Page:Library Administration, 1898.djvu/79

 36,623 parts and numbers (under English copyright). 278 parts and numbers (under Colonial copyright). 490 maps (under English copyright). 5 maps (under Colonial copyright). 5396 pieces of music (under English copyright). 3343 sets of newspapers, comprising 210,844 single numbers (under English copyright). 8 sets of newspapers, comprising 14,650 single numbers (under Colonial copyright).

The number of distinct works comprised in the above numeration is 16,878 English copyright and 980 Colonial.

These figures are nearly equalled by the other libraries benefiting under the Act.

The uninstructed layman, until taught by bitter experience, is apt to suppose that these impressive totals include the whole literary output of the United Kingdom. It has, however, to be remembered that the Copyright Acts do not apply to books "privately printed," i.e. for the author's own pleasure and for gratuitous distribution, nor to books "printed by subscription." The former class is recruited from the productions of shy poets (whom to name were invidious), corporate bodies, such as County Councils, which do not sell what they print, and genealogists, from books of travel printed for the use of the author's friends, and similar sources. Books "reprinted for subscription " comprise the publications of many societies and clubs, e.g, the Bibliographical Society, the Bannatyne Club, and many costly or laborious works on recondite subjects. It will be evident from the wording of the Act that if any copy of a book in either of these classes be