Chapter XXVIII
.). Certain American libraries also collect photographs of great pictures and those which represent various natural forms. Studies for the use of artists are also collected, mounted on cards, and made accessible, and some of these attempts to popularize art should be made in British libraries. Photographs are comparatively cheap, and almost every kind of picture and study can be obtained in this medium. What is particularly required is some kind of practical list or guide, drawn up by an expert, from which libraries could make their selections. A systematic list covering the various arts of design, historical painting, sculpture, architecture, etc., would be of great service. Photographs of great public events, ceremonials, buildings, etc., and of eminent personages, would have to be purchased according to means, and, as every one knows, this might be made an endless matter. There is no reason, however, why public libraries should not preserve good photographs of the most eminent authors, artists, musicians, scientists, military commanders, royal personages, etc. Portraits of such persons are not always easy to find in books, when required, especially as the _A. L. A. Portrait-Index_ is limited in scope; therefore a separate collection of portraits in alphabetical order would be a valuable addition to a public library. In this connexion it is useful to remove portraits of celebrities, views, etc., from worn-out books and magazines, and preserve them along with all other appropriate matter.
[3] The matters thus marked are dealt with more fully under the Division on Reference Work, but are included here for the sake of giving a complete conspectus of the material involved in selection.--ED.
[4]=195. Lantern Slides.=--In libraries which possess lecture-rooms or other suitable accommodation, it is often desirable to collect lantern slides on such subjects as local topography and history, or on topics which illustrate bibliographical and kindred subjects. These will be found very useful, and as the collection increases, sets can be lent out to societies or individuals who require them for lectures. The cost of storing and cataloguing the slides is not great, and they are undoubtedly a valuable addition to the pictorial side of literature.
[4] The matters thus marked are dealt with more fully under the Division on Reference Work, but are included here for the sake of giving a complete conspectus of the material involved in selection.--ED.
[5]=196. Trade and other Catalogues.=--A most useful department, though somewhat difficult to maintain, is a collection of the best and most representative catalogues and price lists of all kinds of commodities. Several points crop up in connection with the work of forming such collections, and the question of policy is here perhaps the most important. Many firms will not give their price lists; and it may be considered invidious to select firms, thereby suggesting favouritism and unfair advertising. In some industries prices, ideas and designs are regarded as trade secrets, and doubtless jealousies might be stirred up in some quarters. But the fact remains that illustrated catalogues of books, furniture, ironmongery, machinery, pottery, art publications, scientific apparatus, etc., are often more generally useful than text-books or special trade and professional journals. Even pattern books of wall-papers, bookbinders’ cloths, leather-work, typefounding and so forth are of immense service to special students, and an effort should be made to strengthen the literary side of suitable subjects by a judicious selection of the best illustrated trade catalogues.
[5] The matters thus marked are dealt with more fully under the Division on Reference Work, but are included here for the sake of giving a complete conspectus of the material involved in selection.--ED.
=197. Books for the Blind.=--Many libraries now store and circulate books for the blind in the Braille and Moon types, and in this work some of them have been aided by the expert advice and actual donations of special societies interested in the well-being of the blind. There is quite an extensive and rapidly growing literature for the blind in the special raised type required for finger-reading, and a library of a few hundreds of volumes makes quite an imposing show. The question of space will arise in many places, because books for the blind are, as a rule, only embossed on one side of each page, and, owing to this embossing and the size of the type, some books make several thick quarto volumes. No space could, however, be devoted to a more humane or valuable purpose than the storage of books for the blind, and every encouragement and support should be given to the movement; though it would undoubtedly be the most effective method of ministering to the needs of the locality to subscribe for a constantly changing supply of books to one of the institutions for the blind which make a speciality of this kind of work.
[6]=198. Maps.=--In addition to all local maps and plans, old and new, sets of the Ordnance and Geological Survey maps on the one-inch scale should be added. Atlases will exist in the reference library as a matter of course, but maps of the United Kingdom suitable for tourists, cyclists, anglers, climbers, etc., should be added as freely as possible.
[6] The matters thus marked are dealt with more fully under the Division on Reference Work, but are included here for the sake of giving a complete conspectus of the material involved in selection.--ED.
