The times., 1898-12-04

countries each has n separate chapter,
being the only nations thus honored: Cen
ealogy, Heraldry, Costume Medicine,
Theology. Mathematics, Music. etc The
force employed in the catalogue depart
| ment numbers sixteen persons, but there
is work enough to be done to utilize sew
eral times as many.
Mr. j. e. NJ. Hanson chief of the de-
partment, assumed the office in 1897. with
but seven persons under his direction BY
January. 1888, the work was somewha t
systematlzed, and the first accession cata-
losue of the Library of Congress was
commenced. The accession catalogue is
| a volume in which are recorded the fol-
lowing facts concerning a book when il
first comes 10 the Library, date of entry
source. whether by gift, copyright, pur-
chase, or international exchange: kind of
binding: cost, etc. BY reference TO a GER
tain date. one may see what books came
into the Library on that day. Each ac-
cession volume contains 10000 volumes. A
stamping apparatus. which prints num-
bers up to 99.s99. stamps the number Civ
en- a certain volume In the accession cata-
logue, and then on the verso of the title
page of the book. An assistant or reader
desiring to know something of the source,
cost, etc, of the book. may note the num-
Der on the back of its title page and then
refer to the same number in the accession
catalogue where the information may be
found. One accession book is already full
while the second has almost reached No
1900 A large number of works are not
entered in this catalogue so that there
are actually 24,0G0 TO 25.oO0 accessions. ex-
elusive of sheet music and unbound Pc
riodicals.
Department of Ordering and Re-
cciying.
From this department are sent out or
ders for books to be purchased for the
Library. Books thus obtained are chiefly
from abroad. as a large majority of our
own writings find their way to the Libra
ry through the operation of the copyright
law. 1t is surprising, however, to note
how many of our-writers fail TO copyright
their productions. Efforts are made to
procure most of these for the Library and
as large mass of the material already
on hand still remains uncatalogued, II
requires skill and experience to avoid du-
plication. especially in ordering Ameri-
cana.
The old official catalogue of the Lii
brary is being kept up. This means that
for a majority of books an author entry
Only Is made. The annual report to Sep
tember 30, 1928, Is now nearly completed.
a point has been reached in the cata-
loguing, where for all copyright books
there viii be fifty copies printed of each
main or author card. This will permit
a beginning to be made for public card
ca talogue, which will include, besides the
author entries, title entries and subject
entries for biographical and photographic
cal works. AS soon as additions to the
force permit, this will be extended to in
clude all the features of full diction-
ary catalogue. These printed entries are
made according to the photographed
style adopted by a majority of American
libraries on the standard size card, known
as the three by five card.
At present 1t is necessary to continue
the old system of classification in ma
jority of the forty-four chapters of the
Library. In those sections containing
works which relate to writing, paleogra-
ply. printing, library science and bibliog-
raphy, reclassification is nearly complet-
ed. The new system is eclectic in its ma
ture, and. while not absolutely based
upon any individual printed scheme an
attempt has been made to include the
The so-called expansive classification
system has been utilized as much as any.
although It is still In progress of publica-
ton.
The Notation Used in the New CIas-
sificutiOn.
Certain symbols, either letters or fig
ures, show definitely in what section of
the Library a book may be found The
notation adopted has much in common
with the system now being introduced at
Harvard Library. as also with that pro-