81 [ 1 ] 



REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONERS UPON THE GENERAL 



CATALOGUE. 



The undersigned were requested in the month of August last, by a letter 

 from Professor Henry, written on behalf of the Executive Committee of 

 the Smithsonian Institution, to take into consideration the subject of a Ge- 

 neral Catalogue of the public libraries of the United States, proposed to be 

 formed under the auspices of the saiti Institution, and more especially the 

 plan proposed by Professor Jewett, Librarian of the Institution, tor accom- 

 plishing that object. 



Having consented to act as Commissioners for the above named purpose, 

 the subscribers had several interviews with Professor Jewett, in the months 

 of September and October, at which he submitted to them 



1. A plan for stereotyping catalogues of libraries by separate movable 

 titles of the books contained in them, and 



2. A set of general rules to be recommended for adoption by the ditferent 

 public libraries in the United States, in the preparation of their cata- 

 logues. 



Professor .Jewett's plan for stereotyping titles on separate plates is un- 

 folded at considerable length, in a paper read by him, in the month of 

 August last, at the annual meeting of the American Association for- the 

 Advancement of Science, held at New Haven. This paper was published 

 in the Boston Traveller for the 26th of September. It is herewith sub- 

 joined, and the undersigned request that it may be considered as a part 

 of their report.* 



For a full view of the advantages, both economical and literary, anti- 

 cipated from the adoption of Professor Jewett's plan, the undersigned 

 would refer to the valuable and interesting paper just named. They will 

 allude briefly to a portion of these advantages. 



The most important of them, perhaps, will be the economy of time, 

 labor, and expense, required for the preparation of a new edition of a cata- 

 logue, to include the books added since a former edition was published. 

 On Professor Jewett's plan, when the catalogue of a library is published, 

 it will be necessary to strike off only so many copies, as are needed for 

 present use. When the additions to the library have become so conside- 

 rable as to make another edition of the catalogue desirable, or in lieu 

 thei'eof, a. supplementary catalogue, (always an unsatisfactory and embar- 

 rassing appenchige,) the new titles only will be stereotyped and inserted in 

 their proper places among the former titles, a'll the titles being on mo- 

 vable plates. The pages of the new edition will thus be made up with 

 convenience, and every book in the library will stand in its proper place 

 in the catalogue. This process will be repeated as often as the growth of 

 the librai-y may make it necessary. 



In this way, not only will the plates used in a former edition, be availa- 

 ble for each subsequent edition, but when the plan is fairly and extensively 

 in operation, most of the titles of books added to any given library of 



* This paper is subslaiitially re-priiited iu the repoil ofllm Librarian fur the prt;seiit year. 



Mis.-6. 



