338. Class Colours.—In systematically classified libraries there is a certain amount of advantage to be gained by re-binding each class of books, as required, in some appropriate colour. When open access to the shelves is also granted, there is a very considerable aid to the maintenance of order given by the use of distinctive class colours. Thus, Science may be light brown or fawn colour; Fine Arts, orange; Social Science, light green; Theology, etc., black; History and Travel, dark green; Biography, maroon; Philology, light blue; Poetry, red; Fiction, dark brown; and Juvenile, yellow; and so on to any degree. A variation of this plan is to vary the colours for authors, binding each distinctively; this gives a not unpleasing variety to the shelves and has a certain arranging value.
339. Lettering and Numbering.
339. Lettering and Numbering.—When lettering and numbering have to be done apart from the re-binding, they can be executed by the staff after a little practice, as pointed out in [Section 335]. The object of lettering is to facilitate the finding of books, and for this reason it should be clear and bold. It is also possible by means of a little variation to obtain a certain amount of class-guiding in the system of lettering, and it should be made an invariable principle in every public library to adopt a certain order of particulars on the backs of books, and stick to the order. Too often this important matter is left to the fitful fancy of the binder’s finisher, with the result that very frequently the author’s name appears in all the panels in rotation. The series of suggestions given in [Fig. 127] for dealing with each class is offered as a basis on which any librarian can build a system of his own. The letterings are arranged to provide for titles, authors, volume numbers, class numbers, and dates of publication when necessary. Class letters and numbers occupy one definite place on each book, which is not subject to variations in height when appearing on books of different sizes. The markings here figured for the backs of books are arranged so that titles occupy the leading panel in all classes and thereby correspond with the great majority of the books as issued by publishers.
