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vrhose catalogue a new edition is required, will, in the meantime, have been 

 cast for some other catalogue, and thus occasion no new charge for any 

 subsequent use, as far as the expense of casting the plates is concerned. 

 The infant state and the prospective rapid increase of the public libraries 

 in the United States, as well as the frequent founding of new libraries, give 

 great interest to this feature of the plan, 



Another advantage of the proposed plan would be of the following na.- 

 ture : The libraries in any country, (to some extent, indeed in all coun-^ 

 tries,) consist partly of the same books. Professor Jewett states, that jn 

 the catalogues of the public libraries of the United States, possessed by 

 the Smithsonian Institution, there are embraced at least four hundred and 

 fifty thousand titles. He estimates, however, after a laborious comparison, 

 that among these there will not be found more than one hundred and fifty 

 thousand different titles. It follows, that, if the plan proposed had been 

 applied to the publication of these catalogues, two thirds of the expense 

 of printing them, as far as the cost of plates is concerned, would have 

 been saved by incurring the extra expense of stereotyping the remaining 

 third according to this plan. The economy to each particular library, in 

 the expense of plates for its catalogue, will be in proportion to the number 

 of books which it may contain in common with any other library, whose 

 catalogue has been already stereotyped on this plan. The title of the 

 same book, in the same edition, will of course be cast but once, and will 

 thenceforward serve for the catalogue of every library possessing that 

 book, which may enter info the arrangement. 



A third advantage resulting from this plan will be the facility with 

 which a classed catalogue, either of a whole library or any department of 

 it, might be furnished at short notice, without the expense of writing out 

 the titles or of casting new plates, but by the simple judication of the se- 

 lected titles, in' the margin of a printed alphabetical catalogue. 



Finally, the plan of necessity, requires, that the titles of the books in the 

 libraries, included in the arrangement, should be given on uniform princi- 

 ples and according to fixed rules ; an object of no small importance to 

 those who consult them. 



These and other incidental advantages, which would result from the 

 adoption of his plan of separate stereotype plates for the titles of books in 

 public libraries, are pointed out by Professor Jewett in the memoir above 

 referred to, and the undersigned are of opinion that he has not overrated 

 their importance. In proportion as the plan is concurred in by the public 

 institutions and individuals possessing valuable collections of books, the 

 preparation of a general catalogue of all the libraries in the country be- 

 comes practicable, accompanied by references from which it would appear 

 in what library or libraries any particular book is contained. 



The undersigned became satisfied, in the course of their conferences 

 with Professor Jewett, that the plan in all its parts is practicable. In con- 

 nection with the explanation of its mechanical execution, specimens of 

 stereotype plates of separate titles, made up into pages, were submitted to 

 them in common type metal, in electrotype, and in a newly invented com- 

 position, the use of which, it is thought by its inventor, would be at- 

 tended with great economy in the cost of plates. The undersigned ex- 

 amined these specimens with much gratification and interest, but they did 

 not feel themselves competent from their limited opportunities of enquiry, 

 nor did they regard it as falling within their province, to form an opinon 



