| Press Mark | Title of Book for Lettering | Date of Return | Binder’s Charge |.
Bradford. Date of Sending.
| Style | Book Number | Title | Price |.
Mitchell Library, Glasgow. Date of Sending.
| Instruction | Lettering | Date of Return |.
Borrowers’ and guarantors’ registers are sometimes kept in books, but often on cards, which are the most convenient. They register names, addresses, period of borrowing right, and guarantors in one case, and names, addresses, and persons guaranteed in the other. In some libraries a record of each borrower’s reading is posted on to his card from the book application forms.
Periodical receipt and check books are for marking off the current numbers of newspapers and magazines as received from the newsagent, and for checking them each morning as they lie on the tables or racks. Ruled sheets and cards are also used for the same purpose. They usually consist of lists of monthly, weekly, daily, and other periodicals, with rulings to show dates of receipt or finding covering a period of one to six months. Issue books, for recording the issues of books in libraries, are designed in many styles, each having reference to the particular requirements of a certain institution. Generally, however, the particulars preserved include: | Date | No. of Vols. Issued by Classes | Totals | Weekly or Monthly Average |. Many give the number of visits to newsrooms and reading-rooms, while others include the amounts received from fines, sale of catalogues, &c. One issue book is usually ruled to show the work accomplished in every department, but many libraries keep separate registers for lending and reference departments. In towns where there are a number of branch libraries the returns of issues, &c., are often recorded in a very elaborate and complete fashion. The day book or issue ledger has already been referred to under ledger charging systems, but in addition to these there is an endless variety of daily issue sheets, some simple and some very complex. It would be useless to give patterns of these, as the whole question of their adoption hinges on the main system by which each library is managed. Work books, time book and sheets, scrap books, and lost and found registers are sufficiently described by their names. The two first are for staff management, and in large libraries are absolutely necessary; the work book for noting the duties of each assistant, and the time book or sheet for recording times of arrival and departure from duty. Lost and found registers record thefts, mutilations, or other abstractions of library property, and dates and descriptions of articles found on the premises. These are, roughly speaking, the most necessary books of record required in the administration of a public library, but many others exist which have been designed for special purposes. The Museum of the Association contains specimens of many of the books above named, and librarians are, as a rule, glad to show what they have in the way of novelties or variations from standard patterns.
FORMS AND STATIONERY.
Here again selection is difficult, owing to the perplexing quantity and variety of forms, and we shall, with as little comment as possible, merely give specimens or indicate uses.
Precept forms are the requisitions for the library rate presented by London Commissioners to the Local Boards or Vestries.