This tray (b) is provided with a rod (a) for securing the guides (e) in a continuous slot (c) at the bottom, to carry and secure the slot-fastening (f) of the guides (e). It has cut-away sides to facilitate the handling of the cards; a back slide or block (d) to retain the cards at any convenient or required angle; angle-bars and catch-pieces of brass (g and h) to secure a series of trays firmly in place, and prevent upsetting or knocking about. For every kind of card charging, whether in connexion with an indicator or without, this style of single tray, capable of indefinite expansion, is preferable to drawers or frames divided into compartments. Each tray will hold with its guides approximately 1000 cards, and, when divided up into hundreds, any number can be found quite rapidly.
Fig. 144.—Elevation and Plan of Card-charging Tray ([Section 383]).
384.
384. The guides are generally made of steel, enamelled and figured, or from vulcanized fibre, xylonite or aluminium, bearing the numbers stamped upon them. Every charging system of this kind should have a set of nine guides for each thousand numbers, numbered simply 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, or having the hundreds running progressively throughout, 100, 200, 300, 400, etc. There should also be at least two complete sets of date guides, numbered from 1 to 31 inclusive, a set of alphabetical guides (for unclaimed borrowers’ cards) from A to Z, and the miscellaneous guides for fines, marked 1d., 2d., 3d., 6d., etc., “Overdues,” “Renewals,” “Guarantors Notified,” etc. All these are necessary for working card-charging as described in this Chapter.
385.
385. It is advisable to provide a card-sorting tray, which may be a simple rack divided into narrow compartments representing thousands. The compartments need not be more than an inch wide, as the cards can lie just as easily on their edges as flat, and with greater economy of space. Where fiction is kept in a separate series of trays, or the book-issue cards are classed, then, of course, some modifications will be required both in book-issue and sorting trays.
Fig. 145.—Card-charging Trays in use ([Section 378]).