AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION. SUPPLY DEPARTMENT. Accessions and Shelf Catalogue. IN accordance with the vote in New York, this subject has been carefully reconsidered. All suggestions made, and all samples sent have been examined. We find no alteration in the previous reports that seems an improvement, and the standard accessions and shelf sheets, binders, etc., will be supplied in accordance with the reports on p. 320, v. 1. The suggestion (p. 25, v. 2) of making either twenty-five or fifty lines to the page was found impracticable. One gives too long, the other too short a page for the book. Whenever more than one line was used for any book, or more than one book or volume recorded on one line, this symmetry would be destroyed. The numbers, plainly written or printed, are found very readily in the present plan. If a sufficient number of librarians express a desire to have the numbers printed in the margin, it will be done in the next edition. Long titles could then be interlined and a line used for each volume or number, as recommended in v. I, p. 317. By using one line more on each third page, the book can be divided into three leaves to each hundred, thus securing the advantage urged by Mr. Edmands. These insure against the mistake often made of skipping or repeating numbers in writing, add to the beauty and convenience of the book, and are very desirable for all who assign a line to each volume. To others they are worse than useless. Those preferring printed numbers can be supplied for $1.00 per volume extra. For full description of accessions book, see p. 315, 383, and 454, V. I. The prices, about half former cost, are for 360 p., 5400 lines, $4.50. Binding in Turkey morocco or American Russia, solid back, $2. Book of double size, double price. The larger book is not bound in morocco. Shelf Sheets. Three editions have been made and sold, and a fourth is nearly ready. See p. 365, v. I, for description. The very best paper has been used. These sheets, perforated so as to be tied together readily with tapes, are found of the greatest convenience for many different purposes. Some libraries use more for other purposes than for the shelf catalogue, and find it economical. Perforated, ruling, etc., at 60c. per 100; 10% discount by the 1000. OFFICES: 32 HAWLEY STREET, BOSTON. Numbers. The Van Everen number, which the committee recommends as the best and cheapest for the backs of books, is made in various sizes. The smallest seems large enough, unless some may prefer to use the middle size for the class or shelf number and the smallest for the book and vol. number. For shelves and blocks and other book supports the large size is better. By special arrangement with the manufacturer these numbers will be kept constantly on hand, so that orders may be filled promptly, and at full manufacturers' discount. The sizes, prices, and discounts are given on another page, in sheets of 100 of the same number or of the series from any hundred to the next. Number Cases. These The serious objections to printed numbers has been the difficulty of keeping them within reasonable space, so that any number wanted could be found without too much delay. This difficulty seems to be met by the case of enveThis is a lopes made for the special purpose. series of stout manila envelopes well gummed together, and of paper stiff enough for hard use. One envelope is assigned to each number, and the series is glued together in tens. packages are set into a pasteboard box, with the flaps to the envelopes standing straight up, each having pasted on it the number which it contains. Any numbers desired can be selected from this case with the greatest rapidity, and without danger of mistake or confusion. fast as the numbers of any envelope are used up, other sheets can be ordered and filled in, or if less than a hundred of any kind be wanted, the series sheets can be ordered and the num As bers (perforated like postage stamps) can be distributed through the case. Several years, trial of this case has proved its practical character, and it is recommended to the libraries. The envelopes ready for use cost per set of 10, 5 cents; per 100, 20 cents; per 1000, $1. If two sizes of numbers are used, two cases are needed, for the sizes mixed in each envelope would cause confusion. When 1000 envelopes filled with numbers are ordered, they are put up in a handsome library case without extra charge. All numbers come in sheets of 100, but these will be sold in halves when desired. No charge can be made less than the price for a half sheet. Address, SUPPLY DEP'T, A. L. A., P. O. Box 260, BOSTON. Of Constant Use to Literary Workers. WHOEVER has much to do with books, pamphlets, newspaper clippings, notes, or, indeed, with any form of information, printed or written, has experienced difficulties, sometimes quite serious, in classification. Whatever the difficulties may be, they must be faced, for any considerable amount of matter unclassed is exactly like so much "pi" in a printing office-the type may be the best made, but while in confusion it is almost worthless. The problem, over which many have puzzled, has been to find a plan by which it should be known just where to put each item (books, pamphlets, clippings, or notes, are understood to be treated in the same way), with a certainty that others on the same subject will be assigned to the same place. If this is possible, the other necessity of a satisfactory scheme must follow. etc., were grouped in one alphabet of several thousand headings. This is printed on a triple column page, and each word is followed by a simple number of three figures; e.g., the word "Protection" by 337. Had we chosen Free Trade, Duties, Customs, Tariffs, or any other word with