38 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 
a lever it is made to revolve and bring successively into view a long 
list of new book-titles arranged on the circumference of the wheel. 
At Birmingham a limited form of open access is in operation, a 
large number of works of reference, now filling nearly fifty shelves, 
being made free to the public. This system applies also to the Aber- 
deen Library. 
At Cardiff, in Wales, the open shelf system has been tried in four 
of the branches, but unfortunately the plan has been abused by 
systematic book thieves and consequently discredited. 
The general experience, both in the United States and England, 
seems to have been that, with proper precautions, the loss of books is 
very small. The experience of the Boston Public Library has certainly 
been very unfortunate, for out of a juvenile library of 5,000 books, 
several hundred were lost in one year, but this was admittedly the result 
of a lack of reasonable supervision. The Minneapolis Public Library, 
on the other hand, issued several hundred “free access” permits in a 
year, and only lost three volumes from the reference shelves and a 
few odd numbers of periodicals. The experience at Philadelphia and 
New York has been practically the same. The losses from English 
libraries adopting the system have as a rule been very insignificant— 
at Clerkenwell about three volumes in a year. At the British Museum 
experience has shown that the only books at all likely to be purloined 
are the small portable volumes, of comparatively slight value. Until 
recently a set of “ Murray’s Guides” was, placed in the reading room 
of the Museum for the use of readers, but these “used to vanish—not 
quite unaccountably—about the month of August, and either remain 
away, or come back in October stained with much trouble.” Now 
“Murray” reclines upon a remote shelf, and one must send an 
attendant for him. 
On the whole, the Open Shelf System would seem to have come 
to stay. It is only from the librarian’s point of view, as custodian of 
the books, that there can be any question as to the desirability of the 
plan. From the reader’s standpoint the system is one of inestimable 
benefit. And it must always be remembered, that it is not so much the 
convenience of librarians or libraries that is to be considered, but above 
all the convenience and benefit of the public, for whom solely the 
public library exists. As Mr. George Iles, a New York librarian, very 
justly said, “only when the full catalogue, whatever its form, and 
the shelves themselves are at the free disposal of the public, does the 
public library fully stand by the promise of its open door.” 1 

1 The Open Shelf, or Open Access, system has been very widely discussed 
during the past few years. The following references are merely suggestive, 
