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 After the facts have been gathered up the name is chosen. In the course of the five or six thousand years in which record collections are known to have been kept various names have been used for them. Every record collection implies in itself not only a collection, but a place, and a keeper. Some names bear on one of these three factors and some on an other. One of the earliest names is "the books." This is used often today when one man invites another to come and look at his "books." It survives also in the collection of books in a counting-room, which are commonly spoken of as the firm's "books." It survives also where the librarian is called "Keeper of the books" and in the word Bookkeeper. The word "book" is used equally of tablet, roll or codex (bound book).

Another early term was the "House of books" in the sense of the receptacle in which books are kept. This was a usage