Somewhat akin to the ledger systems are the various card- and
pocket-charging methods which work without the intervention of an
indicator. There are several of such systems in existence both in Britain
and the United States, most of them having features in common, but all
distinguished by differences on points of detail. At Bradford a pocket
system has long been in use. It is worked as follows: Every book has
attached to one of the inner sides of its boards a linen pocket, with a
table of months for dating, and an abstract of the lending rules. Within
this pocket is a card on which are the number and class of the book, its
title and author. To each reader is issued on joining a cloth-covered
card and a pocket made of linen, having on one side the borrower’s
number, name, address, &c., and on the other side a calendar. The pockets
are kept in numerical order at the library, and the readers retain their
cards. When a borrower wishes a book, he hands in a list of numbers and
his card to the assistant, who procures the first book he finds in. He
next selects from the numerical series of pockets the one bearing the
reader’s number. The title card is then removed from the book and placed
in the reader’s numbered pocket, and the date is written in the date
column of the book pocket. This completes the process at the time of
service. At night the day’s issues are classified and arranged in the
order of the book numbers, after the statistics are made up and noted in
the sheet ruled for the purpose, and are then placed in a box bearing the
date of issue. When a book is returned the assistant turns up its date
of issue, proceeds to the box of that date, and removes the title card,
which he replaces in the book. The borrower’s pocket is then restored
to its place among its fellows. The advantages of this plan are greater
rapidity of service as compared with the ledger systems, and a mechanical
weeding out of overdues somewhat similar to what is obtained by the
“Duplex” indicator system described further on. Its disadvantages are the
absence of permanent record, and the danger which exists of title cards
getting into the wrong pockets.
A system on somewhat similar lines is worked at Liverpool and Chelsea,
the difference being that in these libraries a record is made of the
issues of books. It has the additional merit of being something in the
nature of a compromise between a ledger and an indicator system, so that
to many it will recommend itself on these grounds alone. The Cotgreave
indicator is in this system used for fiction and juvenile books only, and
as the records of issues are made on cards, the indicator is simply used
to show books _out_ and _in_. Mr. George Parr, of the London Institution,
is the inventor of an admirable card-ledger, and though it has been in
use for a number of years its merits do not seem to be either recognised
or widely known. The main feature of this system, which was described at
the Manchester meeting of the L.A.U.K. in 1879, is a fixed alphabetical
series of borrowers’ names on cards, behind which other cards descriptive
of books issued are placed. The system is worked as follows: Every book
has a pocket inside the board somewhat similar to that used at Bradford
and Chelsea, in which is a card bearing the title and number of the
book. When the book is issued the card is simply withdrawn and placed,
with a coloured card to show the date, behind the borrower’s card in the
register. When it is returned the title card is simply withdrawn from
behind the borrower’s card, replaced in the book, and the transaction
is complete. This is the brief explanation of its working, but Mr. Parr
has introduced many refinements and devices whereby almost any question
that can be raised as regards who has a book, when it was issued, and
what book a given person has, can be answered with very little labour.
This is accomplished by means of an ingenious system of projecting guides
on the cards, together with different colours for each 1000 members,
and with these aids a ready means is afforded of accurately finding the
location in the card-ledger of any given book or borrower. As regards
its application to a popular public library, the absence of a permanent
record would in most cases be deemed objectionable, but there seems no
reason why, with certain modifications, it could not be adapted to the
smaller libraries, where neither pocket systems nor indicators are in
use. This very ingenious and admirable system suggests what seems in
theory a workable plan for any library up to 10,000 volumes. Instead of
making a fixed alphabet of borrowers, as in Mr. Parr’s model, a series of
cards might be prepared, one for each book in the library, in numerical
order, distributed in hundreds and tens, shown by projections to
facilitate finding. A label would be placed in each book, ruled to take
the borrower’s number and date of issue, and a borrower’s card like that
used for Mr. Elliot’s indicator, ruled to take the book numbers only.
When a book is asked for, all that the assistant has to do is to write
its number in the borrower’s card, the number of the borrower’s card and
the date on the book label, and then to issue the book, having left the
borrower’s card in the register. The period of issue could be indicated
by differently coloured cards to meet the overdue question, and a simple
day-sheet ruled for class letters and numbers of books issued would serve
for statistical purposes. The register of book-numbers could be used as
an indicator by the staff in many cases, and such a plan would be as
easily worked, as economical, and as accurate as most of the charging
systems in use in small libraries.
There are many other card-charging systems in use, but most of them are
worked only in the United States. A large number of British libraries,
especially those established under the “Public Libraries Acts,” use one
or other of the various indicators which have been introduced since 1870,
and it now becomes necessary to describe some of these.