similar meaning, we should have found it in its alphabetical place followed by the same 337. This number means Class 3, SOCIOLOGY. Division 3, POLITICAL ECONOMY, Section 7, Protection and Free Trade. All knowledge is divided into nine great classes, numbered by the digits. Each class is separated into divisions numbered with a second figure; each division has nine sections bearing a third figure. When and where desired, the sections may be subdivided to any extent, without confusion. The system of classification being largely Whenever a book is wanted on any subject, it❘ mnemonic, is more easily remembered than any may be found at once. The plan must also be so simple that a child can understand it, and so quickly applicable that the busiest man may have time for it. Few people can afford time to master any classification of human knowledge, nor can those who most need such aid spend much time in assigning matter to its proper class, or in finding it again when wanted. Until within a few years no system has been known that met these requirements. Such a system would be simply invaluable to all literary people, and pre-eminently so to every librarian. other yet made public, and is said, by those who have tried it, to have great merits in itself. It was developed during two years of trial by the Faculty of Amherst College, where the system was first devised by the acting librarian, Melvil Dewey. Each professor had in charge his own special subject, and much outside aid was called in before final publication. Its author, however, makes his claims not for the scheme itself, but for the Subject Index, in which is its special merits. The system of class numbers, e.g., 337 above, makes it possible to index minutely and rapidly and with the greatest accuracy. Any subject that is to be assigned its place, is found in an upon the book, pamphlet, or note, and the work is done. At any time in the future any person desiring to find anything on that subject again, opens the index and as quickly finds the same number. Simple numerical reference to the matter gives, almost instantly, all that has accumulated on that subject during the past years. Thus the plan meets all the requirements of a satisfactory system. Such a system has been devised, and after thorough trial for several years, is now pub-instant's reference, the single number marked lished and offered for sale. It is no longer an experiment, as many libraries and individuals have proved its value by actual use, and have given the most flattering testimonials of its practical character. At the International Conferences of Librarians, in Philadelphia, in 1876, and in London, in 1877, the plan received hearty indorsement from those knowing most of it, and the United States Bureau of Education printed a full description, as Chapter XXVIII. of its Special Report on Libraries. The plan is briefly this. All subjects that could be collated from catalogues, dictionaries, TRÜBNER & CO., 57 & 59 LUDGate Hill, VOL. III., No. 1. The "Classification and Subject Index," with complete explanations, is offered as a thin large octavo, at $1, or in London at 4s., post free. PUBLISHERS: LONDON. IMPORTANT PUBLICATION. CATALOGUE OF PRINTED BOOKS IN THE Library of the Faculty of Advocates, EDINBURGH. THIS important National Work, which has been in progress for many years, is now nearly completed. The Library of the Faculty of Advocates ranks next to the British Museum and the Bodleian, among the Libraries of Great Britain. It is estimated to contain about 260,000 printed volumes. It has had (under the copyright acts) since the reign of Queen ANNE, the right of receiving a copy of every Book published in the British Empire. Last year there were added to the Library, from this source alone, 3909 volumes of books, besides periodicals, pamphlets, and music. The Library has from the first been made accessible to those engaged in literary work; and in order to make its treasures more available for literary purposes, the Faculty resolved to prepare and print a Catalogue of all the Books in the Library. Five volumes of this great undertaking have already been printed and issued to the subscribers, and the sixth and concluding volume will be ready for delivery toward the end of 1878. In addition, a small supplemental volume of accessions will be issued, completing the Catalogue to 31st December, 1871. It is expected that the work will be completed in 1879, and the Advocates' Library will then be the only great Library in the world possessing a complete printed Catalogue. The Catalogue has been prepared under the superintendence of persons peculiarly qualified for such work, and, when completed, will extend to upward of 5000 quarto pages, in double columns. The privilege of obtaining copies of the Catalogue has hitherto been confined to members of the Faculty; but as many literary men and others, who are not members of the Faculty, have expressed a wish to obtain copies, it has been resolved that a limited number shall be set apart for this object. PRICE OF COMPLETE WORK, £7 75. Copies may be had on application to the Keeper of the Advocates' Library, Edinburgh THE LIBRARY JOURNAL. I THE COLLEGE LIBRARY AND THE CLASSES. BY JUSTIN WINSOR, HARVARD UNIVERSITY. FANCY that among institutions there is scarce a stolider than the average college library, and I know no reason to account for it but the old one of the laughing shoes of the cobbler's children. A collection of good books, with a soul to it in the shape of a good librarian, becomes a vitalized power among the impulses by which the world goes on to improvement. A stagnant library, musty and dank, open at hours which suit the convenience of an overworked professor rather than inviting everybody at all hours, is an anomaly. The