Fig. 10.[8]—Cotgreave’s Indicator
The blue end is shown to the public to indicate books in, and the red end to indicate books out. The ordinary method of working it is as follows: The borrower, having found the number of the book wanted indicated in (blue), asks for it by number at the counter, and hands over his ticket. The assistant, having procured the book, next withdraws the indicator-book and enters in the first blank space the reader’s ticket-number and the date, reverses the little ledger to show the number out, and leaves in it the borrower’s card; stamps or writes the date on the issue-label of the book, and gives it to the reader. On return the indicator number is simply turned round, and the borrower receives back his card. “Overdues” can be shown by means of coloured clips, or by having the borrowers’ cards shaped or coloured, and issues are recorded on day-sheets, or by means of application forms. There are, however, endless ways of working both the Elliot and Cotgreave indicators, though there is only space to describe the most elementary forms. Like every other department of library work, the working of an indicator-charging system will bear careful thought, and leave room for original developments. The “Duplex” indicator, invented by Mr. A. W. Robertson, librarian of Aberdeen, has several novel features which call for attention. A full-sized Duplex indicator occupies 5 ft. 4 in. of counter space for every 2000 numbers, while a smaller pattern for a similar number occupies 3 ft. 8 in. of counter space, both being 4 ft. high, and is a frame fitted with slides in the manner of the Cotgreave and Elliot indicators. It is also a catalogue, and the numbers and titles of books are given on the blocks which fit into numbered spaces. Each block has a removable and reversible sheet for carrying a record consisting of borrower’s number, number in ticket-register, and date of issue. The borrowers’ cards are made of wood, and also bear a removable slip for noting the numbers of books read. When a book is asked for the assistant proceeds first to the indicator and removes the block, which bears on its surface the location marks and accession number of the book, and on one end the number and title of the book; the other being coloured red to indicate out, but also bearing the number. He then carries the reader’s number on to the block, and having got and issued the book, leaves the block and card on a tray. This is all that is done at the moment of issue, and it is simple enough, all the registration being postponed till another time. The assistant who does this takes a tray of blocks and cards and sits down in front of the ticket-register, which is a frame divided into compartments, consecutively numbered up to five hundred or more, and bearing the date of issue. He then selects a card and block, carries the book-number on to the borrower’s card, and the number of the first vacant ticket-register compartment, with the date, on to the book block, and leaves the borrower’s card in the register. Probably the statistical returns will also be made up at this time. The blocks are then placed reversed in the indicator, and so are shown out to the public. When a book is returned, the assistant proceeds to the indicator to turn the block, and while doing so notes the date and register number, and then removes and returns the borrower’s card. By this process the ticket-register is gradually weeded, till on the expiry of the period during which books can be kept without fine, all tickets remaining are removed to the overdue register, which bears the same date, and are placed in its compartments according to the order of the ticket-register. A slip bearing those numbers is pinned down the side of the overdue register so that defaulters can easily be found.
These are the principal points in the three best indicators yet invented, and it only remains to note their differences. The Elliot indicator system makes the charge to the borrower, and preserves no permanent record of book issues apart from the label in the book itself. The Cotgreave system charges the borrower to the book, and does keep a permanent record of the issues. The “Duplex” system shows who has had a certain book, what books a certain reader has had, in addition to a record on the book itself similar to that kept with the Elliot and Cotgreave systems, but only in a temporary manner. So far as permanency of record is concerned the Cotgreave is the only indicator which keeps this in itself. The reading done by borrowers is not shown in a satisfactory manner by any of the three systems, as worked in their elementary stages, and the Elliot and Duplex records are only available when the readers’ tickets are in the library and their places known. Much difference of opinion exists among librarians as regards the necessity for a double entry charging system, many experienced men holding that a simple record of the issues of a book is all that is required. Others are equally positive that a separate record of a borrower’s reading is only a logical outcome of the spirit of public library work, which aims at preserving, as well as compiling, full information touching public use and requirements. In this view the writer agrees, and strongly recommends every young librarian to avoid the slipshod, and go in heart and soul for thoroughness. A simple double record of borrowers’ reading and books read, which will give as little trouble to the public as possible, is much required, and will repay the attention bestowed on it by the young librarian. Where application slips are used, which give book- and borrower-numbers, it is a simple matter compiling a daily record of the reading done by each borrower. At several libraries where Cotgreave’s indicator is used, it is done by the process of pencilling the number of the book taken out on to a card bearing the reader’s number. These cards form a numerical register of borrowers, and are posted up from the application forms.
