A Librarian s Work. 359 



the book is to be assigned in the catalogue of sub 

 jects ; and then the card is separated from the 

 book. The book goes on to its shelf, to be used 

 by the public; the card goes back to some one of 

 the assistants, to be &quot; indexed.&quot; In our library- 

 slang, &quot; indexing &quot; means the writing of the &quot; red &quot; 

 and &quot;blue&quot; cards which answer to the &quot;long&quot; 

 card ; in other words, the entry of the title 1 on 

 the new alphabetical and subject -catalogues be 

 gun in 1861. For the most part this is merely a 

 matter of accurate transcription, requiring no re 

 search. When these &quot;red&quot; and &quot;blue&quot; cards 

 have been submitted to a special assistant for 

 proof-reading, they are returned to me, and after 

 due inspection are ready to be distributed into 

 their catalogues. But for the original &quot; long 

 card &quot; one further preliminary is required before 

 it can be put into its catalogue. 



Besides the various catalogues above described, 

 our library keeps a &quot; record-book &quot; or catalogue 

 of accessions arranged according to dates of re 

 ception. This accessions - catalogue was begun 

 October 1, 1827, and records an accession for that 

 year of one volume, price ten shillings and six 

 pence ! In 1828, according to this record, the 



1 The marginal portions of the long caid are not transcribed in in 

 dexing. 



