Page:Library Administration, 1898.djvu/113

 the end of keeping together the entries of books of the same kind. To such readers as know of their existence, they are very useful ; to those who do not, it is inconvenient to be sent from one part of the catalogue to another. Moreover, the concentration into one or two volumes of all the entries of a class of book much referred to produces a delay in consultation.

The heading Encyclopedias is in a way indispensable, as providing for the wants of those readers — naturally a numerous class — who know these useful productions by their names and not by the names of their editors. The heading Dictionaries is only used for anonymous dictionaries, which are thus kept together in a convenient classified form. The existence of this heading is only possible owing to the fact that dictionaries are a literary production of closely defined form. The heading Catalogues was at one time employed for all catalogues, but now only to those bearing no name of owner or place, the others being incorporated in their alphabetical places as the catalogue is printed. The usual treatment of anonymous books only leads to absurdities if applied to anonymous catalogues.

Objection is frequently made to the Museum practice of using family names of peers in every case as a heading instead of the title, and it is urged that each name should be used in the form best known to the public. These objectors do not consider (i) that fifty years hence there will be a new public, whose acquaintance with present-day names it is impossible to prophesy, though the Museum