386. The indicator, as a library tool, is almost entirely an English appliance, and it is somewhat curious, considering their love for, and extensive use of, mechanical contrivances, that American librarians have never taken kindly to it. Various abortive experiments have been tried at Boston and elsewhere with indicating devices of several patterns, but the almost universal opinion of American librarians is against indicators in any shape or form. This holds good as regards colonial and foreign libraries generally, though one or two Canadian and Australasian libraries have adopted indicators of an English design. In England, on the contrary, the invention of these appliances has gone on unremittingly for sixty years, and there are about twenty different varieties, each possessing its own merit or ingenuity.
387.
387. An indicator is a device for indicating or registering information about books, in such a way that it can be seen either by the staff alone, or by the public and staff both. The information usually conveyed to the public is some kind of indication of the presence or absence of books, and the methods of accomplishing this almost invariably take the form of displayed numbers, qualified in such a way as to indicate books in and out. Thus, small spaces on a screen may be numbered to represent books, and their presence in the library indicated by the space being blank, or their absence from the library shown by the space being occupied by a card or block. Or, colours may be used to indicate books in and out, or a change in the position of the block representing a book. No doubt the idea of the mechanical indicator was early evolved from the needs of the first public libraries. The first practical application of it was in 1863, when Mr Charles Dyall, then Librarian at the Hulme Branch of the Manchester Public Libraries, had one made for actual use by the public and the staff. This seems to be the very earliest English indicator, and Mr Dyall is entitled to full credit as the pioneer inventor.
388.
388. The Elliot Indicator, 1870, is very fully described in a pamphlet entitled “A Practical Explanation of the Safe and Rapid Method of Issuing Library Books, by J. Elliot, inventor of the system. Wolverhampton, 1870.” This pamphlet gives diagrams and descriptions of the Elliot Indicator in substantially the same form in which it exists at the present day. The numbers are alongside the ticket shelves or spaces, and a specially thick borrower’s ticket is used with coloured ends to show books out and overdue. The indicator is a large frame, divided into columns by wide uprights carrying 100 numbers each, which correspond with the little shelves, formed of tin, dividing each column.
There are 100 shelves and numbers in every column, and the indicator is made in several sizes, according to the width of the borrower’s card used. The public side is covered with glass. The method of working is simple. The borrower scans the indicator till he finds the space opposite the number he wants vacant. This indicates that the book he wants is in, and he then hands his ticket to the assistant, stating the number of the book he requires. The assistant enters the book number and date of issue in the borrower’s card, and inserts it in the indicator in the space against the number. The book is then fetched, and before issue it is registered on a specially ruled day-sheet, by means of a stroke, to record the day’s circulation for statistical purposes. When the book is returned its number directs to the space on the indicator occupied by the borrower’s card, which is withdrawn and returned to the owner, when all liability for fines is cleared. Overdues are detected by means of differently coloured ends to the borrowers’ cards, or the periodical examination of the indicator. This indicator, which occupies a very large amount of counter-space, has been, or is, in use at Wolverhampton, Newcastle-on-Tyne and Paisley.
| 491 | - | Space for Ticket. | |||
| 492 | |||||
| 493 |  | - | Ticket in space, indicating book out. | ||
| 494 | |||||
| 495 | |||||
| 496 | |||||
Fig. 146.—Diagram of Elliot Indicator ([Section 388]).
Fig. 147.—A Library Indicator, as seen from the side of the public.