object of books is to be read-read much and read often. There is enough of folly in books no doubt; much of impertinence; much of vacuity, since some evil is always inseparable from every good; but its proportion is far less than in oral instruction, as the latter goes, whether in the desk or around the social circle. With all the crude writing in the world, it is in far smaller proportion to good writing than poor talk to good talk. What is concrete of knowledge, or better, of experience, is crammed into books, and what else there is in them can be avoided, if we choose, but in talk not easily. And yet this library instruction in colleges is not made to tell as it should. The main thing to know is, what book can accomplish what work, and how it can be brought to bear. Who teach this? Who knows it to fit them to teach it? Who is bold enough to throw text-books to the dogs, and lead his class through the recesses of a library? Professor Henry Adams opened a new mine at Harvard when he led his students among the sources of history, and directed them to do their own culling, and to make their own text-books. He implanted a new interest in the work, and showed what a library is for. At the average college it is thought that if anybody gets any good from the library, perhaps it is a few professors; and if anybody gets any amusement, perhaps it is a few students, from the smooth worn volumes of Sterne and Fielding. What it is to investigate, a student rarely knows; what are the allurements of research, a student is rarely taught. What would have been thought five-and-twenty years ago of some such proposition as this: PROFESSOR (loquitur). "Gentlemen, we will take up in March the period of the Norman Conquest of England. Mr. Bright, you must be prepared on Bulwer's "Harold” to analyze the events and compare them with what you deem the best contemporary authorities. Mr. Somers, you take Kingsley's "Hereward," and criticise his estimates of the Saxons, and point out his divergencies from historic truth. Mr. Hammond, I leave for you Napier's novel of "William the Conqueror;" you may treat the book in any way you please as illustrative of the time. Mr. Shortman, I want you to compare Tennyson's "Harold" and Leighton's "Sons of Godwin" as plots, where the movement is more or less regulated by historical records, and give us a picture of Saxon England at that time, as you read it in these respective dramas. The rest of you, gentlemen, I refer for study to the authorities. A to H will work up the contemporary ones, which you will find referred to in the notes of Turner and Palgrave. Mr. Allen, we shall expect from you a list of notable desiderata in these early sources where you may find the college library to fail. We shall want to know all about Wace's "Roman de Rou" from you, Mr. Fellows. From you, Mr. Davis, we shall expect a presentation of the social institutions of the Anglo-Saxons, and Sharon Turner will start you in the investigations. I to Z will master the modern authorities. Mr. Loring will take Palgrave, and we shall then know how the political institutions of the time were developed. Messrs. Stone and Strong, you are to pit yourselves, one against the other, in your judgments of the Conquerors. You will find Freeman sufficiently anti-Norman, and Thierry will show you the general opinion of them held on the Continent. Of course, there are Hume and Lingard, and Knight and the Pictorial History—all of you must familiarize yourselves with these writers; and we shall expect criticism and discussion; and the results, if you do your work well, ought to engage us for several weeks. I shall be happy to assist any one. You must live as much as you can in the college library. Read general books, cyclopædias, consult historical atlases, and get the period first mapped out clearly in your own minds; then fill in the details. Make all the use you can of the college librarian. It is his business to advise you. The class is dismissed." Is there any doubt now in these latter days what a college library is for? Can any class leave a better memorial of existence and its work than to give itself in this earnest way to any one subject, sift all the library has upon it, and note its deficiencies? Can any corporation do better with their money than to buy the books to supply these deficiencies? Thus can the library fill up subject after subject; and fortune will go hard with these young men in the future if the department they worked to found or develop is left without patrons among the graduates, who will look after its condition as a memorial of the class. A "COMBINED" SYSTEM FOR ARRANGING AND NUMBERING. BY J. SCHWARTZ, NEW YORK APPRENTICES' LIBRARY. THE system about to be described was devised by the writer early in 1871, and was applied in the rearrangement of the New York Apprentices' Library in 1872, and has been in successful operation since. There can be only three fundamental methods of arranging books, namely, the numerical, the alphabetical, and the systematic or classified. Each of these plans has its peculiar advantages, and accordingly each has found its advocates and admirers, either as used alone or in combination with one of the other two. The Boston Public Library, for instance, uses the numerico-classed system, with fixed or absolute numbers—a favorite type in American libraries. The system of Mr. Poole, introduced in the Chicago Public Library, is of the same variety, but with relative numbers. The St. Louis Public School Library uses an alphabetico-classed system, and the New York Mercantile uses the pure alphabetical system. It does not seem to have occurred to any one heretofore to combine the alphabetical and the numerical schemes, although, as we shall see, this combination |