Chapter 23 of 52 · 3149 words · ~16 min read

Chapter XXV

=219.= The next process is the LABELLING of the books. Reference library books are usually labelled on the inside of their front boards with the library book-plate, which may be an artistic device, or a simple label bearing the town’s arms and a few of the chief rules of the department (Fig. 64). Some libraries add a label ruled in columns to show dates of issue, but this does not seem particularly useful. Lending library books are labelled with a label pasted down on the inside front board bearing the chief rules for borrowers, and with a date label secured to the front fly-leaf by means of a narrow line of paste on the inner edge.

FIG. 64.--Book Label with Abstract of Rules (Section 219).

This enables the label to be removed easily when stamped all over with dates of issue. An ordinary form of date label is ruled in columns to take the dates as shown in Fig. 65.

=220.= It is a very important matter, affecting not only libraries, but general readers of all kinds, that books should be issued by their publishers in a condition of readiness for immediate use. The absurd and most inconvenient practice of publishing novels, reference books, and indeed any kind of work, with uncut leaves, is one which causes more waste of time and irritation than almost anything else in connexion with books. A publisher may be justified in sending out special books in limited editions with uncut edges and leaves unopened, but every other kind of book should have its edges neatly and smoothly trimmed and its leaves cut in readiness for the reader. It is cleaner and more convenient, because nothing holds dust like the rough top and fore-edges of books cut with a paper-knife, and for this reason alone it should be made a penal offence to issue books with unopened leaves.

+----------------------------------------------------------------------+ | | | TIME ALLOWED FOR READING. | | | | This book is issued for 15 days and must be returned on or before | | the date last stamped below. If kept beyond that date, a fine of one | | penny per week or part of a week will be incurred. | | | +----------------------+-----------------------+-----------------------+ | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | No person shall take out of any library any book for use in any | | house in which there is a person suffering from infectious disease, | | and no person shall return to any such library any book which has | | been exposed to infection from any infectious disease, but shall at | | once give notice to the Medical Officer of Health that it has been | | exposed to infection and leave the book at the office of the Medical | | Officer of Health or hand it over to any Sanitary Inspector acting | | on his behalf, who shall cause the same to be disinfected and then | | returned to the Library, or destroyed. | | | +----------------------------------------------------------------------+

FIG. 65.--Book Label for Dates (Section 219).

=221.= The STAMPING and CUTTING of the leaves of new books is the next step in the preparation of books for public use, and as regards the latter it is necessary to insist that the leaves should be cut close into the backs of the books, and not left uncut to within half or quarter an inch of the back, so that an ugly tear is made whenever the

## book is fully opened. A half-cut book is an abomination not to be

endured.

Various kinds of stamps are used, ink, embossing and perforating. The ink ones, usually applied with rubber dies, are not altogether satisfactory when used with ordinary aniline endorsing inks, as they can be erased. Printers’ ink is more satisfactory, but it takes some time to dry, and requires metal stamps to make it work easily. The ink used by the Post Office when applied with a metal stamp has been found effective. But for their expense embossing stamps are most satisfactory, and of the various kinds of these the perforating stamp formed like a pair of nippers is the easiest to apply. Whatever kind of stamp is used, it should be made in a circular shape, as in whatever position it is applied it never appears to be upside down or uneven, as other shapes too frequently do.

Every library should select certain fixed pages on which the stamps are to be placed, and every title-page, first and last pages of text, and all plates should be stamped. As a rule too much time is wasted in stamping library books, and it will be found quite enough to stamp the places indicated, and use a blind embossing stamp for the boards.

=222.= In certain books it is desirable to insert special labels for the instruction of the staff and as a gentle warning to readers; for example:

FIG. 66.--Warning Label.

This is especially useful in the case of books containing plates of art subjects which are liable to theft or disfigurement. In reference books with large folding maps or plates, the following label, which is attached to each map or plate, has proved to be serviceable:

FIG. 67.--Map or Plate Label.

=223. Process Checking.=--Many libraries keep a complete check of the processes through which a book passes from its receipt from the bookseller to its issue to the public, in the form of a rubber stamp which is impressed upon the back of the title-page, or at some other convenient place in the book:

FIG. 68.--Process Stamp (or Label).

The assistant carrying out the process initials the appropriate blank on the impression, and this protects the good assistant from blame for the faults of the occasional careless one. What is more important, they show anyone coming newly to a batch of books the stage that has been reached in their preparation. Such stamps are readily applied and have justified their use.

=224. Stock Book.=--This is the chief inventory or record of the books contained in the library in every department, and should be ruled to show the history of each book from its accession till its final withdrawal. The intermediate renewals of worn-out copies need not be shown in this book, as they complicate the record immensely, and there seems no strong reason for doing more than noting the total number of renewals in the Routine book, as already shown in Section 215. There are many forms of stock books, but for ordinary British municipal libraries the variety shown in the ruling on page 202 will be found, with its accessories, sufficient for every purpose.

There does not seem to be any obvious advantage in the American plan of printing the accession numbers progressively down each page, as this renders it impossible to re-enter a new book which has been given a withdrawn number, and there is a decided waste in using up from two to a hundred lines for a single work.

=225.= The stock book now recommended can be adapted to any system of classification, and when used in conjunction with the annual abstract sheets, ruled as shown on page 203, the exact position of the stock can be easily and correctly ascertained.

FIG. 69.--Stock Book.--Left-hand Folio (Section 224).

