Page:The Library, volume 5, series 3.djvu/127

 GERMAN LIBRARIES. 115 State or Municipal libraries have undertaken to do the work of a modern 'public library,' the ' public libraries ' in the strict English sense of the word do not hold so noteworthy a position among the libraries of the country as in Great Britain. Secondly, it is as common for research libraries as for public libraries to lend books out of the build- ing, but it is not very common for them to allow the reader free access to the catalogues, so that the reader is practically nowhere obliged to add the press-mark on his order slip, and special officials are employed to look out the book in the cata- logues. Lastly, most of the libraries, or of the institutions the libraries belong to, may send their letters and parcels c On His Majesty's Service' or 'frei durch Ablosung,' i.e., they commute the fees for the letters and parcels they send, paying an average sum which is about one-third smaller than the ordinary postage and carriage would be ; J most of them are further allowed to send their letters as c portopflichtige Dienstsache,' so that the receiver is to pay the postage. In Prussia, eleven libraries, viz. the Royal Library at Berlin and the ten University Libraries at Berlin, Bonn, Breslau, Gottingen, Greifswald, Halle, Kiel, Konigsberg, Marburg, and Miinster, are in a particularly close connection. They are under the superintendence of one department of the same Ministry of Education and its 'Beirat fur Bibliotheksangelegenheiten/ their officials are 1 But as to parcels, in general only those of 10 kg. or less are permitted to be sent in this way.