Before leaving the subject of charging systems let it again be strongly urged that no system of charging should be adopted without a careful thinking-out of the whole question; giving due consideration of the matters before raised, at counters (p. 10) and above, touching space and public convenience in the use of indicators. Though it is claimed for the indicator that it reduces friction between assistant and public, facilitates service, and secures impartiality, it should be remembered that it is expensive; occupies much space; abolishes most of the helpful relations between readers and staff; quickens service only to the staff; and after all is not infallible in its working, especially when used without any kind of cross-check such as is afforded by application forms and separate records of issues to borrowers.
Reference library charging is usually accomplished by placing the reader’s application in the place vacated by the book asked for, and removing and signing it on return. In some libraries these slips are kept for statistical purposes; in others they are returned to the reader as a sort of receipt; and in others, again, the form has a detachable portion which is used for the same purpose. In some libraries two different colours of slips are used to facilitate the examination of the shelves on the morning after the issues.
CATALOGUING APPARATUS.
In this section will be noticed only catalogue-holders, or accession-frames, together with any mechanical apparatus used in the production of catalogues. Cabinets for holding card-catalogues are made in a variety of styles, some being drawers fitted into the fronts of counters, and others being independent stands of drawers. The usual style of cabinet at present used provides for the cards being strung through oval or rounded holes on to brass rods, which are fixed, to prevent readers from removing them and so upsetting the order of the cards. The drawers themselves are made to pull out only as far as necessary, in order to prevent careless users from pulling them out altogether and working destruction to both fittings and arrangement. The construction of these cabinets should only be entrusted to skilled workmen, and only oak, walnut, or other hard woods should be used. As every librarian has his or her own opinion as to how such cabinets should be made and their contents safeguarded, it will be best to refer inquirers to examples of such catalogues in actual work, in different styles, at Liverpool, Newcastle-on-Tyne, Nottingham; the Royal College of Surgeons, Guildhall, Battersea, St. Martin-in-the-Fields, and Clerkenwell, London, and elsewhere. A special cabinet is made by Messrs. Stone of Banbury, Oxon., but its safeguards require to be improved. A half-falling front locked on to the rod which secures the cards is a very simple and effective plan of keeping order in isolated cabinets. In cases where the backs of the drawers are get-at-able from the staff side of the counter, even more simple methods of securing the cards, while giving every facility in the way of making additions, can be adopted. Projecting guides to show in index style the whereabouts of particular parts of the alphabet should be made either of tin or linen-mounted cards. Tin lasts best, although the lettering sometimes rubs off. Nothing will satisfy a librarian, who has a card-catalogue in contemplation, so much as the comparison of the kinds adopted in different libraries. The chief objection to card cabinets or drawers is the insurmountable one of limitation to public use being fixed by the number of drawers or cabinets. With drawers in a counter front one consulter monopolises one drawer, while with tiers of three or four drawers in cabinet form never more than two persons can use it with any comfort. The exposure of only one title at a time is another serious drawback, while the peculiar daintiness of touch requisite for the proper manipulation of the cards makes the use of the catalogue a labour and a perplexity to working people with hardened finger-tips. We think it likely, therefore, that catalogues in a large series of handy guard-books, or in volumes or boxes provided with an arrangement for inserting slips of additions, will in the future come to be recognised as that best adapted for general use. A card-catalogue for staff use ought in any case to be kept, either in boxes or covered trays. Another catalogue appliance is the accession-frame, or device for making public all recent additions to the library. Of these there are several, but we need only mention a few as typical of the rest. At some libraries a glazed case with shelves is placed on the counter, and in this new books are displayed with their titles towards the public. It seems to work very well, and has been used with success at Birmingham, Lambeth, and elsewhere, to make known different classes of literature which are not so popular as they should be. Liverpool has, or had, a series of frames in which were movable blocks carrying the titles of additions, and at Rotherham a somewhat similar plan has been adopted. Cardiff shows additions in a frame holding title cards which can