Part 5 (1/2)

Conference, ”would send his books to the binder, without indicating the lettering he desires on the backs.” The only safe-guard is for the librarian or owner to prescribe on a written slip in each volume, a t.i.tle for every book, before it goes to the binder, who will be only too glad to have his own time saved--since time is money to him. I would not underrate the book-binders, who are a most worthy and intelligent cla.s.s, numbering in their ranks men who are scholars as well as artists; but they are concerned chiefly with the mechanics and not with the metaphysics of their art, and moreover, they are not bound by that rigid rule which should govern the librarian--namely--to have no ignoramus about the premises.

In writing letterings (for I take it that no one would be guilty of defacing his t.i.tle-pages by marking them up with directions to the binder) you should definitely write out the parts of the t.i.tle as they are to run on the back of the book, s.p.a.ced line upon line, and not ”run together.” I think that the name of the author should always stand first at the head of the lettering, because it affords the quickest guide to the eye in finding any book, as well as in replacing it upon the shelves.

Especially useful and time-saving is this, where cla.s.ses of books are arranged in alphabetical sequence. Is not the name of the author commonly uppermost in the mind of the searcher? Then, let it be uppermost on the book sought also. Follow the name of the author by the briefest possible words selected from the t.i.tle which will suffice to characterize the subject of the work. Thus, the t.i.tle--”On the Origin of Species by means of Natural Selection”, by Charles Darwin, should be abbreviated into

Darwin -------- Origin of Species.

Here are no superfluous words, to consume the binder's time and gold-leaf, and to be charged in the bill; or to consume the time of the book-searcher, in stopping to read a lot of surplusage on the back of the book, before seizing it for immediate use. Books in several volumes should have the number of each volume plainly marked in Arabic (not Roman) numerals on the back. The old-fas.h.i.+oned method of expressing numerals by letters, instead of figures, is too c.u.mbrous and time-consuming to be tolerated. You want to letter, we will say, vol. 88 of Blackwood's Magazine. If you follow the t.i.tle-page of that book, as printed, you have to write

”Volume Lx.x.xVIII,” eight letters, for the number of the volume, instead of two simple figures--thus--88.

Now can any one give a valid reason for the awkward and tedious method of notation exhibited in the Roman numerals? If it were only the lost time of the person who writes it, or the binder's finisher who letters it, it would be comparatively insignificant. But think of the time wasted by the whole world of readers, who must go through a more or less troublesome process of notation before they get a clear notion of what all this superfluous stuff stands for instead of the quick intuition with which they take in the Arabic figures; and who must moreover, by the antiquated method, take valuable time to write out Lx.x.xVIII, eight figures instead of two, to say nothing of the added liability to error, which increases in the exact ratio of the number of figures to be written. Which of these two forms of expression is more quickly written, or stamped, or read? By which method of notation will the library messenger boys or girls soonest find the book? This leads me to say what cannot be too strongly insisted upon; all library methods should be time-saving methods, and so devised for the benefit alike of the librarian, the a.s.sistants, and the readers.

Until one has learned the supreme value of moments, he will not be fit for a librarian. The same method by Arabic numerals only, should be used in all references to books; and it would be well if the legal fas.h.i.+on of citing authorities by volume and page, now adopted in most law books, were extended to all literature--thus:

”3 Macaulay's England, 481. N. Y. 1854,” instead of ”Macaulay's England, N. Y. ed. 1854. vol. 3, page 481.” It is a matter of congratulation to all librarians, as well as to the reading public, that Poole's Indexes to Periodical Literature have wisely adopted Arabic figures only, both for volume and page. The valuable time thus saved to all is quite incalculable.

Every book which is leather-bound has its back divided off into panels or sections, by the band across the back or by the gold or plain fillet or roll forming part of the finish of the book. These panels are usually five or six in number, the former being the more common. Now it is the librarian's function to prescribe in which of these panels the lettering of the book--especially where there is double lettering--shall go. Thus

COUSIN

----

NEW

2nd

HISTORY

4th

WIGHT

End

YORK,

panel

OF

panel

1852.

