subject heading catalogs: (Dinte. V: Schreibgeräthe, "Ink, see also Writing Implements")

Martin Schrettinger (1772–1851)


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Source: (Schrettinger portrait) Reproduced from E. Freys, "Die Inkunabelsammlung der Bayerischen Staatsbibliothek," in Bayerland 43 (1932), p. 403; (book) Northwestern University Library, Greenleaf Library. Biographical information: A. Hilsenbeck, "M.S. und die Aufstellung in der Kgl. Hof- und Staatsbibliothek München," in Zentralblatt für Bibliothekswesen 31 (1914), p. 407–33.