BOOK III. Chapter IV. To print, or, not to print? missioners was Mr. William Desborough Cooley, long known to the Public as one of our best geographers. After testifying to the importance of a printed Catalogue, he proceeds to express his opinion that the titles of books might be set up by compositors even from the title pages themselves-if properly prepared for the purpose-without previous transcription, and that these titles might "be stereotyped at one cast, but still so that the titles be separate"...... "I do not mean,” he adds, "that there is to be a separate casting for each title. I mean that they are, by means of metallic partitions to be separable. But even supposing them to be cast in one plate, and afterwards cut asunder, I believe that they would not cost so much as the doubly transcribed titles in the written catalogue.1 It is clear that once in type these stereotyped titles would never lose their value, but might be made to serve successively for distinct Catalogues; that they might be intercalated indefinitely with additional titles, and having been first used for a general alphabetical Catalogue, might afterwards be broken up into special Catalogues of particular classes of books. Such special Catalogues would be of great advantage. Mr. Cooley appears to have been the first to propose publicly this ingenious plan for a permanent and expansive catalogue, but the same idea had already occurred to Professor Jewett, now the distinguished Librarian of the City Library of Boston, who seems to have made it the subject of discussion with some of his 1 Minutes of Evidence, Feb. 9, 1849. Q. 4715-4717, 296. MR. JEWETT'S PLAN OF A STEREOTYPED CATALOGUE. 865 friends and correspondents, both in England and America, without, however, having had any opportunity, until 1849, of reducing it to practice. In a paper which was read before the 'American Association for the advancement of Science', at its third meeting at New Haven, in August 1849, Mr. Jewett gave a full account of the steps by which he had been led to form the plan of a stereotyped Catalogue. The following brief extract, descriptive of two distinct specimens of such a Catalogue, both of which were submitted to the meeting, I give for the purpose of shewing precisely how the matter stood at that period: "I am able to offer for your examination two specimen pages, with the aid of which I can readily explain the several methods by which titles may be thus stereotyped. The first of these is the electrotype plate, made at the suggestion of Rev. Mr. Hale, by Mr. Wilcox of Boston. It is a beautiful piece of work, and sett les beyond controversy the practicability of printing catalogues in this way. "By the ordinary electrotype process, a layer of copper, about 1-40th of an inch in thickness, is deposited upon a mould taken from the type in wax. This plate is then soldered upon a plate of type metal, say 3 of an inch thick, in order to stiffen it. The titles are then separated by means of a circular saw. For printing, these titles are mounted upon iron blocks of the size of the page, and are held in their places by clamps. "This plan might be modified by mounting the pages of the "The other specimen page whicn I have to offer is a first at- The BOOK III. Chapter IV. To print, or, not to print? Vol. II. 55 BOOK 111. Chapter IV. To print, or. not to print? material which he uses for stereotyping costs not more than three cents an octavo page. The process is so simple, that any man of average ingenuity could learn to practice it successfully by two or three days' instruction. The cost of apparatus for carrying on the work on a small scale, but in a workmanlike style, need not exceed ten dollars. The rapidity of execution is such, that one man could produce at least 25 octavo pages a day, all finished and ready for use. The plates, like this which I exhibit, will give a beautiful impression. They seem more durable than common stereotype plates; and so far as now known or feared, they are not in any greater degree liable to injury. "I would remark that a company of practical printers have purchased the right to use this process in the District of Columbia, after having entirely satisfied themselves of its value; and they are now stereotyping by it a part of the Patent Office Report." Thus did the matter shape itself to Mr. Jewett in 1849. As experiment proceeded, various modifications were made. In August, 1850, a Commission of Inquiry was appointed by the Smithsonian Institution (composed of Mr. Edward Everett, Mr. J. G. Cogswell, Mr. George Livermore, and others of like competence,) who reported favourably of the plan, and recommended the Regents to obtain the requisite authority for compiling and stereotyping a Catalogue of the Library of Congress at Washington. Such authority was obtained. The task was entrusted to the superintendence of Mr. Jewett, who made, as I am assured, considerable progress in its execution. But the personal disputes which soon grew out of different views as to the management of the Smithsonian Institution, resulted in Mr. Jewett's removal from Washington, and entailed the suspension of the Congress Library Catalogue, which still therefore remains unfinished. Enough, however, has been done to give assurance of ultimate success. BOOK III. Chapter IV. To print, or, not to print? The Athenæum plan of a Uni In a series of elaborate articles on this question of the Catalogues of Libraries, (published with especial reference to the Report of the Museum Commission of 1849,), an able writer in the Athenæum, strongly urged the preparation, at the public cost, of a Universal Cata- versal Catalogue. logue, to be stereotyped upon the plans of Mr. Cooley. According to this scheme, all known books, in all languages, were, by degrees, to be catalogued, irrespectively of their presence in, or absence from, any given Library. The writer foresaw that "the idea of such a Universal Catalogue would seem, at the first suggestion, somewhat wild and visionary;" but added,—not, I think, without good grounds,-"the more closely it is examined, the more distinctly... will it grow into a reality, simple and practicable." That such a thing might be achieved, if worth achieving, by dint of time, patience, and money, is entirely credible. And there is matter in the Athenæum articles which every bibliographer, and especially every bibliographical Librarian, will be the better for reading and thinking over. As the writer most truly said, in concluding his labours: "The learned Librarians of the Museum may have a good humoured laugh at it; but they should remember that if the world has its ignorances, learned bibliographers have their prejudices, and that a laugh will not settle the question one way or the other. They cannot laugh louder than did certain other officials, when Mr. Hill proposed to reduce all postage charges to one uniform rate, and that rate, one penny; yet that idea spread and strengthened, and has become a great fact"." The Athenæum, 1850, 501, 502. BOOK III. Chapter IV. To print, or, not to print? The true obstacle does not lie in the impracticability, but in the doubtful worth of the thing when realized. The sheet-anchor of cataloguing - work, as of all other true work that a man has to do, is accuracy; as much of it as a reasonable, not a pedantic intellect, (to use Mr. Carlyle's phrase,) may find attainable. When any man shall have succeeded in cataloguing, from hearsays, any fifty books that he has never seen, with that reasonable amount of truthfulness which is the condition of utility, a foundation will have been laid for a "Universal Catalogue." |