=199. Discarding Effete Books.=--The question of periodically weeding out a public library, with the object of keeping it always up to date and also making room for fresh additional stock, has already been partly discussed in Sections 107, etc., and 174, etc., and it is a most important part of modern public library policy. The periodical reprinting of class lists affords a valuable opportunity for considering the claims of certain kinds of books to remain idle on the shelves, where they not only fill the space which should be available for more live works, but they obstruct the general work of the library. Every public library receives at one time or another books which must for reasons of policy be catalogued. Such books, for example, as are donated, are expected to be placed in the library and duly catalogued. There are generally hundreds of such books in every large library which have no permanent value; and these, and also the mistaken selections of committees and librarians, should be discarded as soon as possible. There are also, of course, the books which go out of use automatically, such as those noted in the subjoined Rules, and those others which manage to slip into libraries when the custodian is dreaming of higher things, or is misled by the erroneous titles adopted by authors. The weeding-out process should be continuous, and when catalogues are being reprinted, the books are being rearranged, or any kind of fresh movement is being made, a specially favourable opportunity is afforded to prune the growth of weeds which will somehow manage to infest the best-regulated libraries in spite of every care. The sentimental museum idea is, of course, responsible for much of the tendency to collect and preserve everything, on the Byronic theory, no doubt, that
A book’s a book, although there’s nothing in’t,
and, as a library is a repository for books, then _all_ books should be collected and preserved at any hazard or sacrifice, be they good or bad.
=200.= RULES FOR DISCARDING USELESS BOOKS:
SCIENCE.--All general works which are not epoch-making, but merely recapitulations of ascertained facts, should be discarded when twenty years old. Care should be taken not to discard any book, however old, which has not been efficiently superseded. All ordinary text-books of every science, save mathematics and occult science, may be discarded when twenty years old. Nicely illustrated textbooks, especially of zoology and botany, should be discarded with much caution.
USEFUL ARTS.--The same rule applies to this class as to Science, save that patents, specifications, recipes, books on household arts, and all finely illustrated books should be retained.
FINE ARTS.--Books must be discarded very sparingly in this section. Collections of engravings, finely illustrated books, and collected music, not at all.
THEOLOGY AND PHILOSOPHY.--Philosophical works, particularly systems of philosophy, should never be discarded. Historical and explanatory text-books may be discarded as they become superseded by later works. Old theology, commentaries on the Bible, sectarian literature and sermons should be discarded very freely. Theological controversies should never be collected by general municipal libraries unless of local interest.
SOCIAL SCIENCE.--This class requires frequent revision, especially in the sections devoted to political economy, government, law and other topics. Books on questions of momentary interest can be replaced by historical résumés. Constantly changing subjects like law, government and political economy should be kept up to date as much as possible, and the historical record kept by means of recent histories. Questions like parliamentary reform, slavery and chartism are illustrations of once burning topics which may just as well be represented by a few modern histories as by actual collections of the very voluminous literature attached to each subject.
LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE.--Old grammars may be discarded without risk, and also ordinary school dictionaries. Books on literary history, bibliography and librarianship are tools, and should never be discarded.
PROSE FICTION.--Novelists mentioned in literary histories should never be discarded. Minor novelists of all lands, who are not mentioned in literary histories, whose works have remained unissued for a year or two, should be promptly discarded. So, also, should merely topical novels of no permanent interest, which libraries are often forced to buy under pressure. Continuous popularity is a good reason for retaining any novel, provided it is not immoral.
POETRY AND DRAMA.--Collective works should never be discarded unless efficiently superseded. But poets and dramatists of a day who are no longer read may be safely discarded, but no one who is named in histories of literature.
HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY.--Historical works which are mere résumés, and not themselves original authorities, may be discarded with comparative safety; but the matter of illustrations again applies here with considerable force. Works of travel of the ordinary globe-trotting description may be discarded when ten years old, along with all kinds of guidebooks, save those which are local. But here, again, beware of discarding illustrated books. Pioneer works of exploration should be retained. Old gazetteers are, as a rule, lumber, but some of the illustrated ones, like Lewis’ for Britain, may be retained for their armorial illustrations. Histories which are literary classics, like Hume, Robertson, Clarendon, should be kept, even if superseded by more accurate modern works.
BIOGRAPHY.--Collected biography should never be discarded. The biographies of nonentities in the individual biography class may, however, be weeded pretty freely and frequently after they are from forty to fifty years old.
MISCELLANEOUS.--Discard old encyclopædias with care; newspapers or directories freely. Retain all local matter of this kind however. Be extremely chary about storing inferior magazines of the miscellany order. A long set of an old magazine of this kind is a positive incubus, and most modern magazines of the snippet order are not worth house-room. Wear them out in the reading rooms by all means, but do not preserve them.
GENERAL.--All works that are defective or dirty should be discarded, or at any rate withdrawn from general circulation. A book defective in a plate or a section or two can sometimes be completed by an application to the publisher for the missing part, which is usually forthcoming at small cost. Dirty books are the bane of municipal lending libraries, and a ruthless policy in regard to them is a public economy. Especially does this remark apply to classic fiction: clean, or fresh, copies should always be available, even if at the cost of obtaining fewer works of inferior fiction. Many of the criticisms levelled at libraries have been due to neglect of this matter; sometimes due, we are sorry to say, to want of money to buy the necessary replacements.
