34 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 
THE OPEN SHELF SYSTEM. 
This system is one of the most recent developments in library 
administration. While the idea itself is not very new, its distinctive 
application belongs to the past decade, and the initiation of the system 
must be credited to American libraries and librarians. In a limited 
sense, open access to the book shelves has been in operation for many 
years past in the British Museum, the French National Library at 
Paris, and other English and Continental libraries. In the reading- 
room of the British Museum some 20,000 carefully selected books 
are open to the public; and in the Salle de Travail of the Bibliothéque 
Nationale about 12,000 are made available in this way. 
In the United States the principle has been carried to its logical 
conclusion in several prominent libraries, by throwing practically the 
whole resources of the library open to the public. Many other Amer- 
ican libraries have contented themselves with the more conservative 
system of the British Museum, by placing a certain number of selected 
books in one room, generally called the “ Open Shelf Room,” where 
they may be consulted by readers without the intervention of the 
library attendants. 
An admirable example of the successful working of the Open 
Shelf System as applied to an entire library, is furnished by the Phila- 
delphia Public Library. Here the books are conveniently classified, 
and the visitor or reader may go direct to the shelves and examine 
the authorities on any given subject to his heart’s content, or pick out 
the book he wants and carry it to a neighbouring table. The success 
of the system at Philadelphia has been all that its most devoted 
adherents could desire. 
Professor Adams, of Johns Hopkins University, has clearly stated 
the case for the Open Shelf System in the course of an elaborate paper 
on “ Public Libraries and Popular Education.” He says: “The old 
method of guicing readers in the use of books was the printed cata- 
logue; but public experience in America long ago demonstrated that 
men and women want to see the books rather than the mere titles of 
books. A brief examination of a printed volume soon convinces the 
reader whether he wants to read that particular book. Moreover, 
access to a varied collection of authorities on one subject, like that 
of money, or labour, China, or Cuba, quickly determines the reader’s 
choice. Oldtime methods of scholastic administration often raised 
barriers between the books and the people, just as medieval theories 
raised monastic walls between social life and religion.” 
In the Astor Library, the New York Circulating, and other 
libraries of the American metropolis, the open shelf system is 
