|
Main
- books.jibble.org
My Books
- IRC Hacks
Misc. Articles
- Meaning of Jibble
- M4 Su Doku
- Computer Scrapbooking
- Setting up Java
- Bootable Java
- Cookies in Java
- Dynamic Graphs
- Social Shakespeare
External Links
- Paul Mutton
- Jibble Photo Gallery
- Jibble Forums
- Google Landmarks
- Jibble Shop
- Free Books
- Intershot Ltd
|
books.jibble.org
Previous Page
| Next Page
Page 39
All the departments still control the distribution of their own
publications, the superintendent of documents only distributing the
sheep set, and such of the department publications as have been turned
over to him by the departments for this purpose, or of which there
have been remainders. Sometimes the number of copies of its own
publications allotted to the department is very small and soon
exhausted.
Librarians and others who want full information about the
distribution, present methods of issue, etc., of public documents,
should send for the First annual report of the superintendent of
documents. In addition there have been issued from his office, since
its establishment in March, 1895, a check list of public documents,
and since January, 1895, a monthly catalog of current publications.
Both are mailed free upon application.
Care in a library
The question of the most economical, and at the same time satisfactory
manner of caring for documents in a library, cannot be considered in
the space of so brief an article as this necessarily must be. After
all, it is a question that must be settled by each library for itself,
since it rests chiefly upon the extent to which the library can afford
duplication.
Depository libraries have better opportunities than others for filling
up the sheep set, and having this set they have the greater portion
of those documents useful to the average library. A complete sheep
set from the 15th Congress to the close of the 53d Congress numbers
slightly over 3343V., and will require 860 feet of shelving, or six
modern iron book stacks.
Though it is done in a few cases, the subject classification of the
sheep set is not to be recommended. Where subject classification, or
the incorporation of the documents in the general library, is desired,
the cloth set is preferable, and is in most cases procurable. If
a library can afford shelf room for both, it will be found more
satisfactory to keep the sheep set intact, and to make a selection
of such reports from the cloth set as will be locally useful to the
library.
No small library should undertake to acquire any documents but those
for which it has an actual use; only the largest libraries can afford
the task of filling up sets of documents simply for the sake of having
a complete record.
Small libraries, and all libraries in need of any special report or
document, can get it, in most cases, by applying to the superintendent
of documents. Return all your duplicates to the superintendent of
documents; arrangements for their transportation will be made by him
upon notification, and anything he has that is needed will be sent in
exchange.
Do not try to collect a complete set of government documents; the
government of the United States has not yet been able to do that.
CHAPTER XXX
Checking the library
Check the library over occasionally. It need not be done every year.
It is an expensive thing to do, in time, and is not of great value
when done; but now and then it must be gone through with. It is not
necessary to close the library for this purpose. Take one department
at a time and check it by the shelf-list. Make a careful list of all
books missing. Check this list by the charging slips at the counter.
For those still missing make a general but hasty search through the
library. Go over each part of the library in this way. Then compile
all lists of missing books into one list, arranged in the order of
their call-numbers. Once or twice a week for several months go over
the library with this list, looking for missing books. Even
with access to the shelves, and with great freedom in matters of
circulation, not many books will be found missing, under ordinary
circumstances, at the end of a six months' search. Such books as are
still missing at the end of any given period, together with those
that have been discarded as worn out, and those that have been lost
by borrowers, should be properly marked on the shelf-list, and should
have an entry in the accession book, stating what has become of them.
If they are not replaced, it will be advisable to withdraw the cards
representing them from the card catalog, or to write on the cards the
fact of withdrawal and the cause.
Previous Page
| Next Page
|
|