XV. 



A LIBRARIAN S WORK. 



I AM very frequently asked what in the world 

 a librarian can find to do with his time, or am 

 perhaps congratulated on my connection with 

 Harvard College Library, on the ground that, 

 * being virtually a sinecure office (!), it must 

 leave so much leisure for private study and work 

 of- a literary sort.&quot; Those who put such ques 

 tions, or offer such congratulations, are naturally 

 astonished when told that the library affords 

 enough work to employ all my own time, as well 

 as that of twenty assistants ; and astonishment is 

 apt to rise to bewilderment when it is added that 

 seventeen of these assistants are occupied chiefly 

 with &quot; cataloguing ; &quot; for generally, I find, a li 

 brary catalogue is assumed to be a thing that is 

 somehow &quot;made&quot; at a single stroke, as Aladdin s 

 palace was built, at intervals of ten or a dozen 

 years, or whenever a &quot; new catalogue &quot; is thought 

 to be needed. &quot; How often do you make a cata 

 logue ? &quot; or, &quot; When will your catalogue be com- 