=201.= None of the foregoing recommendations for discarding, except the last, applies to bibliographical rarities or curiosities; to works of recognized literary merit which are mentioned in histories of literature; to books which are of local interest; or to special collections. They apply simply and solely to the rank and file of literature, the 50 per cent. of the fruits of the press which become stale through effluxion of time. The question of how to dispose of discarded books can generally be decided by some local circumstance. Discarded text-books of science are generally of little value to anyone, and need not be preserved at all. But faded works of travel, history and biography may find interested readers in workhouses, hospitals and prisons. To these, or similar institutions, the discarded books of a public library could be transferred. It is hardly necessary to point out that books which are not good enough or fresh enough for a central library, are not good enough for a branch library. Books proposed to be withdrawn permanently should be submitted to the library committee, and lists of the discarded books may be printed in the bulletin, if there is one, or, failing that, in a separate form. It is useful that readers likely to be interested should be afforded an opportunity of judging the proposals and action of the library committee in its work of weeding out the library. Any serious objection to a book being removed should be considered, and nothing should be done without the utmost deliberation, because, as yet, we have not achieved a public library _index expurgatorius_ of books not worth preserving. When this comes, the task will be immensely lightened. Books which are discarded should not be permitted to leave the library unless stamped, to indicate that they are rejected. A stamp with a movable dating centre should be used, with the words,
“Public Library, Discarded,”
in a circle.
=202. Practical Methods of Selection.=--The number of books which have been published to aid in book selection is somewhat large, but few of them, save, perhaps, Sonnenschein’s publications and Nelson’s _Standard Books_, make any attempt to indicate the best editions of particular authors. It may be assumed that every entry in these lists of best books represents a work which is recommended on account of its merit, literary or otherwise. But something more than this is required by the librarian who is faced with the task of building up a great modern library, and is limited in his selection to books of the most enduring merit, and those which most completely and accurately record the state of the science or subject to which they are devoted. It is a very easy matter to simply order _books_, like the millionaire who fitted up his library by the superficial yard, thereby tempting a bookseller, entrusted with a large order for books of a uniform size in fine bindings, to bind up some hundreds of copies of a cheap “remainder,” in different covers, but with varying titles, in order to provide in dummy form the necessary mileage of books required. Public library formation can hardly be undertaken in this happy-go-lucky manner.
=203.= The principal aids to the selection of new books are The Library Association List of Best Books, which is an annotated, classified and evaluated list published weekly in _The Athenæum_, and _The A. L. A. Book-List_, which serves similarly for American books, and the journals of various kinds, which review and advertise books as published. Comparatively few of the literary journals review books in a manner helpful to the would-be book-buyer, because they do not describe the contents of them so much as criticize their literary style, production, printers’ errors, etc. Generally speaking, a modern book review is what it was in the old days of the _Edinburgh_ and _Quarterly_, simply a peg on which to hang the reviewer’s opinions on the subject of the book, and on which to display his knowledge and critical insight. Moreover, it must be remembered that publishers advertise their wares in literary journals, and that fact may, in some cases, not be without influence upon the views of the critics. The subject of the book, its style of treatment, scope, and details of its contents are left to be divined by the reader. Some of the modern publishers’ monthly catalogues are much more helpful than any journal or review, because they add brief descriptive notes to each entry of a new book. A plain, practical note outlining the principal contents and intention of a book is worth pages of critical remarks to the librarian book-buyer. The following is a list of the journals most used by librarians in selecting new books:
GENERAL: Athenæum } (Annotated) } Literary World } Publishers’ Circular } Weekly and monthly, most of Saturday Review } them giving a summary list Nation (London) } of new books, reviews, and Spectator } advertisements. Times Literary Supplement } (Annotated) }
## Bookman.
Bookseller.
## Book Monthly.
A.L.A. Book List. (Annotated.) Nation (New York). Publishers’ Weekly (New York).
SPECIAL: Nature (scientific books generally). English Mechanic (technical books) Engineer (technical books). Current Foreign books can readily be found in the lists issued by Brockhaus, Hachette, Williams & Norgate, Dulau, etc.
In addition to the very uncertain and unsatisfactory method of thus choosing new books by their titles, because it amounts to very little else, some arrangement is required whereby libraries can obtain non-fictional books on view, so that they can be properly examined before being ordered. Publishers are generally willing to submit new publications to librarians through their booksellers, and visits to large book stores should be made frequently. A good plan is for a public library to maintain one or two subscriptions with a large commercial circulating library, through which new books may be read or examined.
=204.= The best guides to the titles of old books, which, of course, include modern books other than recent publications, will be found in Appendix II., p. 507. Here again, no doubt owing to the largeness of the field, notes in aid of choice are badly wanted. Nelson’s and Sonnenschein’s books are the best in this respect, if the special annotated lists in the latter are excepted.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
=205. General:=
Bascom, E. L. Book Selection. _In_ A.L., Man. of Lib. Econ. Preprint of