Martin Wilibald Schrettinger (17 June 1772 in

Neumarkt in der Oberpfalz Neumarkt in der Oberpfalz (, ; ) is the capital of the Neumarkt (district), Neumarkt district in the administrative region of the Upper Palatinate, in Bavaria, Germany. With a population of about 40,000, Neumarkt is the seat of various projects, ...

– 12 April 1851 in

Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...

) was a

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

priest and librarian.

Life and career

In 1793 he joined the

Benedictine monastery The Benedictines, officially the Order of Saint Benedict (, abbreviated as O.S.B. or OSB), are a mainly contemplative monastic order of the Catholic Church for men and for women who follow the Rule of Saint Benedict. Initiated in 529, they ...

Weißenohe Weißenohe is a municipality in the district of Forchheim in Bavaria in Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps ...

, where he was ordained in 1795. In 1800 he became the monastery's librarian. In 1802 shortly before the closing of the monastery he went to Munich where he worked for the Royal Library (now the

Bavarian State Library The Bavarian State Library (, abbreviated BSB, called ''Bibliotheca Regia Monacensis'' before 1919) in Munich is the central " Landesbibliothek", i. e. the state library of the Free State of Bavaria, the biggest universal and research libra ...

). He assumed the titles of curator (Kustos) in 1806 and in 1823 Under-librarian. In 1839, while still retaining his position as librarian, he was installed as a Canon at Munich's St. Kajetan. Schrettinger is regarded as the founder of modern

library science Library and information science (LIS)Library and Information Sciences is the name used in the Dewey Decimal Classification for class 20 from the 18th edition (1971) to the 22nd edition (2003). are two interconnected disciplines that deal with info ...

and was the first person to use the term. He created a catalog of all the library's holdings divided into subjects and sub-subjects. He cross-referenced these through an alphabetic catalog of authors and a catalog of locations within a library where books were shelved. In 1819 he began a classified catalog (''Realkatalog''), which itself is sometimes consulted by modern librarians and remains unfinished.

Writings

* ''Versuch eines vollständigen Lehrbuches der Bibliothek-Wissenschaft oder Anleitung zur vollkommenen Geschäftsführung eines Bibliothekärs''. Volume 1 (Sections 1-3): 1808-1810; Volume 2 (Section 4): 1829. * ''Handbuch der Bibliothek-Wissenschaft''. Vienna 1834. Reproduced by Weidmann, Hildesheim 2003. * The

contains Schrettinger's journals from 1793–1850 and a handwritten autobiography. * Philip Dormer Stanhope of Chesterfield:
Die Kunst unter Menschen glücklich zu leben
'

Bibliography

* Wilhelm Bäumker: ''Schrettinger, Martin''. In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie, vol. 32. Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1891, p. 491
online
. * Uwe Jochum: ''Bibliotheken und Bibliothekare 1800-1900''. Königshausen und Neumann, Würzburg 1991. * Annemarie Kaindl: ''Martin Schrettinger zu Bau und Organisation der königlichen Hof- und Centralbibliothek''. In: ''Bibliotheksforum Bayern'', Jg. 14, 2020, Heft 1, p. 25–29
online
. * Stephan Kellner: ''Schrettinger, Martin''. In: Neue Deutsche Biographie, vol. 23. Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 2007, p. 545 sq.

. * * Manfred Knedlik: ''Martin Schrettinger'', In: Literaturportal Bayern.
online
* Manfred Knedlik: ''Wegbereiter eines modernen Bibliotheksmanagements. Martin Schrettinger (1772–1851)''. In: ''Bibliotheksmagazin'', 2022, Heft 2, S. 9–13
online
. * Alois Schmid: ''Martin Schrettinger aus Neumarkt in der Oberpfalz.'' In: ''Jahresbericht des Historischen Vereins für Neumarkt i.d. Opf. und Umgebung'' 22, 1999, p. 139–162. *
Mönch, Rebell, Bibliothekar. Eine Ausstellung zum 250. Geburtstag von Martin Schrettinger. Virtual exhibition at Bavarian State Library
(in German)

Schrettinger Catalogue

bavarikon

Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek

Europeana
{{DEFAULTSORT:Schrettinger, Martin 1772 births 1851 deaths People from Neumarkt in der Oberpfalz German Benedictines 19th-century German Roman Catholic priests German librarians