Page:Library Administration, 1898.djvu/10



subject of library administration, treated by Mr. in the following pages, is one upon which, from one point of view, it is difficult to say too much, and upon which, from another, it is difficult to say anything. So far as the description of existing systems and the exposition of important details are concerned, the extent of the subject, had more space been available, would have justified a treatment yet fuller than it has here received, but the scope for positive precept is very limited. So dissimilar are the extent, the characteristics, and the needs of libraries, that few rules of universal application can be given, and the attempt to deduce such from the practice of exceptional libraries can only end in disappointment. In fact, any particular system, such, for instance, as the card-catalogue, which may suit any given library perfectly well at certain stages of its development, may diminish in efficiency in proportion to its growth, and eventually become impracticable. The Museum manuscript-catalogue on movable slips affords a striking instance. Nothing could have been more convenient v