Page:The library a magazine of bibliography and library literature, Volume 6.djvu/360

 348 The Library. distrust of the readers, but for their convenience, registration purposes, and to save the public property from all danger of being looted by casual thieves. The assistant then goes to a little alphabetical rack on the charging side, and pops the reader's card into the small pigeon-hole lettered B as we will assume the reader's name is Brown destroys the now useless ticket- voucher, and is at liberty to attend on someone else, or perhaps to assist Brown, to whom the arrangement is new. However, to obviate the trouble of too much personally-conducting our readers, which some resent, and to instruct them in elementary classification and the art of finding books for themselves, a little " Readers' Shelf-Guide" is provided, which directs to the prin- cipal authors and subjects on the numbered shelves. Most of the readers very soon grasp the plan of arrangement, and when the few slow ones fail, the librarian or his assistants are always at hand to instruct and help. With the aid of the printed "shelf-guide" and the plainer guides on the shelves themselves, Brown selects a book which, for convenience sake, we shall say is " Hopkinson on the Indica- tor," No. 5010. He then, forgetting his umbrella and hand-bag, and with the " Indicator " under his arm, proceeds to the exit wicket, in order to quickly rejoin his dog and three friends. But he finds that the wicket is locked and that an assistant is demanding his name and book for registration purposes. On his giving up both, the assistant then selects Brown's card from the rack, and the book-card, 5010, from the proper tray, places both cards in a small loose pocket, and then, in a numercial rack, stamps the book with the date of issue, and allows Brown to pass out, after returning his umbrella and hand-bag. This takes a long time to describe, but in actual practice is extremely rapid any ordinary assistant being able to pass from 120 to 150 readers in one hour ; that is, at the charging desk, with another assistant presiding at the discharging side. Two quick, accurate assist- ants can pass in and out 200 readers in one hour without being very sorely put about. One quick assistant at Clerkenwell, on several occasions when the staff was short-handed, has marked off and charged fifty-five books in twenty-five minutes, including the taking of fines, &c., and assistance rendered to enquirers. But this is a small point, and only mentioned to make clear that business is accomplished in much " less time than it takes to tell." At intervals, throughout the day, the book and reader cards are taken from the rough numerical order in the rack