Page:Library Construction, Architecture, Fittings, and Furniture.djvu/97

 CHAPTER IV

INDICATORS, CARD-CATALOGUES, AND BULLETIN-BOARDS

use of indicators in public libraries is of comparatively modern growth. One of the earliest forms was that invented by Mr. F. Thornton Barrett, and used in the lending department of the Birmingham central library. It consisted of a wooden screen, on which printed numbers were pasted in horizontal columns of one hundred each. Opposite each number a small hole was drilled, and a plentiful supply of wire nails formed indicating material. The use of the contrivance was to save the time of the assistants, who before its adoption had to take the borrowers' lists to the shelves and look for the books required. The horizontal numbers on the indicator corresponded with the numbers of the books of fiction, and the lists were hunted through by their aid. When the assistant found a book number without a nail in its hole, he knew the book was on the shelf, obtained it, put a nail against the number to indicate it was out, and issued it to the reader. On the return of the books the operation was reversed, the numbers of the books to be replaced were called over, and 73