The Library Assistant's Manual

The new Encyclopædia Britannica will prove a rich mine for the diligent library assistant seeking information on topics connected with books and libraries. While the index volum...

=Reference Work.=—By “reference work” is meant work done in assisting the public to use the resources of the library. Dewey defines it as “systematic aid to readers.” A referenc...

The forerunner of the American public library of today is found in the subscription or stock company libraries of Philadelphia, Boston and other cities. The oldest of these is t...

“There is no problem relating to the equipment of the high school which is more pressing than that of the library,” said a recent editorial writer in the =School Review=. At the...

=Definition.=—Classification consists of putting like things together. We do this every day, and the classification of books is only one special phase of this general process. T...

=Definition.=—The catalog is a directory of the library. A library without a catalog is described by Thomas Carlyle as “a Polyphemus without any eye in its head, and you must fr...

=Book Selection.=—Book selection makes the greatest demand on the knowledge and administrative judgment of librarians and is the question that produces the most friction between...

The proper age for a child to become a patron of the library is the age when he has the inclination to visit the library, possibly with older brothers and sisters, to look at pi...

=1. Board of Trustees.=—The main function of the board of trustees is to look after the financial interests of the library, to see that the buildings and equipment are properly...

=Library Binding.=—The average library is spending about six percent of its total income on binding. The newer and smaller libraries spend less because their books have not yet...