Page:The library a magazine of bibliography and library literature, Volume 6.djvu/60

 48 The Library. respects. The leaves are held by the pressure of two wooden slats, which are drawn together by means of two or more endless screws, turned by a key. Leaves can be inserted at any place, till the volume is full, and then the contents may be divided, and two books used ; this subdivision and spreading being continued as the entries increase. The last of the fixed entry " Page " catalogues to which I will direct attention, is that recently patented by Professor Magnusson, of Cambridge. 1 The special feature of this is the provision of a series of hooks hinged to the back, which pass through and secure double leaves or folded sheets. It only remains to point out the defects of all cata- logues in which a page of miscellaneous fixed entries forms the unit for arrangement. The most obvious drawback is that, accurate and simple intercalation is in time rendered impossible, because of the entries having to be pasted down, hence true alphabetical order can never be maintained, save for a short period, or till the spaces left for additions are filled. A like fate awaits the inserted leaf, which is sometimes fastened in guard- books adjoining the congested page, and easily placed in movable page books, such as I have described, but this only dislocates the order of entries, and gives two or more places for one author or subject. At the British Museum the slip -entries are secured to the pages only at the ends, and are lifted up and rearranged when congestion becomes too pronounced ; but no other English library has such resources or such readers at command, so that no particular importance attaches to the fact. I should like to add, as a matter of personal opinion, that to an untrained person, there is absolutely no advantage in being able to scan a number of different entries on a page, with one sweep of the eye. For proof of this, ask any ordinary person of moderate education to turn up a word in a dictionary. The two catalogues I am about to show you are free from the defects mentioned before, in that, besides having movable leaves, the single entries are also mov- able. The first of these is only intended for staff or private use, and is the invention of Mr. Vernon Kirkby, of Leicester. You can see at a glance that the ends of loose slips are simply pushed under the threads, and become temporarily secured in any order desired. By leaving liberal spaces, or better still, keeping the leaves unbound in boxes, or one of the many cheap adjustable binders now on the market, additional leaves can be inserted, 1 Patent specification, No. 7,588, 1892.