CARD-CHARGING SYSTEMS.
Somewhat akin to the ledger systems are the various card- and pocket-charging methods which work without the intervention of an indicator. There are several of such systems in existence both in Britain and the United States, most of them having features in common, but all distinguished by differences on points of detail. At Bradford a pocket system has long been in use. It is worked as follows: Every book has attached to one of the inner sides of its boards a linen pocket, with a table of months for dating, and an abstract of the lending rules. Within this pocket is a card on which are the number and class of the book, its title and author. To each reader is issued on joining a cloth-covered card and a pocket made of linen, having on one side the borrower’s number, name, address, &c., and on the other side a calendar. The pockets are kept in numerical order at the library, and the readers retain their cards. When a borrower wishes a book, he hands in a list of numbers and his card to the assistant, who procures the first book he finds in. He next selects from the numerical series of pockets the one bearing the reader’s number. The title card is then removed from the book and placed in the reader’s numbered pocket, and the date is written in the date column of the book pocket. This completes the process at the time of service. At night the day’s issues are classified and arranged in the order of the book numbers, after the statistics are made up and noted in the sheet ruled for the purpose, and are then placed in a box bearing the date of issue. When a book is returned the assistant turns up its date of issue, proceeds to the box of that date, and removes the title card, which he replaces in the book. The borrower’s pocket is then restored to its place among its fellows. The advantages of this plan are greater rapidity of service as compared with the ledger systems, and a mechanical weeding out of overdues somewhat similar to what is obtained by the “Duplex” indicator system described further on. Its disadvantages are the absence of permanent record, and the danger which exists of title cards getting into the wrong pockets.
A system on somewhat similar lines is worked at Liverpool and Chelsea, the difference being that in these libraries a record is made of the issues of books. It has the additional merit of being something in the nature of a compromise between a ledger and an indicator system, so that to many it will recommend itself on these grounds alone. The Cotgreave indicator is in this system used for fiction and juvenile books only, and as the records of issues are made on cards, the indicator is simply used to show books out and in. Mr. George Parr, of the London Institution, is the inventor of an admirable card-ledger, and though it has been in use for a number of years its merits do not seem to be either recognised or widely known. The main feature of this system, which was described at the Manchester meeting of the L.A.U.K. in 1879, is a fixed alphabetical series of borrowers’ names on cards, behind which other cards descriptive of books issued are placed. The system is worked as follows: Every book has a pocket inside the board somewhat similar to that used at Bradford and Chelsea, in which is a card bearing the title and number of the book. When the book is issued the card is simply withdrawn and placed, with a coloured card to show the date, behind the borrower’s card in the register. When it is returned the title card is simply withdrawn from behind the borrower’s card, replaced in the book, and the transaction is complete. This is the brief explanation of its working, but Mr. Parr has introduced many refinements and devices whereby almost any question that can be raised as regards who has a book, when it was issued, and what book a given person has, can be answered with very little labour. This is accomplished by means of an ingenious system of projecting guides on the cards, together with different colours for each 1000 members, and with these aids a ready means is afforded of accurately finding the location in the card-ledger of any given book or borrower. As regards its application to a popular public library, the absence of a permanent record would in most cases be deemed objectionable, but there seems no reason why, with certain modifications, it could not be adapted to the smaller libraries, where neither pocket systems nor indicators are in use. This very ingenious and admirable system suggests what seems in theory a workable plan for any library up to 10,000 volumes. Instead of making a fixed alphabet of borrowers, as in Mr. Parr’s model, a series of cards might be prepared, one for each book in the library, in numerical order, distributed in hundreds and tens, shown by projections to facilitate finding. A label would be placed in each book, ruled to take the borrower’s number and date of issue, and a borrower’s card like that used for Mr. Elliot’s indicator, ruled to take the book numbers only. When a book is asked for, all that the assistant has to do is to write its number in the borrower’s card, the number of the borrower’s card and the date on the book label, and then to issue the book, having left the borrower’s card in the register. The period of issue could be indicated by differently coloured cards to meet the overdue question, and a simple day-sheet ruled for class letters and numbers of books issued would serve for statistical purposes. The register of book-numbers could be used as an indicator by the staff in many cases, and such a plan would be as easily worked, as economical, and as accurate as most of the charging systems in use in small libraries.
There are many other card-charging systems in use, but most of them are worked only in the United States. A large number of British libraries, especially those established under the “Public Libraries Acts,” use one or other of the various indicators which have been introduced since 1870, and it now becomes necessary to describe some of these.