Page:Library Administration, 1898.djvu/151

 where the entries of book-titles are written or printed in succession like the text of a book, space being left between the entries, or in the margins, to provide for future additions; and (2), where the titles are written on separate cards, which are kept in boxes.

The volume-catalogue is, of course, easier to consult, as a single glance over a printed page will reveal a title, whereas in the card-catalogue the search will always be attended with tedious effort. This facility of conspectus is heightened when, as in the author-catalogue, numerous editions of the same book follow one another, and can be abbreviated in a volume-catalogue, but not in a card-catalogue, where each card must be independently intelligible. The searching for titles being thus the work of the eye rather than the finger and thumb in the volume-catalogue, the latter system is admittedly the more cleanly in a large library. Its advantage in the way of bulk is even more obvious. The enormous bulk attained by the card-catalogues of some American libraries is beginning, so rumour says, to discredit the system with the heads of the larger institutions. Again, the volume-catalogue, if printed, as is usually the case, can be despatched throughout the world for the information of students; the card-catalogue must transmute itself into the other species before becoming capable of this. The volume-catalogue, however, breaks down in one or two particulars. First, it is impossible to foresee how much space to leave in a given place for future accessions, especially in author-catalogues. If the