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BOOK IV.

Chapter VI

Service of

Indexes, and The Publisher's Circular of Low (183758); the Bibliographer's Manual, and British Librarian Regulations and of Lowndes (1834, and 1838-40; the latter work is Reading Rooms. unfinished); and the Catalogue of Royal and Noble Authors of Horace Walpole (Park's edition of 1806).

Proceeding from the Bibliography of particular countries to that of particular subjects, a collection of this sort should include (4.) SPECIAL BIBLIOGRAPHIES; such as the Bibliographia Zoologia et Geologic of Agassiz and Strickland; the Dictionnaire de l'Économie Politique of Bastiat; the Bibliographie Musicale of Blaze; the Bibliothèque Universelle des Voyages of Boucher de la Richarderie; the Medicinisches Schriftsteller-Lexicon of Callisen; the Notices of Arithmetical Books of De Morgan; the treatise Des sources bibliographiques militaires of De La Barre Duparcq; the [Theological] Cyclopædia Bibliographica of Darling; the Manuel des Etudians en Droit of Dupin; the Bibliotheca Magica of Græsse; the Litteratur der Kriegswissenschaften of von Hoyer; the Bi-. bliographie Astronomique of Lalande; the Bibliotheca Sacra of Le Long; the Bibliotheca Juridica of Lipenius, Schott, Senkenberg, Madihn; the Guide diplomatique of Martens; the Literature of Political Economy of M'Culloch; the Bibliotheca historica of Meusel; the Bibliotheca Mathematica of Murhard; the Bibliotheca Biblica

from colonial days almost to the end of 1858. Its strictly bibliographical portion is arranged in the usual main classes, and each class alpha betically. It contains careful analyses of the great collective and serial Works and of the leading Periodicals, the entire history and character of each of which may there be traced. In a word, the reader who acquaints himself thoroughly with this Bibliographical Guide, holds a master-key to all that American Literature can offer him. The work of 1858 extends to 672 pages, being nearly four times the extent of its first edition of 1855.

BOOK IV.

Regulations and
Service of

Reading Rooms.

of Orme; the Bibliographie Biographique of Ettinger; Chapter VI. the Bibliographie Entomologique of Percheron; the Literatura Medica digesta of Plouquet; the Biographisch - litterarisches Handwörterbuch zur Geschichte der exacten Wissenschaften of Poggendorff; the Thesaurus Literaturæ Botanica omnium gentium of Pritzel; the Handbuch der mathematischen Literatur of Rogg; the Handbuch der Juristischen und Staatswissenschaftlichen Literatur of Schletter; the Catalogus Bibliotheca Medica of Roy; the Literatur der geist- und weltlichen, und Militair- und Ritterorden of von Smitmer; the Bibliothèque Asiatique et Africaine of Ternaux-Compans; the Bibliotheca Theologica Selecta of Walch, and his Bibliotheca Patristica; the Handbuch der theologischen Literatur of Winer; Deutschlands Militair-Literatur by von Witzleben; and von Wohl's Geschichte und Literatur der Staatswissenschaft. The special treatises on rare and fine books, as those of Bauer, Clément, Van Praet, and Vogt; those on anonymous and pseudonymous books, as Barbier, De Manne, Lancetti, Placcius, Quérard, Rassmann, and Schmidt; and those on prohibited books, as for example, the Indexes themselves, and the works of Mendham and of Peignot, must follow.

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But space would fail me to pursue this branch of the subject into all its divisions. No collection like that here spoken of would be at all satisfactory, if it failed to include (eventually), the best bibliographies of Hebrew and of Oriental Literature, as well as of Classical and Modern. The works of Adelung, of Bartoloccius, of Funk, of Gildemeister, of Flügel, of D'Herbelot and of Wolf, are as essential as those of Le Long, of Poggendorff, or of Winer.

BOOK IV.

Chapter VI.

Service of

(Continued.)

Then must come Biographical Dictionaries; those, especially, of Allen (3rd edition, 1857); of Appleton Regulations and (1856); of Chambers (1835); of Chalmers (1812-17); of Reading Rooms. Joecher (with its continuations by Adelung and Roter- Works of ordimund, 1750-1819); and of Michaud (Biographie Universelle, and its Supplements, 1811-55); the Nouvelle Biographie générale of Didot, edited by Hoefer; the Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology of Dr. William Smith; and last, but largest, that inexhaustible store of Biography, as of almost every thing else, the Universal Lexicon of good old Zedler.

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The best works on the History and progress of Printing and of Engraving; the special annals of the great presses,-Aldine, Stephanine, Elzevirian, and Plantinian;, a selection of the best Catalogues of considerable Libraries; the great collections of the standard writers of different countries; and of their Chroniclers and early Annalists; Calendars; Peerages, Heraldic visitations, and other works on Genealogy; Directories and Guidebooks of various kinds; should also form part of such a collection, if the available funds and the available space permit.

(5.) Reading

Room Service

(5.) The quick service of Readers is intimately connected with the registration and the other mechanical and Registration. arrangements which obtain within the Library. The more systematic the checks on the due return of books, the more ready the supply. For a largely used and wellendowed Library no better system, I think, can be devised than that which for many years has prevailed at the British Museum.

Vol. II.

66

BOOK IV.

Chapter VI.

The tickets by which Readers apply for books reRegulations and semble the form I have printed on page 1033. These Reading Rooms. tickets are given to an Attendant or Delivery-Clerk.

Service of

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whose duty it is to pass them into the Library; other Attendants take them, in the order of receipt, and próceeds to fetch the books. Each Attendant has his own Register-book, and a number of small pieces of millboard, covered at the ends with roan leather, and marked (first) with a number which identifies himself: (secondly) with a progressive number. The first book he fetches he replaces, on the shelf, by the board numbered "1"; the tenth by the board numbered “10”; and so on, marking the back of the reader's ticket with the number on the board. He then enters the book in his register thus:

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This done, the book and the Reader's ticket go to the Delivery-Clerk; and, from him, the book to the Reader: the ticket to the compartment T, in a range of pigeon holes; thence, on the return of the book, the ticket is restored to the Reader who, till that return, is responsible for the work named on it. As the books are returned they are placed on a sorting table, to be ar ranged, in the order of their respective press-marks, for replacement on the shelves.

The day's work done, each Attendant cuts with scissors between the entries in his book, as far as his own

BOOK IV.

Chapter VI.

number, but does not sever them. (See the double black lines marked above.) The entries left in his book will Regulations and be simply

Service of Reading Rooms.

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But they still form, it will be noticed, a record of the delivery.

The Bookbinder receives all these books before the Attendants depart. He severs the entries; arranges the whole of them into one series, according to press-marks; pastes them into a large book; writes the date at the head of the series, and the total number of entries at foot.

Certain Attendants have for their sole duty the return of books to their places. Two work together. Every morning they go round with the Register so prepared by the Bookbinder; one replaces the book on the shelf, calls out the press-mark, and looks at the Attendant's board. The other who has the Register before him (on a truck or 'barrow'), calls out the number of the Attendant, and impresses on the entry a red-ink stamp, thus lettered, for example "4. 11. 58," which indicates that the book was replaced on the shelf on the 4th Nov. 1858.

But if Readers who are working on a subject, from day to day, desire to retain their books, in bulk, for continued use, those books, instead of going to the sort

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