LEDGERS.

The present state of the question of charging turns largely on the respective merits of indicator and non-indicator systems, or, in other words, whether the burden of ascertaining if books are in or out should be placed on readers or the staff. There is much to be said on both sides, and reason to suppose that the final solution lies with neither. The non-indicator systems come first as a matter of seniority. The advantages of all ledger and card-charging systems are claimed to be that readers are admitted directly to the benefit of intercourse with the staff; that they are saved the trouble of discovering if the numbers they want are in; that they are in very many cases better served, because more accustomed to explain their wants; that less counter space is required; that the initial expense of an indicator is saved; and, finally, that with a good staff borrowers can be more quickly attended to. Some of these statements may be called in question, but they represent the views of librarians who have tried both systems. From the readers’ point of view there can hardly be a doubt but that the least troublesome system is the most acceptable; and it is only fair to the non-indicator systems to assert that they are the least troublesome to borrowers. The original method of charging, still used in many libraries, consisted in making entries of all issues in a day-book ruled to show the following particulars:—

Date of Issue.
1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9
Progressive No.	Title of Book.	Class Letter.	No.	Vols.	Date of Return.	Name of Borrower.	No. of Card.	Fines.
1
2
3

But after a time certain economies were introduced, columns 2, 7, and 9 being omitted, and day-books in this later form, perhaps with the arrangement slightly altered, are in common use now. Of course it is plain that a book on issue was entered in the first vacant line of the day-book, and the progressive number, borrower’s number, and date were carried on to its label. On return, the particulars on the label pointed out the day and issue number, and the book was duly marked off. It will at once be seen that this form of ledger only shows what books are out, but cannot readily show the whereabouts of any particular volume without some trouble. As to what book any reader has is another question which cannot be answered without much waste of time. A third disadvantage is that as borrowers retain their tickets there is very little to prevent unscrupulous persons from having more books out at one time than they should. A fourth weakness of this ledger is that time is consumed in marking off, and books are not available for re-issue until they are marked off. For various reasons some librarians prefer a system of charging direct to each borrower instead of journalising the day’s operations as above described. These records were at one time kept in ledgers, each borrower being apportioned a page or so, headed with full particulars of his name, address, guarantor, date of the expiry of his borrowing right, &c. These ledgers were ruled to show date of issue, number of book, and date of return, and an index had to be consulted at every entry. Now-a-days this style of ledger is kept on cards arranged alphabetically or numerically, and is much easier to work. Subscription and commercial circulating libraries use the system extensively. The main difficulty with this system was to find out who had a particular book; and “overdues” were hard to discover, and much time was consumed in the process. To some extent both these defects could be remedied by keeping the borrowers’ cards and arranging them in dated trays, so that as books were returned and the cards gradually weeded out from the different days of issue, a deposit of overdue borrowers’ cards pointing to their books would result. Another form of ledger is just the reverse of the last, the reader being charged to the book instead of the book to the reader. This is a specimen:—

K 5942. Wood—East Lynne.
Date of Issue.	Borrowers’ No.	Date of Return.	Date of Issue.	Borrowers’ No.	Date of Return.
4 May	395	18 May
6 June	3421

Every book has a page or more, according to popularity, and there can hardly be a doubt of its superiority to the personal ledger, because the question of a book’s whereabouts is more often raised than what book a given reader has. Dates of issue and return are stamped, and all books are available for issue on return. The borrowers’ cards, if kept in dated trays as above, show at once “overdues” and who have books out. But the “overdues” can be ascertained also by periodical examination of the ledger. In this system book ledgers are as handy as cards. In both of the ledger systems above described classified day sheets for statistical purposes are used. They are generally ruled thus:—

Date.
A	B	C	D	E	F

and the issues are recorded by means of strokes or other figures. At one time it was considered an ingenious arrangement to have a series of boxes lettered according to classes, with locked doors and apertures at the top, in which a pea could be dropped for every issue in any class; but this seems to have been now completely abandoned. Certainly neither the sheet-stroking nor pea-dropping method of getting at the number of daily issues can be recommended, because in both cases the account is at the mercy of assistants, who may either neglect to make such charges, or register some dozen issues at a time to account for intervals spent in idling. An application slip is the best solution of the difficulty. This can either be filled up by the assistants or the borrowers. In certain libraries these slips are of some permanence, being made of stout paper in long narrow strips, on which borrowers enter their ticket-numbers and the numbers and classes of the books they would like. The assistant stamps the current date against the book had out, and the slips, after the statistics are compiled from them, are sorted in order of borrowers’ numbers and placed in dated trays. Of course when the borrower returns the book, his list is looked out, and the name of the returned book heavily cancelled and another work procured as before. There are various kinds of ticket-books issued for this purpose, some with counterfoils and detachable cheques, and others with similar perforated slips and ruled columns for lists of books wanted to read. Messrs. Lupton & Co. of Birmingham, Mr. Ridal of Rotherham Free Library, and Messrs. Waterston & Sons, stationers, Edinburgh, all issue different varieties of call-books, or lists of wants. Some libraries provide slips of paper, on which the assistant jots down the book-number after the borrower hands it in with his ticket-number written in thus:—

Ticket.	Book.
5963	C 431

These are simply filed at the moment of service, and become the basis of the statistical entry for each day’s operations. Such slips save the loss of time which often arises when careful entries have to be made on day-sheets or books, and there can be no question as to their greater accuracy. These are the main points in connection with the most-used class of day-books and ledgers.