456 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1903. 



eniatics, and photoj^raphy. The card cataloo-uo proper of the John 

 Crerar Library is distinji^uishe'cl ])y its exact and beautiful execution 

 and by the originalit}^ of its arrangement, which is said to be 

 unique of its kind. It is arranged in three parts: (1) alphabetically, 

 according to authors and titles; (2) according to subjects, numer- 

 ically in the decimal classification, and at the same time chronolog- 

 ically; (3) an alphabetical subject index to No. 2. « Twent}' copies 

 of the cards are printed, for besides their use for the various cata- 

 logues, sets are sent gratis to the Armour Institute of Technology, 

 the Public Librar}^, the Field Columbian Museum, the New])erry 

 Ltibrsiry,'^ and the Universit}^ of Chicago, also to the Northwestern 

 Universit}^ in Evanston, Illinois, and the University of Illinois, in 

 Champaign, Illinois, under the condition that they shall be arranged 

 and made accessible to the public. Each title costs the John Crerar 

 Library 50 cents, including^ the electrotype. (See below.) The regular 

 issue of special catalogues is planned and has been begun with a list of 

 the librar}' placed in the reading room (A List of Books in the Read- 

 ing Room, January, 1900, 251 pages, Lex., octavo). In the reading 

 room are about 3,000 volumes. The printing of this catalogue was 

 made from electrotypes. From the type setting of the card is formed 

 a thin cast, which costs 6 cents. These casts, numbering 23,354 in 1900, 

 are preserved in regular order, and in their prescribed serial order,^ 

 are used for printing. In this wa}^ both manuscript and corrections 

 are spared. This catalogue must be the very first book to be pro- 

 duced in this manner, a plan which was suggested half a century 

 ago b}^ C. C. Jewett, the librarian of the Smithsonian Institution 

 in Washington, who proposed that a central catalogue bureau should 

 make such casts, from which every library could print their own cata- 



- «See, for more exact information, the Second Annual Report of the John Crerar 

 Library, 1896, p. 10 (1897), also the Third Report, 1897, p. 18 (1898). The library 

 also has a fourth kind of card catalogue, the so-called "official catalog" for the 

 employees, which contains in one alphabet everything that concerns any work that 

 is extant or taken into consideration, including notices of it, etc., a complicated, 

 ingenious, and very useful device, a more detailed description of which I do not 

 give here. A ' ' dictionary catalog, ' ' that is to say, one in which everything is arranged 

 alphabetically according to authors and subjects as in a dictionary, is not provided. 

 Compare C. A. Cutter, Rules for a Dictionary Catalogue, ;^d ed., Washington, 1891 

 (U. 8. Bureau of Education. Special Report on Public Libraries, Pt. 2.). 



''The Newberry Libi-ary has recently declined to receive them, perhaps becaiise 

 the arrangement and care of 6,000 cards annually occasioned too great an ex[)ense 

 considering the slight use made of them by the public, or ])ecause tlieir size did not 

 fit their "indexer," to which I shall recur below. The six other libraries, however, 

 upon inquiry, desired to continue to receive them. 



cC. W. Andrews. Printed Card Catalogues. Transactions and Proceedings of the 

 Second International Library Conference. I^ondon, 1897 (1898), pp. 126-128. 

 See also F. Milkau's more detailed description in Centralkataloge und Titeldrucke, 

 1898, p. 99. 



