books, and makes the initial mistake of entering them one by one in a
MS. volume already bound up. Such a plan must end in failure and
disorder, because it is impossible by this means to get the titles
strictly alphabetical. Others I have seen commence writing the titles
from the backs of the books. Other difficulties which are encountered
are with anonymous books, and with such authors as used pseudonyms, and,
in some cases, many pseudonyms. Such was Henri Beyle, whose books bear
various disguises, such as De Stendhal, Cotonet, Salviati, Viscontini,
Birkbeck, Strombeck, César Alexandre Bombet. The British Museum Library
has ninety-one rules of cataloguing, forming, perhaps, the best
cataloguing code in the world; but for private libraries such
elaboration and detail is not necessary. The following are the main
rules to be adopted in private libraries:--[38]
1. The catalogue should be arranged in one general alphabet, this being
the most useful and the readiest form for reference. To render it, as
nearly as possible, a correct representation of the contents of the
library, each work has but one principal descriptive entry. The
shelfmark is confined to this entry--duplicate shelfmark references,
when the position of books is likely to be often altered, from the
accession of additions to the library, &c., leading to frequent and
unavoidable errors.
2. This entry is under the author's name when given on the title-page,
or otherwise known, as being the only arrangement which allows one
general rule to be followed throughout the catalogue.
3. Anonymous works, whose authors' names are unknown, are placed under
the subjects to which they relate.
4. Cross references are made:
from the subjects of biographies to the authors;
from the principal anonymous and pseudonymous works to the writer's
real names where known;
from works included in, or noticed in the title-pages of other
publications, to those publications.
5. To obviate the imperfections necessarily attendant on an alphabetical
arrangement, and for the greater facility of reference, short
classifications are introduced of the chief subjects on which the books
in the library treat, referring to the names of the authors in the same
general alphabet; thereby uniting the advantages of the alphabetical and
classified systems, and acting in some measure as a key to the
prevailing character of the library.
6. All authors' names are followed by full stops: any articles placed
under a writer's name, of which he is not the author, but which are
anonymous answers to, or criticisms on, his works; anonymous memoirs
placed under the subjects; or any entries whatever, in which the heading
name prefixed is not that of the author, are distinguished by a line
following the name.
7. The headings of the short classifications are distinguished by being
doubly underlined with red ink. The name to be referred to is singly
underlined, but when the reference is to another heading, and not to an
author, it is doubly underlined.
In preparing titles for the catalogue (whether it be intended to
transcribe or print them), it should be an imperative instruction that
they be written on slips of paper (or on cards) of uniform size. It is
also useful to include in them a word or two which may serve to identify
the origin of the books--whether by purchase, by copyright, or by
gift--and to indicate the date of their respective acquisition.
FOOTNOTES:
[37] Wheatley, _Pepys and the World he Lived in_, p. 84.
[38] I believe these rules were originally drawn up by Mr. B. R.
Wheatley.
_Classification of Books._
The classification of books, according to any set system, or according
to subjects upon the shelves of a library, is not easy, and for many
reasons it is not worth attempting. Unless the library is a very large
one, say, ten to twenty thousand volumes, with ample and adaptable
shelving, it is not to be desired. The main difficulty in shelf
classification lies in the fact that books on similar and kindred
subjects are issued in all sizes. There are books on Furniture, for
instance, in folio, in quarto, and in octavo. When shelf classification
is imperative, the folios are all put together, the quartos together,
and the octavos together. This is the nearest realisation of a shelf
classification, and by this method the folios may be far separated from
the quartos, and the quartos from the octavos. Moreover, if appearance
count for anything, as indeed it should in the most modest library, it
will be impossible to carry out any plan of shelf classification and
preserve at the same time an appearance of method and fitness. In
planning out how your books are to be placed, a great consideration is
the placing of them, so that books likely to be frequently referred to
shall be easy of access, and books less likely to be in request shall be
housed higher up.[39] Reference books should, as far as possible, be
placed together, and all easy of access. The main divisions into which a
private library classes itself are History and Biography, Fiction,
Poetry and Drama, Theology, Travel, Art, Belles lettres; but there are
so many considerations besides those of subject in any general
classification which should determine the position of a volume that I
must emphasise what has already been said about actual personal
convenience being first studied, and the library as arranged on the
shelves should be the result of personal convenience and graceful
effect. This is more particularly necessary when a library is in course
of expansion. The subjects which will expand quickest, and the space
they will require, can never be accurately gauged, and frequent
upheavals and readjustments will be necessary if any rigid plan is aimed
at. I would suggest that a separate shelf--or, if necessary, a separate
case--be reserved for unbound periodicals and for accessions, which are,
as it were, _sub judice_. Often, too, a separate case is necessary for
rare and handsome books, and a locked case for _facetiæ_. It is worth
while to observe that Pepys found that the best way to find his
numerous books was to number them consecutively throughout the
library.[40]
Numerous elaborate plans of book classification have been put forward,
principally by Americans, but in no way are they adaptable to the
requirements of private libraries, and I doubt very much the possibility
of comprehending them in such a way as to apply them in an intelligible
manner even to public libraries.