+-----+--------+--------+--------+--------+-------+------++------+ |Class|Binding.|Donor or|Date of | Price. |Special|With- || Re- | | No. | | Vendor.|Receipt.| |Collec-|drawal||marks.| | | | | | | tion. |Book. || | +-----+--------+--------+--------+--+--+--+-------+------++------+ | | | | | | | | | || | | | | | | | | | | || | | | | | | | | | | || | | | | | | | | | | || | | | | | | | | | | || | | | | | | | | | | || | | | | | | | | | | || | | | | | | | | | | || | | | | | | | | | | || | | | | | | | | | | || | | | | | | | | | | || | | | | | | | | | | || |

FIG. 70.--Stock Book.--Right-hand Folio (Section 224).

=226.= Every book received into the library must be entered in the stock book, and a separate book should be kept for the reference and lending departments and for every branch. Provision is made in the ruling for any needful cross-reference to the withdrawals book, and a column is used for any remarks required to elucidate further the history of each book. When a book is discarded it is entered in the withdrawals book, and the page of this register is carried into the appropriate column in the stock book against the original entry. The stock is balanced annually by the withdrawals of the year being deducted from the total stock as ascertained at the end of the previous year, plus all the new additions. Withdrawn numbers should be applied to new books so as to prevent blanks in the sequence, and such books must be entered in the stock book in its chronological order, and cross-references made between the new and original entries.

+-----++---------------------++-----++-------+-------++--------++----+ |Page.|| Classification. ||Total||Bought.| Pre- || Special|| | | || ||Vols.|| |sented.|| Collec-|| | | || || || | || tions. || | | |+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-++ || | ++--+--+--++----+ | || | | | | | | | | | | || || | || | | || | +-----++-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-++-----++-------+-------++--+--+--++----+ | || | | | | | | | | | | || || | || | | || | | || | | | | | | | | | | || || | || | | || | | || | | | | | | | | | | || || | || | | || | | || | | | | | | | | | | || || | || | | || | | || | | | | | | | | | | || || | || | | || | | || | | | | | | | | | | || || | || | | || | | || | | | | | | | | | | || || | || | | || | | || | | | | | | | | | | || || | || | | || | | || | | | | | | | | | | || || | || | | || | | || | | | | | | | | | | || || | || | | || | | || | | | | | | | | | | || || | || | | || | | || | | | | | | | | | | || || | || | | || | | || | | | | | | | | | | || || | || | | || | | || | | | | | | | | | | || || | || | | || | | || | | | | | | | | | | || || | || | | || |

FIG. 71.--Abstract Sheet for Stock and Withdrawals Book (Section 225).

This will cause occasional irregularities in the progression of numbers of the “Accession Number” column, but it is of much greater importance not to allow extensive blanks to occur in this series of numbers, as it will play havoc with the charging system later on. This method of re-entering cannot be done with stock books having the accession numbers ready printed, and librarians who use this form must make up their minds to run a very irregular series of numbers.

The whole process can be simplified by the use of a loose-leaf accession book, such as the “Kalamazoo” ledgers. As entries become congested by the substitution of other books for those originally stocked, the congested pages can be re-written as a whole. A register of discarded books or withdrawals can be kept in a separate book--the superseded loose leaves can be filed for the purpose--if it is thought desirable to retain a record of books which have been and are no longer in the library; but experience has not shown such a record to have any precise or practical value.

As in many other branches of library work, the tendency in accession work is to elaborate every process instead of simplifying it. The simplest form of stock book is that in which a specially ruled counterfoil is attached to the order forms and which only provides columns for accession and class numbers, author, title and number of volumes, publisher and price. After all a stock book need only be a kind of record of origin, and not necessarily an epitome, of the catalogue and classification. What a stock book is wanted for is to answer the questions: When did a given book come; where did it come from; what did it cost; how many books does the library possess; what are they about? There are so many records which give other particulars, that it seems a great waste of time to repeat a large number of the particulars given in some stock books.

=227.= The withdrawals book is the necessary complement of the stock book, and in it is entered every book permanently withdrawn from the library for any reason. The ruling given below will show better than description its scope and style:

FIG. 72.--Withdrawals Book (Section 227).

=228.= Opinion is divided upon the point, but usually in the enumeration of the stock of a library no distinction is made between a book and a pamphlet; every number represents a complete item, and the number of pages or subject-matter does not enter into the question; and for accession purposes a pamphlet is a book or work, whether it extends to a hundred pages or consists of but four. The Library Association, however, recommends that in presenting public statistics of stocks, as in annual reports, there should be differentiation, and gives the following definitions:--

“_Volumes_ mean books as they stand on the shelves. _Pieces_ mean separate works or parts (each usually having a separate title-page to itself, as with pamphlets, parts of periodicals, and the like); _Papers_ mean lesser items, usually with less than five pages, as broadsides, cards, flysheets and prints; _Items_ mean volumes, pieces, papers, lantern-slides, and generally all material constituting the library stock, and issued to readers; _Works_ mean whole literary productions, whether in several volumes or only one piece. Thus--ten pamphlets bound together, with five broadsides at end, are one volume, ten works or pieces, fifteen items. A dictionary in twenty volumes would count as twenty volumes, pieces, and items, but one work, and in a sense one book. Having regard to these definitions, care should be taken in recording the number of volumes in a library, to reckon ten pamphlets or parts as the equivalent of a single volume.”

Thus, if these definitions are used, it becomes necessary to indicate in the stock book the nature of the work; and to differentiate, one or two symbols, such as p.=pamphlet, and pr.=paper, may be used; but if “p.” is written in the “No. of vols.” column to distinguish a pamphlet, that will meet all usual statistical purposes.

=229.= BIBLIOGRAPHY

Dana, J. C. Accessioning Books. _In his_ Library Primer, 1910, p. 81.

Dewey, Melvil (_Ed._). Library School Rules, 1892.

Hitchler, Theresa. Accession Record, etc. _In her_ Cataloguing for Small Libraries, 1915. A.L.A.

Hopper, F. F. Order and Accession Department. _In_ A.L.A., Man. of Lib. Econ. Preprint of