Plblic Library Systems. 4-3 



they can with advantage keep upen nearly every day in the year, and 

 can shut in sections for cleaning and stocktaking. Closing libraries 

 on public holidays is utterly indefensible, especially if ihey open on 

 Sundays. Yet libraries that open on Sundays should be careful to see 

 that no member of the staff works seven days a week, even at the 

 cost of closing a half-day in the week altogether as some American 

 libraries do, or of closing the Lending Department for the same time 

 as most English and American libraries do. 



Of course in South Africa our Lending Deparlmenis are entirely 

 limited to subscribers, while in America and Great Britain they are as 

 free as our public rooms. Ratepayers or burgesses there use the 

 librarv entirely \vithout charge, and frequently without any further 

 formality than the signature of a guarantee to return books. Other 

 residents have to get a ratepayers or burgess's undertaking to be 

 responsible for books lent. In but few places may an applicant 

 leave a money guarantee ; but, speaking from the library point of 

 \iew, the signature system leads to endless trouble, and the system 

 of deposit as usually adopted in South Africa works infinitely better, 

 though it might in certain cases deter the poorest from liorrowing 

 books. 



Age limits are practically unknown in South .\fri(a. and thev 

 are higher in Great Britain than in the States. The Library of 

 ^Congress admits readers at i6, the Corporation of London ai 1 8, 

 the British Mu.seum at 21. 



Less than a score of English libraries allow the public access to 

 the library shelves, and most of these only with an elaborate svstem 

 of wicket gates and barriers, while the majority of libraries use an 

 indicator, usually of the kind invented by Mr. Cotgreave. oi West 

 Ham. In America these are little used; two libraries at least in 

 South Africa use them. For the issue of fiction an indicator offers 

 undoubted advantages, as this invention throws upon the .seeker after 

 the latest or the most .sensational novel the labour of hunting for its 

 numljer over a small space, instead of sending members of the 

 library staff all over the building. 1 think that rapidity of issue on 

 busy nights is much helped by their use. and to turn an unordered 

 crowd of men and women loose among a collection of novels, as 

 we frequently do in South Africa, does not help towarif good reading, 

 and only serves to hinder the librarv staff. 



Xo method of library is.sue that has ever been invented equals 

 that of the Cotgreave in<licator either in simplicitv. rapiditv, or 

 accuracy, as English experience has proved, but failing these the 

 best sy.stem is undoubtedly that of card-charging; and few or no 

 American or British libraries use the out-of-date ledger svstem used so 

 often in South Africa. 



Classification of books on the shelves according to subject is the 

 ideal of every libran,-. but in spite of many elaborate s\stems. few 

 liljraries in Great Britain have yet accei)ted any uniform plan. Two 

 systems divide America, but under each the libraries are doselv and 

 minutely classified to the great advantage of those who use them. 

 Except at Cape Town. Bulawayo, and the Referenre Department 



