86 PROPOSED SYSTEM. 



When a book is wanted, the corresponding card is given to the 

 librarian, is put by him into a drawer representing the outs, 

 arranged, it may be, alphabetically by subscribers, and the trans- 

 action is at an end. 



The success of the scheme depends upon having a single, 

 simple representative unit, capable of combination and arrange- 

 ment in any desired variety of forms. Like mosaic work or 

 printer's type, if the units are true, they can be combined into an 

 endless variety of patterns, and the result will still be true and 

 stable. 



The corresponding feature in the card system herein proposed 

 is, that for every act or name to be recorded, there shall be a 

 separate card ; so that, the cards being combined or classified, the 

 acts or names they represent will be so, too. 



For this purpose I propose the use of single cards for all initial 

 records, and their gradual consolidation by the simplest mechan- 

 ical means, until they are finally transcribed into the permanent 

 books of record. 



The independence of a representative unit of record is the basis 

 of the system I propose, combined with the use of a nomenclature 

 by which all acts and their purposes may be set forth by the actors 

 in such form as to be intelligible to those whose proper office it is to 

 enroll and classify them. 



The objection to this plan which will occur to many, will be 

 to the great number of cards which the execution of such a scheme 

 will require. In regard to this quite natural objection, leaving 

 out of question the benefits which actual practice has shown to 

 follow the free use of the cards, I haye to make the following 

 reply : 



The objection may be to the number of cards perse, i, or to the 

 consequences of having so many of them. The consequences 

 may be as to the cost of the cards themselves, 2 ; as to the time- 

 spent in writing on them, 3, with the disadvantages following the 

 use of illiterate labor, 4 ; as to the means of handling and con- 

 densing the great numbers likely to accrue in extensive opera- 

 tions, 5 ; and as to the likelihood of their loss, 6. 



