Page:The small library. A guide to the collection and care of books (IA smalllibraryguid00browiala).pdf/151

 all the related trade, art, literary, scientific and other miscellanies. By confining the daily newspaper element to one good London paper like the Times, and the local journals, considerable economies can be effected by which money is released for the purchase of the higher-class magazines. In the Reference Department much good will result from placing on open shelves, accessible to all without formalities, a selection of quick-reference books like encyclopædias, dictionaries, year-books, directories, histories, atlases, gazetteers and similar works. These can be used without any preliminary filling up of application forms, and the privilege will attract hundreds of readers to the library who otherwise might not come. Open access to shelves on the British Museum plan is undoubtedly much appreciated, and is now in operation nearly everywhere. By this method quick-reference books are placed on open shelves, while very valuable and little used books are applied for in the usual way, either on written application or demand. In the Lending Department it is desirable to make the choice of books as easy and satisfactory as possible, and for this reason, elaborate mechanical devices for registering the issues of books and indicating them 'in' and 'out' are absolutely unnecessary. It is absurd to find municipal libraries in small towns fitted up with a huge rampart of indicator for the purpose of recording a daily issue of about 50 to 100 volumes. It is like employing a steam engine to sharpen one pencil!

Even in larger libraries with daily issues amount-