Page:The library a magazine of bibliography and library literature, Volume 6.djvu/169

 Record of Bibliography and Library Literature. 157 We observe that Mr. Leighton evinces a friendly feeling towards the Library Association and its younger sister, the Bibliographical Society, inasmuch as his annual contains a brief, comprehensive prospectus of the aims of both these bodies. That the editor is not a slave to pedantic accuracy is shown by his robbing the Hon. Secretary of the Library Association of one of his initials ; but, as he is wealthy enough to spare a few, we shall not say anything severe on the subject. Library Classification, by W. I. Fletcher, A.M., Librarian of Amherst College. Reprinted, with alterations, additions, and an Index from his Public Libraries in America. Boston [Mass.]: Roberts Brothers, 1894. London price, 43. 6d. This is a very handy and simple system of classification which may be strongly recommended to the notice of English public librarians as an alternative to the more elaborate American systems of Messrs. Dewey, Cutter, Perkins, and others. Mr. Fletcher offers his book as " a way of escape for those who shrink from the intricacies and difficulties of the elaborate systems, and to substitute for painstaking analytical classification a simple arrangement which it is believed is better adapted to be practi- cally useful in a library, while doing away with most of the work involved in carrying out one of these schemes." Mr. Fletcher adopts thirteen main classes : A. Fiction (J. Juvenile) ; B. English and American Litera- ture ; C. History ; D. Biography ; E. Travels ; F. Science ; G. Useful Arts ; H. Fine and Recreative Arts ; J. Political and Social Science ; K. Philosophy and Religion ; L. Works on Language and in Foreign Languages ; and R. Reference Books. These he further divides into numerical subdivisions, as Class C. History: "15. Philosophy and Study of History"; " 16. History of Civilization"; "17. Historical Essays and Miscellanies," &c., and provides for the alteration and inter- polation of subjects to any extent. Exception may be taken to his Classes L. and R. on the ground that most of their contents could probably be included in some of the other classes ; but the author has left every- thing so elastic that no great difficulty need arise in adapting the scheme to any library. We should have preferred an alphabetical to a numerical arrangement under sub-divisions of classes, as it would have further simplified the system and differentiated it even more from the other American classifications which depend so much on a mnemonical nota- tion. Mr. Fletcher proposes, as we understand him, to number his books on, say Great Britain in Class E, No. 100, thus : EIOO-I. Carnegie. American Four-in-Hand. E 100-2. White. Eastern England. 2 v. E 100-3. Loftie. London. Why not simply number the books E. 100 to denote their place in the scheme of classification and arrange them in an alphabet of author's names, or by counties ? In the smaller subjects at any rate, which are not so greatly in need of minute subdivision, the alphabetical arrangement gets over every difficulty arising from the intercalation and with- drawal of books. The mere finding of a book could be effected as easily one way as the other. We heartily commend the system to the considera- tion of English librarians, and hope to notice later on, Mr. Fletcher's work on the Public Libraries of America, of which this forms an amplified section.