Mr. B. R. Wheatley, in an admirable paper upon Library arrangement,[41]
gives the following excellent practical advice:--
'If I had the planning of rooms for a private library, I should select
as the best possible arrangement a suite of three rooms, or one long
room or gallery divided by columns into three compartments, of which the
centre should be the largest, with several small contiguous ante-rooms,
the entrances to which, if so desired, might be concealed, for
uniformity or completeness of appearance, by filling them with sham or
dummy book-backs, the titles of which may be made an occasion for
witticism or joking allusion to local and family history.
'A good library arrangement is not achieved at once, but is a slow
growth through difficulties met and conquered. Some of the best portions
of it will be those which have flashed across your mind when there
seemed no pathway out of the thicket of difficulty in which you were
struggling. The arrangement of books, where the shelves are not made to
order to suit your plans, must naturally be of a progressive character
in its development in your mind.
'In some old libraries, collected mostly in the seventeenth and
eighteenth centuries, there is such a preponderance of those portly
tomes in folio in which our sturdy ancestors delighted, that they
materially affect and disconcert our ordinary plans. I have known an
instance in which the library shelves projected slightly in their upper
part, and, there thus being an appropriate depth, I arranged on these
shelves two long parallel rows, completely round the room, of these
noble volumes of our old divines, State papers, Statutes, Treaties,
Trials, and our County histories; and the effect in strength and power
(as Ruskin might have said) of these long lines of large stout books of
nearly equal height and size was really magnificent. Sometimes you meet
with such a valuable and massive body of topography as will not allow of
its cavalierly being made a subsidiary section of the class of history,
and the form and weighty character of the folios suggest that some deep
and separate bookcases should be chosen in which it may assume the
important individuality that it deserves.
'Folios of a modern date, being of very unequal sizes, would have a
raggedness of outline which would be less observed nearer to the ground
than in the elevated position just referred to. As a general rule, a row
of folios on the lowest shelf will be succeeded by one of quartos, and
then above the ledge the octavos and duodecimos will be placed, but they
should not ascend in too rigid a law of gradual decrease. Rows of small
books at the top of a bookcase look as petty to the mind as to the eyes,
and, indeed, are in general more appropriately placed in dwarf bookcases
specially fitted for their reception.
'For small libraries, not exceeding 3000 to 4000 volumes, the letters of
the alphabet may be used for the cases, and small figures for the
shelves, on the principle of the greater including the less, the letters
having a more important appearance. But in larger libraries, where there
is a chance of the alphabet being doubled or trebled, one regular series
of large numbers for the cases, with small letters for the shelves, is
to be preferred.'
Books should be marked in pencil, with a shelf letter and a case number.
Long sets of books need be numbered in the first volume only.
In the case of collections of pamphlets each item ought to be separately
catalogued.
The catalogue should complement the arrangement on the shelves, and not
be tautological.
Tables of contents of collected editions given in catalogue.
A synoptical table of contents should be prefixed to the catalogue.
For those who desire a rough outline of headings into which a library
usually classifies itself, I will name one. The briefest is as
follows:--(1) Theology, (2) Philosophy and Science, (3) Art, (4)
Political Economy, (5) Law, (6) History and Literature.
FOOTNOTES:
[39] No bookshelves ought to be beyond the reach of a moderately tall
person.
[40] 'The books were numbered consecutively throughout the library, and,
therefore, when rearranged, they needed all to be renumbered. All hands
were pressed into this service, and we read that on the 15th of February,
1667-68, Pepys himself, his wife, and Deb. Willett were busy until near
midnight "titleing" the books for the year, and setting them in order.
They all tired their backs, but the work was satisfactory. . . . . (_See
ante_, p. 78.)
'The books are arranged in eleven curious old mahogany bookcases, which
are mentioned in the _Diary_ under date August 24, 1666. "Up and
dispatched several businesses at home in the morning, and then comes
Sympson to set up my other new presses for my books, and so he and I
fell into the furnishing of my new closett, and taking out the things
out of my old, and I kept him with me all day, and he dined with me, and
so all the afternoon till it was quite darke hanging things, that is, my
maps and pictures and draughts, and setting up my books, . . . . to my
most extraordinary satisfaction."'--Wheatley, _Pepys and the World he
lived in_, pp. 83-4.
