Page:Library Administration, 1898.djvu/84

 or Nuremberg, met with violent opposition (in 1880).

The administration of the Copyright Acts in France presents some interesting features. Here the duty of providing copies is laid on the printer instead of the publisher. He is under no obligation to bind or even sew the sheets, so that imperfect copies are a frequent occurrence in the depot legal. As great attention is paid in France to the production of artistic paper covers, these have come to be the work of specialists in colour-printing, often quite distinct from the firms charged with the press-work, so that the cover of a book is often delivered by one firm, the body of it by another, and a fresh source of imperfections is created.

The number of copies printed has to be stated by the printer in making his delivery. A small tirage cannot be harmful, from the point of view of the press censorship, but a large one will put the officials on the alert against seditious pamphlets.

The method of collection is decentralised, delivery under the Acts being made at the chefs-lieux de departements (" county towns "), and the prefect of each department supervises the supply. This ought to ensure a complete collection of provincial books ; but the plan, however theoretically admirable, does not seem to work any better than our own, to judge by occasional wails in prefaces and places where authors are wont to protest against the short- comings of libraries. Two copies of each book have to be furnished, one going to the Bibliotheque Nationale, the other