46 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 
It will be seen from the foregoing table that the system of classifi- 
cation in most general use— jf it may be dignified with the name 
of a system — is the one prescribed by the Education Department of 
Ontario. Several libraries use systems of their own, generally a simple 
alphabetical arrangement by authors under a few general headings. 
The Dewey Decimal System is used in the Hamilton Library, the 
Citizens’ Free Library of Halifax, the London Public Library, and, in 
a modified form, in the Reference Department of the Toronto Public. 
t is also used in several Canadian college libraries. Cutter’s Expan- 
sive System is used in only one Canadian library, that of McGill 
University. 
The great majority of Canadian libraries use a printed catalogue, 
with periodical supplements. Card catalogues are used in the Fraser 
Institute, Montreal, in the Reference Department of the Toronto 
Library, and, in conjunction with a printed catalogue, at London, 
Brockville, St. Thomas, and in one or two other Ontario libraries. 
The consensus of opinion among Canadian librarians and library 
committees seems to be somewhat divided on the question of permit- 
ting readers to have access to the shelves, under what is known as 
the Open Shelf, or Open Access, System. The system has been 
adopted, under various restrictions, in the following lbraries: — 
Berlin (to all books except fiction and juvenile), Dundas (to a limited 
extent), Elora, Halifax (for reference purposes only), Hamilton (under : 
certain restrictions), Niagara, Paris, Sarnia (not at present, but pro- 
pose doing so in new library), Stratford (absolutely unrestricted, 
except as to fiction and juvenile), and Victoria. Vancouver replies: 
“ The open access system was tried here and found very unsatisfactory.” 
It might be added that in a large majority of the college libraries 
of Canada, students are permitted to have either full or partial access 
to the book shelves. 
Another important point upon which information was obtained, 
is, whether any special provision is made for children, or school 
pupils. Here, again, opinion seems to be somewhat divided, although 
it may at once be said that, in the sense of the larger and fully organ- 
ized children’s departments of United States libraries, there is at 
present no such thing as special provision for children in Canadian 
libraries; that is to say, there are no rooms specially constructed and 
set apart for children, no fittings or furniture specially adapted to 
the needs of children, no library attendants whose special duty it is 
to look after the wants of the children, and, except to a very limited 
extent, no attempt to provide a special, carefully selected and class- 
ified, juvenile section in the library, with its own catalogues. The 
public library of Victoria provides “certain library shelves for 