MODERN

PHILOSOPHY.

Many books, especially dramatic works, and the collected works of authors require the contents of the various volumes to be briefed on the back.

Here is a Shakespeare, for example, in 10 volumes, or a Swift in 19, or Carlyle in 33, and you want to find _King Lear_, or _Gulliver's Travels_, or _Heroes and Hero Wors.h.i.+p_. The other volumes concern you not--but you want the shortest road to these. If the name of each play is briefed by the first word upon the different volumes of your Shakespeare, or the contents of each volume upon the Swift and the Carlyle,--as they should be--you find instantly what you want, with one glance of the eye along the backs. If put to the trouble of opening every volume to find the contents, or of hunting it in the index, or the library catalogue, you lose precious time, while readers wait, thus making the needless delay c.u.mulative, and as it must be often repeated, indefinite.

Each volume should have its date and place of publication plainly lettered at the lower end, or what binders term the tail of the book.

This often saves time, as you may not want an edition of old date, or _vice versa_, while the place and date enable readers' tickets to be filled out quickly without the book. The name of the library might well be lettered also on the back, being more obvious as a permanent means of identification than the book-plate or inside stamp.

Books should never be used when fresh from the binder's hands. The covers are then always damp, and warp on exposure to air and heat. Unless pressed firmly in shelves, or in piles, for at least two weeks, they may become incurably warped out of shape. Many an otherwise handsomely bound book is ruined by neglect of this caution, for once thoroughly dried in its warped condition, there is no remedy save the costly one of rebinding.

Books are frequently lettered so carelessly that the t.i.tles instead of aligning, or being in straight horizontal lines, run obliquely upward or downward, thus defacing the volume. Errors in spelling words are also liable to occur. All crooked lettering and all mistakes in spelling should at once be rejected, and the faulty books returned to the binder, to be corrected at his own expense. This severe revision of all books when newly bound, before they are placed upon the shelves, should be done by the librarian's or owner's own eye--not entrusted to subordinates, unless to one thoroughly skilled.

One should never receive back books from a binder without collating them, to see if all are perfect as to pages, and if all plates or maps are in place. If deficiencies are found, the binder, and not the library is responsible, provided the book was known to be perfect when sent for binding.

In the Congressional Library I had the periodicals which are a.n.a.lyzed in Poole's Index of Periodical Literature thoroughly compared and re-lettered, wherever necessary, to make the series of volumes correspond with the references in that invaluable and labor-saving index. For instance, the Eclectic Review, as published in London, had eight distinct and successive series (thus confusing reference by making eight different volumes called 1, 2, 3, etc.) each with a different numbering, ”First series, 2d series,” etc., which Poole's Index very properly consolidated into one, for convenient reference. By adding the figures as scheduled in that work--prefixed by the words _Poole's Index No._ ---- or simply _Poole_, in small letters, followed by the figure of the volume as given in that index, you will find a saving of time in hunting and supplying references that is almost incalculable. If you cannot afford to have this re-numbering done by a binder in gilt letters, it will many times repay the cost and time of doing it on thin manila paper t.i.tles, written or printed by a numbering machine and pasted on the backs of the volumes.

In all periodicals,--magazines and serials of every kind,--the covers and their advertis.e.m.e.nts should be bound in their proper place, with each month or number of the periodical, though it may interrupt the continuity of the paging. Thus will be preserved valuable contemporary records respecting prices, bibliographical information, etc., which should never be destroyed, as it is ill.u.s.trative of the life and history of the period. The covers of the magazines, too, frequently contain the table of contents of the number, which of course must be prefixed to it, in order to be of any use. If advertising pages are very numerous and bulky, (as in many popular periodicals of late years) they may well be bound at the end of the volume, or, if so many as to make the volume excessively thick, they might be bound in a supplementary volume. In all books, half-t.i.tles or b.a.s.t.a.r.d t.i.tles, as they are called, should be bound in, as they are a part of the book.