[41] _Library Journal_, August, 1878.
_Bookcases._
The chief faults of bookcases arise from their being designed and made
by men who have never used a book. A first requisite in bookcases is
simplicity, bearing in mind that the books are the ornament and not the
bookcases. The cabinet-maker, among other things, is too fond of
embellishments, and sacrifices space to what seem odd angularities and
irregularities.
No bookcase should be above eight and a half feet in height. No ladder
should be necessary to get at books. If books are 'skied' up to the
ceiling they must suffer from the heated air. It is heat, not gas
merely, which damages books.
A room may be made to look very beautiful by being surrounded with fumed
oak bookcases, eight feet high. The shelves should be made movable with
Tonks' patent.[42] Mr. Gladstone[43] speaks of the looseness and the
tightness of movable shelves, the weary arms, the aching fingers, and
the broken finger-nails. This can be avoided by the use of the patent
here named. The bottom cases should be deeper and wider, to take quartos
and folios, but there should always be an extra shelf for turning a
folio section into an octavo section. Nineteen-twentieths of the books
in circulation are octavos and smaller volumes. On each side of the
fireplace there should be an arm projecting about four feet and a half.
The inner side of this should have a comfortable reading-seat, and on
the outer side, farthest from the fire, there may be shelves for books.
If the structural arrangements of the room admit of these projecting
arms being placed, without sacrifice of comfort, at a greater distance
from the fireplace, the books may be placed on the upper part of the
inner side as well, the lower part being used as a lounge.
It must be remembered that heat and excessive dryness are fatal to good
bindings and, indeed, to all parts of a book, and therefore no bookcase
should approach too near a fireplace, nor should bookcases be placed
backing upon hot-water pipes. The shelves should be edged with leather
and such leather must _not_ be stiffened by cardboard or brown
paper--simply leather, and there should be a roller shutter of silk to
draw down in front of the books during absence from home. The cases[44]
should everywhere be perfectly flush, without any sort of protruding
ornament. It will be found a great advantage to make the framework of
the various cases of equal dimensions, so that the shelves can be made
transferable. In estimating the extent of shelving which it may be
necessary to provide, we may calculate that in an ordinary library a
space two feet high and two feet wide will, on an average, contain
about thirty-five volumes, and it may be estimated roughly that every
thousand volumes in a library will require about a hundred square feet
of shelving.
If fixed shelves are made, the usual height will be--[45]
For folios 18 to 21 inches.
" quartos 12 " 15 "
" octavos 10 "
" smaller sizes 7 "
These spaces will allow ample room for the average sizes. The 'Atlas'
folios and 'Elephant' folios are best accommodated in single shelves, in
which they may be flat, or on trays or table cases.[46] Bear in mind
always to allow sufficient space for expansion. Nothing causes more
disorder than insufficient shelf accommodation. All cases should be
numbered and lettered, that is, each section should have a number, and
each shelf a letter. For the accommodation of expensive bindings or rare
books and MSS., a special case may sometimes be required. Very beautiful
specimens of such may be seen sketched in the books of Chippendale,
Sheraton, and Heppelwhite, but it is in all cases better to avoid glass
fronts and adopt ornamental brass wire work if any special protection be
needed.
The late Mr. Blades, a great expert in this matter, said, 'It is a
mistake to imagine that keeping the best-bound volumes in a glass-doored
bookcase is a preservative. The damp air will certainly penetrate, and
as the absence of ventilation will assist formation of mould, the books
will be worse off than if they had been placed in open shelves. If
securing be desirable, by all means abolish the glass and place
ornamental brass wire work in its stead.'[47]
'It is more important to see that the shelves intended for choice and
richly bound books should be covered with leather, and expressly such as
are intended for books of large sizes. In the case of books of special
value, the leather should be well padded, should be of the best quality,
and should have a polished surface.'[48]
In the _Nineteenth Century_ for March, 1890, already quoted from, Mr.
Gladstone wrote upon 'Books, and the Housing of them.' This paper showed
a sound grasp of the subject and showed Mr. Gladstone in a new and very
interesting light. Appended are some extracts from this paper, all of
which I think experts would agree to, _except the fixed shelves_, and
here, I think, any one who has handled books very much will be at issue
with Mr. Gladstone. He himself says:--'I have recommended that, as a
rule, the shelves be fixed, and have given reasons for the adoption of
such a rule. I do not know whether it will receive the sanction of
authorities, and I make two admissions. First, it requires that each
person owning and arranging a library should have a pretty accurate
general knowledge of the size of his books. Secondly, it may be
expedient to introduce here and there, by way of exception, a single
movable shelf.'