be removed by readers and handed over the counter as demand notes. Guard-books like those in use at the British Museum are common, both for additions and general catalogues; while cards or leaves in volumes laced on cords or rods have been used at Manchester, in Italy, and generally in Europe and America. A neat box with falling sides for holding catalogue cards is used in the University Library of Giessen in Germany, and seems well adapted for staff use, or for private and proprietary libraries. Latest of all is the ingenious cylindrical catalogue-holder or stand invented by Mr. Mason, of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, London. It consists of a broad revolving cylinder, upon the outer rim of which are placed a number of wooden bars, each wide enough to take a written or printed author and title entry. These bars are movable, being designed to slide round the whole circumference of the cylinder, so that additions can be inserted at any part of the alphabet. Each bar represents a book-title, and the plan of using is that the titles of additions should be mounted on the bars, leaving spaces for additions, and so afford a convenient and easily worked accession list in strict alphabetical order. The cylinder is intended to be fixed in a counter front or special stand, and to be all covered in with the exception of a portion about equal to the size of a demy octavo page, which will show under glass. The reader turns the cylinder round to the part of the alphabet he wants by simply turning a handle, and so the whole is shown to him without any waste of public space.
COPYING MACHINES.
Typewriters for cataloguing or listing purposes are making slow progress in public libraries; but it is unquestionable that before long they will be introduced into every large library. Their advantages are many, among them being greater speed, neatness, and clearness; not to speak of the attention always bestowed by the public on printed titles or notices as compared with written ones. If many copies of a list of “books wanted” should be required, the typewriter will make a stencil on waxed paper from which can be printed hundreds of copies. If three or six copies of any title or document are required the typewriter will print them all at once. For card-catalogues it is better to print two or three copies of a title at once, and mount them on cards afterwards, making one the author and another the subject entry. The best machines are those called “type-bar” writers, the principle of which is that a circle or row of rods carrying types at the ends, operated by a key like a pianoforte, is made to strike on a common centre, so that a piece of paper fastened at the point of contact is printed by being simply jerked along. The various mechanical devices employed to achieve the different requirements of printing are ingenious, but vary more or less in every machine. The following machines are recommended for trial before a choice is made: the Bar-lock, the Caligraph, the Hammond, the Remington, and the Yost. Any of the manufacturers or agents will allow a week or fortnight’s free trial of the machines, and this is the most satisfactory way of deciding. Recommendations of friends and agents alike should be ignored, and the librarian should trust to his own liking in the matter. After all is said, there is really very little difference, as regards cost and manipulation, in the best machines, and the matter resolves itself into a question of meeting the requirements of a particular operator or purpose. In the Bar-lock the type-bars strike downwards through a narrow inked ribbon. There is a separate key for each type. In the Caligraph the bars strike upwards through a broad ink ribbon, and the key-board is arranged with capitals down each side and the lower case letters in the middle. The Hammond is not a type-bar machine, but has two sizes of type on different holders which are exchangeable and is operated by keys carrying the names of two or three letters. The type-holder is struck by a striker working from behind, and the letter is impressed on the paper through an inked ribbon. The keys alter the position of the holder to bring the proper letter or figure against the striker. Cards can be printed more easily by the Hammond than by the other machines. The Remington, which has had the longest career, has a single key-board, each key representing two letters or figures. The bars strike upwards, and the construction of the instrument is excellent. The Yost is a light and compact machine, which prints direct from an ink pad on to the paper. It has a separate key for each type, and a very good arrangement for spacing or inserting missed letters.
Other copying or manifolding machines for manuscript are the Cyclostyle, Mimeograph, and Trypograph. The two former are perhaps most useful in libraries; the Mimeograph being best for manifolding along with the typewriter. The ordinary screw letter copying press is a necessary adjunct of every librarian’s office, but in libraries with small incomes an “Anchor” copying press, costing about 12s. 6d., will be found to serve all ordinary purposes.