A Book for All Readers An Aid to the Collection, Use, and Preservation of Books and the Formation of Public and Private Libraries

To the book collector and the Librarian, books of bibliography are the tools of the profession. Without them he would be lost in a maze of literature without a clue. With them,...

In these suggestions upon the important question of the binding of books, I shall have nothing to say of the history of the art, and very little of its aesthetics. The plainest...

In directing attention to some of the more important elements which should enter into the character and acquirements of a librarian, I shall perhaps not treat them in the order...

The Library, from very early times, has enlisted the enthusiasm of the learned, and the encomiums of the wise. The actual origin of the earliest collection of books (or rather o...

When we survey the really illimitable field of human knowledge, the vast accumulation of works already printed, and the ever-increasing flood of new books poured out by the mode...

Nothing can be more important than the means of restoring or reclaiming library books that are lost or injured, since every such restoration will save the funds of the library o...

Catalogues of libraries are useful to readers in direct proportion to their fulfilment of three conditions: (1) Quick and ready reference. (2) Arranging all authors' names in an...

There is one venerable Latin proverb which deserves a wider recognition than it has yet received. It is to the effect that "the best part of learning is to know where to find th...

"The true University of these days," says a great scholar of our century, Thomas Carlyle, "is a collection of books, and all education is to teach us how to read."

We have seen in former chapters how the books of a library are acquired, how they are prepared for the shelves, or for use, and how they are or should be bound. Let us now consi...

The preservation of literature through public libraries has been and will ever be one of the most signal benefits which civilization has brought to mankind. When we consider the...

To every reader nothing can be more important than that faculty of the mind which we call memory. The retentive memory instinctively stores up the facts, ideas, imagery, and oft...

The buying of books is to some men a pastime; to others it is a passion; but to the librarian and the intelligent book collector it is both a business and a pleasure. The man wh...

There is perhaps no field of inquiry concerning literature in which so large an amount of actual mis-information or of ignorance exists as that of the rarity of many books. The...

The librarian who desires to make the management of his library in the highest degree successful, must give special attention to the important field of periodical literature. Mo...

When any lot of books is acquired, whether by purchase from book-dealers or from auction, or by presentation, the first step to be taken, after seeing that they agree with the b...

Proceeding now to the subject of library buildings, reading-rooms, and furnishings, it must be remarked at the outset that very few rules can be laid down which are of universal...

Let us now consider the subject of the uses of public libraries to schools and those connected with them. Most town and city libraries are supported, like the free schools, by t...

What is a pamphlet? is a question which is by no means capable of being scientifically answered. Yet, to the librarian dealing continually with a mass of pamphlets, books, and p...

The matter of free or unrestricted access to the books on the shelves is a vexed question in libraries. Open and unprotected shelves, either in alcoves or the main reading room,...

When first I became a librarian, Says I to myself, says I, I'll learn all their systems as fast as I can, Says I to myself, says I; The Cutter, the Dewey, the Schwartz, and the...

8. Immortal the laurels that decked the fair throng, And Dante moved by with his lyre, While Montaigne and Pascal stood rapt by his song, And Boccaccio paused to admire.

If there is any subject which, more than all others, divides opinion and provokes endless controversy among librarians and scholars, it is the proper classification of books. Fr...

No feature in library administration is more important than the regulations under which the service of the library is conducted. Upon their propriety and regular enforcement dep...

We now come to consider the management of libraries as entrusted to boards of directors, trustees or library managers. These relations have a most intimate bearing upon the foun...

We now come to consider the annual reports of librarians. These should be made to the trustees or board of library control, by whatever name it may be known, and should be addre...

In the widely extended and growing public interest in libraries for the people, and in the ever increasing gatherings of books by private collectors, I may be pardoned for some...

This work is the result of an altogether new and original treatment of the American Revolution. The outward history of that period has been many times written, and is now, by a...

"This handy and useful book is written with perfect fairness and abounds in hints which writers will do well to 'make a note of.' . . . There is a host of other matters treated...

"In the execution of his work thus far, Professor Tyler has evinced a skill in the arrangement of his materials, and a masterly power of combination, which will at once place it...

expense of the publisher--Books published for the account of the author, _i. e._, at the author's risk and expense, or in which he assumes a portion of the investment--Publishin...