The shelf-list
Many books can be very properly put in any one of several different
classes. In which one a given book should be placed will often be
decided by noting where other like books have been placed. Books by
authors of the same name will often fall into the same class, and to
each of these a different author-number must be given. You must have
at hand, then, a list of the books already classified, to see at once,
in classifying the next book, what kinds of books and books by what
authors are in each class. Every book in the library, as soon as it
has been classified, and has received its proper author-number, should
be entered in a list in the order first of its class-number, next of
its author-number. This list is called the shelf-list. It is commonly
kept on sheets, but many librarians believe it best kept on cards; a
card for each different book. It is a catalog of all the books in the
library arranged in the order in which they stand on the shelves. It
is a subject-index of the library. It is indispensable in the work of
properly placing, class-numbering, and author-numbering new books.
It is a list from which it is very easy to check over the library and
learn what books are missing or out of place. It includes usually
only the class- and author-number, author's name, brief title, and
accession number. This last enables one to refer at once from
the brief entry of a certain book in the shelf-list to the full
information in the accession book. There are advantages in adding to
the shelf-list record the publisher and price. As soon as a book has
received its class- and author-numbers, which together are sometimes
called the "call-number," as being the mark to be used by the public
in calling for a book, these numbers, or combinations of numbers and
letters, should be written in the accession book in a column left for
the purpose, on the line given up to the description of the book in
hand. This enables one to refer at once from the accession entry of a
given book to the shelf-list entry of the same book.
[Illustration: Shelf list sheet. (Reduced; actual size. 10 x 25 cm.)
Book No. Accession No. Vol. Author Title
qG62 88390 Goodrich British eloquence
M11 540 2 Macauley Speeches
820
W72 49408 Windham]
[Illustration: Shelf-list card. (Reduced; actual size, 5 x 12-1/2
cm.)
090 Slater
S11 Book collecting
3528]