Now, a man must be able not only to gauge very accurately the limits of
his library and the various sizes of books, but he must be able to look
into the future if he would safely embark on fixed shelves. And this is
wholly impossible. Fixed shelves should only be adopted where cost has
to be reduced to a minimum, but in the majority of instances movable
shelves will be found preferable. The paragraphs which deal with
bookcases in Mr. Gladstone's article may here be given:--
'The question of economy, for those who from necessity or choice
consider it at all, is a very serious one. It has been a fashion to make
bookcases ornamental. Now, books want for and in themselves no ornament
at all. . . The man who looks for society in his books will readily
perceive that, in proportion as the face of his bookcase is occupied by
ornament, he loses that society; and conversely, the more that face
approximates to a sheet of book-backs, the more of that society he will
enjoy. And so it is that three great advantages come hand in hand, and,
as will be seen, reach their maximum together: the sociability of books,
minimum cost in providing for them, and ease of access to them.
'In order to attain these advantages, two conditions are fundamental.
First, the shelves must, as a rule, be fixed; secondly, the cases, or a
large part of them, should have their side against a wall, and thus,
projecting into the room for a convenient distance, they should be of
twice the depth needed for a single line of books, and should hold two
lines, one facing each way. Twelve inches is a fair and liberal depth
for two rows of octavos. The books are thus thrown into stalls, but
stalls after the manner of a stable. . . . This method of dividing the
longitudinal space by projections at right angles to it, if not very
frequently used, has long been known. A great example of it is to be
found at Trinity College, Cambridge, and is the work of Sir Christopher
Wren. He has kept these cases down to a very moderate height; for he
doubtless took into account that great heights require long ladders, and
that the fetching and use of these greatly add to the time consumed in
getting or replacing a book.'
It must here be added that Mr. Gladstone's plan is much more fitted for
a large public library than for the library of a private person, for
whom he is prescribing. Though the library in the form of an annexe[49]
is in many ways an ideal form for housing a large library, yet these are
hardly likely to be in the majority, and most people find that they have
to house their books in a circumscribed space, with no room for such
bays and projections as he suggests except perhaps one by the fireplace.
FOOTNOTES:
[42] Tonks' fittings are specially adapted for the shelves of book-cases
or other shelves, the adjustment of which has, from time to time, to be
varied to suit the varying requirements of a library, &c. The method
hitherto generally adopted for such shelves is to support them at each
end by two studs, the heads of which are mortised into the shelf, and
the pins driven or otherwise fitted into holes two or more inches apart,
bored in two rows into the upright frames; these holes are very seldom
accurately fitted to the pins, and even where so done in the first
instance, from the shrinking or expansion of the wood, they soon become
too large or too small for the pins, and the alteration of the
adjustment of a shelf is thereby rendered an extremely troublesome
operation. The patent fittings remedy this, and save both time and
trouble; in place of the rows of holes so far apart, metal strips
perforated at intervals of three-quarters of an inch for the reception
of the very simple but strong metal plates, which take the place of the
old studs, are mortised in and screwed to the frames. The insertion, at
the required intervals, of the plates into the perforations in these
strips is made instantaneously, consequently the position of a shelf can
be easily altered without an irritating expense of trouble, and waste of
time. The thinness of the plates renders any mortising in the shelf
unnecessary, and the small intervals between the perforations in the
strips enables the whole space occupied by the shelves to be used most
economically. These fittings, when used with a shelf sufficiently strong
itself to bear the weight, will support without strain more than half a
ton.
[43] _Nineteenth Century_, March, 1890.
[44] Edwards, _Memoirs of Libraries_, ii., 736.
[45] THE SIZES OF BOOKS.--The Associated Librarians of Great Britain
decided upon a uniform and arbitrary scale for the measurement and
description of the sizes of books. In consequence of the many and varied
sizes of papers now manufactured, the terms folio, quarto or 4to.,
octavo or 8vo., twelvemo or 12mo., and so on, as indicating the number
of folds in the printed sheets, can no longer be relied upon as a
definite guide to the sizes of books, hence the change, as follows:--
Large folio la. fol. over 18 inches.
Folio fol. below 18 "
Small folio sm. fol. " 13 "
Large octavo la. 8vo. " 11 "
Octavo 8vo. " 9 "
Small octavo sm. 8vo. " 8 "
Duodecimo 12mo. " 8 "
Decimo octavo 18mo. is 6 "
Minimo mo. below 6 "
Large quarto la. 4to. " 15 "
Quarto 4to. " 11 "
Small quarto sm. 4to. " 8 "
[46] Edwards, _Memoirs of Libraries_, ii., 739.
[47] Blades, _Enemies of Books_.
[48] Edwards, ii., 737.
[49] See p. 106.
_Miscellaneous Appliances._