3. Anonymous works, whose authors' names are unknown, are placed under the subjects to which they relate.
4. Cross references are made:
from the subjects of biographies to the authors;
from the principal anonymous and pseudonymous works to the writer's real names where known;
from works included in, or noticed in the title-pages of other publications, to those publications.
5. To obviate the imperfections necessarily attendant on an alphabetical arrangement, and for the greater facility of reference, short classifications are introduced of the chief subjects on which the books in the library treat, referring to the names of the authors in the same general alphabet; thereby uniting the advantages of the alphabetical and classified systems, and acting in some measure as a key to the prevailing character of the library.
6. All authors' names are followed by full stops: any articles placed under a writer's name, of which he is not the author, but which are anonymous answers to, or criticisms on, his works; anonymous memoirs placed under the subjects; or any entries whatever, in which the heading name prefixed is not that of the author, are distinguished by a line following the name.
7. The headings of the short classifications are distinguished by being doubly underlined with red ink. The name to be referred to is singly underlined, but when the reference is to another heading, and not to an author, it is doubly underlined.
In preparing titles for the catalogue (whether it be intended to transcribe or print them), it should be an imperative instruction that they be written on slips of paper (or on cards) of uniform size. It is also useful to include in them a word or two which may serve to identify the origin of the books—whether by purchase, by copyright, or by gift—and to indicate the date of their respective acquisition.
Classification of Books.
The classification of books, according to any set system, or according to subjects upon the shelves of a library, is not easy, and for many reasons it is not worth attempting. Unless the library is a very large one, say, ten to twenty thousand volumes, with ample and adaptable shelving, it is not to be desired. The main difficulty in shelf classification lies in the fact that books on similar and kindred subjects are issued in all sizes. There are books on Furniture, for instance, in folio, in quarto, and in octavo. When shelf classification is imperative, the folios are all put together, the quartos together, and the octavos together. This is the nearest realisation of a shelf classification, and by this method the folios may be far separated from the quartos, and the quartos from the octavos. Moreover, if appearance count for anything, as indeed it should in the most modest library, it will be impossible to carry out any plan of shelf classification and preserve at the same time an appearance of method and fitness. In planning out how your books are to be placed, a great consideration is the placing of them, so that books likely to be frequently referred to shall be easy of access, and books less likely to be in request shall be housed higher up.[39] Reference books should, as far as possible, be placed together, and all easy of access. The main divisions into which a private library classes itself are History and Biography, Fiction, Poetry and Drama, Theology, Travel, Art, Belles lettres; but there are so many considerations besides those of subject in any general classification which should determine the position of a volume that I must emphasise what has already been said about actual personal convenience being first studied, and the library as arranged on the shelves should be the result of personal convenience and graceful effect. This is more particularly necessary when a library is in course of expansion. The subjects which will expand quickest, and the space they will require, can never be accurately gauged, and frequent upheavals and readjustments will be necessary if any rigid plan is aimed at. I would suggest that a separate shelf—or, if necessary, a separate case—be reserved for unbound periodicals and for accessions, which are, as it were, sub judice. Often, too, a separate case is necessary for rare and handsome books, and a locked case for facetiæ. It is worth while to observe that Pepys found that the best way to find his numerous books was to number them consecutively throughout the library.[40]
Numerous elaborate plans of book classification have been put forward, principally by Americans, but in no way are they adaptable to the requirements of private libraries, and I doubt very much the possibility of comprehending them in such a way as to apply them in an intelligible manner even to public libraries.
Mr. B. R. Wheatley, in an admirable paper upon Library arrangement,[41] gives the following excellent practical advice:—
