Page:Library Administration, 1898.djvu/216

 along the outer edges and fastened by drawing-pins to the wooden rests supporting the books. At the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris, sheets of talc lie over the open pages, to protect them from dust.

The example of the great national libraries might be followed with profit by the larger free libraries, on the model of exhibitions organised by Mr. Lancaster of the St. Helens Libraries. The first of these, we learn, took place on Easter-Sunday 1890, at the Town Hall of St. Helens, and was open free from two to eight o'clock. Some two hundred of the best books, chiefly the illustrated ones, to be found in the library were exhibited on long tables covered with crimson cloth, and the visitors, of whom there were 1200, were allowed to turn over the leaves, with or without the assistance of the library staff or committee, who were present to guard the books against harm. The next exhibition lasted two months, so that the direct access by the public was not allowed, but the books were shown under glass, except a few cheap illustrated ones to which it was desired to attract attention. A penny being charged for admission, and a catalogue of the exhibition sold for a penny, there was a small balance in favour of the library when all was over. Strict veracity compels us to add that there were a few pictures, and sometimes a military band.

Two admirable notions for exhibitions were once put forward in the Library Journal, but bore no