Page:The library a magazine of bibliography and library literature, Volume 6.djvu/57

 Mechanical Methods of Displaying Catalogues and Indexes.

HIS paper is not concerned with the rules and principles which ought to govern the compilation of catalogues and indexes, but simply with the various mechanical methods which have been invented for the purpose of displaying or holding such catalogues and indexes.

The subject has never been systematically treated during the whole period of seventeen years through which the Library Association has existed; and from this conclusion I do not exclude the imperfect attempt made to describe some of these mechanical methods in the small tract on "Library Appliances," issued in 1892. One or two individual devices have been described at different times, but most notice has been bestowed on the printed catalogue, and the endless ways of compiling it. Considering the great importance to every librarian, of a thorough knowledge of the many methods of maintaining perfect alphabetical order in a library catalogue, printed or manuscript, to which additions are constantly being made, I must confess to a feeling of surprise that the subject has not been more frequently introduced. No doubt it is to this apathy that most of the childish makeshifts here and there visible can be traced. Who does not recall, for example, the foolscap folio or demy quarto volume, ruled faint and margin, in which was once kept that alphabetical catalogue, or list of names? First came the careful spacing-out of the virgin volume in due proportion, to insure that letter B had more leaves than letter Y; then came the entries, nicely measured by vowels or second letters; then the little congestions here and there, leading to the gradual invasion of adjoining pages reserved for something else; then the general disorder suggestive of a Salvation Army procession; and, finally, the purchase of another virgin volume, double the size, in which, after a bit, the same phenomena were repeated. It is almost impossible to believe, though it is nevertheless true, that, in spite of all the teachings of experience, the plain folio book continues to rank as a labour saving tool! Notwithstanding its very