A system on somewhat similar lines is worked at Liverpool and Chelsea, the difference being that in these libraries a record is made of the issues of books. It has the additional merit of being something in the nature of a compromise between a ledger and an indicator system, so that to many it will recommend itself on these grounds alone. The Cotgreave indicator is in this system used for fiction and juvenile books only, and as the records of issues are made on cards, the indicator is simply used to show books out and in. Mr. George Parr, of the London Institution, is the inventor of an admirable card-ledger, and though it has been in use for a number of years its merits do not seem to be either recognised or widely known. The main feature of this system, which was described at the Manchester meeting of the L.A.U.K. in 1879, is a fixed alphabetical series of borrowers’ names on cards, behind which other cards descriptive of books issued are placed. The system is worked as follows: Every book has a pocket inside the board somewhat similar to that used at Bradford and Chelsea, in which is a card bearing the title and number of the book. When the book is issued the card is simply withdrawn and placed, with a coloured card to show the date, behind the borrower’s card in the register. When it is returned the title card is simply withdrawn from behind the borrower’s card, replaced in the book, and the transaction is complete. This is the brief explanation of its working, but Mr. Parr has introduced many refinements and devices whereby almost any question that can be raised as regards who has a book, when it was issued, and what book a given person has, can be answered with very little labour. This is accomplished by means of an ingenious system of projecting guides on the cards, together with different colours for each 1000 members, and with these aids a ready means is afforded of accurately finding the location in the card-ledger of any given book or borrower. As regards its application to a popular public library, the absence of a permanent record would in most cases be deemed objectionable, but there seems no reason why, with certain modifications, it could not be adapted to the smaller libraries, where neither pocket systems nor indicators are in use. This very ingenious and admirable system suggests what seems in theory a workable plan for any library up to 10,000 volumes. Instead of making a fixed alphabet of borrowers, as in Mr. Parr’s model, a series of cards might be prepared, one for each book in the library, in numerical order, distributed in hundreds and tens, shown by projections to facilitate finding. A label would be placed in each book, ruled to take the borrower’s number and date of issue, and a borrower’s card like that used for Mr. Elliot’s indicator, ruled to take the book numbers only. When a book is asked for, all that the assistant has to do is to write its number in the borrower’s card, the number of the borrower’s card and the date on the book label, and then to issue the book, having left the borrower’s card in the register. The period of issue could be indicated by differently coloured cards to meet the overdue question, and a simple day-sheet ruled for class letters and numbers of books issued would serve for statistical purposes. The register of book-numbers could be used as an indicator by the staff in many cases, and such a plan would be as easily worked, as economical, and as accurate as most of the charging systems in use in small libraries.
There are many other card-charging systems in use, but most of them are worked only in the United States. A large number of British libraries, especially those established under the “Public Libraries Acts,” use one or other of the various indicators which have been introduced since 1870, and it now becomes necessary to describe some of these.
INDICATORS.
Fig. 9.[7]—Elliot’s Indicator.
The first indicator of any practical use was that invented by Mr. John Elliot, of Wolverhampton, in 1870. Previous to that date various make-shift contrivances had been used to aid the staff in finding what books were in or out without the trouble of actually going to the shelves, chief among which was a board drilled with numbered holes to receive pegs when the books represented by the numbers were out. Elliot’s indicator is a large framework of wood, divided, as shown in the engraving, into ten divisions by wooden uprights, on which are fastened printed columns of numbers 1 to 100, 101 to 200, &c., representing volumes in the library. Between each number, in the spaces between the uprights, are fastened small tin slides, forming a complete series of tiny shelves for the reception of borrowers’ tickets, which are placed against the numbers of the books taken out. The numbers are placed on both sides of the indicator, which is put on the counter, with one side glazed to face the borrowers. Its working is simple: Every borrower receives on joining a ticket in the shape of a book, having spaces ruled to show the numbers of books and dates of issue, with the ends coloured red and green. On looking at the indicator the borrower sees so many vacant spaces opposite numbers, and so many occupied by cards, and if the number he wishes is shown blank he knows it is in and may be applied for. He accordingly does so, and the assistant procures the book, writes in the borrower’s card the number and date of issue, and on the issue-label of the book the reader’s ticket-number and date. When the book is returned the assistant simply removes the borrower’s card from the space and returns it, and the transaction is complete. A day-sheet is commonly used for noting the number of issues; but, of course, application forms can also be used. The coloured ends of the borrowers’ tickets are used to show overdue books, red being turned outwards one fortnight, or whatever the time allowed may be, and green the next. Towards the end of the second period the indicator is searched for the first colour, and the “overdues” noted. The main defect of the Elliot indicator lies in the danger which exists of readers’ tickets being placed in the wrong spaces, when they are practically lost.
The “Cotgreave” indicator, invented by Mr. Alfred Cotgreave, now librarian of West Ham, London, differs from the Elliot in principle and appearance, and is more economical in the space required. It consists of an iron frame, divided into columns of 100 by means of wooden uprights and tin slides; but has numbered blank books in every space, instead of an alternation of numbered uprights and spaces. Into each space is fitted a movable metal case, cloth-covered, containing a miniature ledger ruled to carry a record of borrowers’ numbers and dates of issue. These cases are turned up at each end, thus
, and the book-number appears at one end on a red ground and at the other on a blue ground.
