Evening star., 1915-03-28

II
of Congress to the public and private
library interests of the whole country is sim
ply printed card. 1t is about three by five
inches in size, with circular hole in the mid
die near one of the five-inch sides, and the
printing upon it describes a book of the day.
giving the author, title, and other items
1t seems small matter, but there are more
than thirty million of these cards in storage
at Washington, covering more than six hun
dred thousand works.
Just printed card but it may be bought
by anyone at the cost of material and press
work1plus ten per cent; that is, two cents
for the first copy of each card called for by
an order, and eight-tenths of cent for each
additional copy ordered at the same time.
But why have any sort of card describing
books? Because, if a library is to be of SER
vice, we must have clue to each of its vol
umes, even as we must have an alphabetical
index to any book of serious import if it is
to be worth anything as working tool And
the only index to a library that can be kept
arranged alphabetically and up to date is the
and usably every book that may come into
a library is not easy, and consequently the
amount for cataloguers' salaries is one of the
heavy items in the budget of any library
that is in shape to do the business for which
it was founded.
FROM the very beginning of organized
library effort in this country, reckoning
from the founding of the American Library
Association in 1876, the leaders in librarian
ship have been searching for means of CO.
operation between libraries and the resultant
reduction in running expenses. Part of the
motto of this association is, "For the least
cost" There are too many places in Ii
brary to put dollar, and too few dollars to
put into them, to make it wise to have any
unnecessary places. The spirit of coopera-
tion has found varied expression; but it
was not until Herbert Putnam undertook
the conduct of the Library of Congress that
this spirit embodied itself in a man, library
a building, in such manner that the needs
| of the libraries of the nation could be grap-
| pied with effectually.
Only printed card-but Mr.. Putnam
stood for using it in recataloguing and re-
classifying the national library according
to modern standards, and by combining
with this work good business methods he
made possible the distribution to libraries
and individuals of the results secured by
his great staff of cataloguers The minutiR
of the routine necessary for carrying out all
this make the matter look a bit appalling
it takes a pamphlet of seventy-six pages to
describe it all,-but it really works out
concern the small public libraries at all.
AS the Library of Congress receives all
copyright books, its cards naturally cover
every American book of Importance. There
is no reason, therefore, why any ordinary
public library may not have its catalogue in
printed form, and so have better catalogue
and at much less cost than it could be pre-
pared for in manuscript in the local library
There were in 1913 more than eighteen
hundred subscribers to these printed cards.
three hundred of them individuals and
firms who buy cards on certain subjects, and
the rest libraries ordering them chiefly for
cataloguing purposes.
This little, nimble printed card has found
so much favor that two other great libraries
| (the John Crerar Library and the Harvard
University Library are printing cards for
their own catalogues, and also selling them
for nominal sum to other libraries and to
individuals.
All this means the more accurate and
complete cataloguing of libraries, and as
result great saving of time to the public in
making use of the libraries. In this wise the
Library OF Congress has become in very
real and practical sense the national library,
as its cataloguing work may be utilized in
any part of the country.
TN recent years the Library of Congress
has taken on other activities for all the