XII. 

 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 Col- 

 lege 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." 

 Those who put such questions, or offer such con- 

 gratulations, 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 " cataloguing ; " for generally, 

 I find, a library catalogue is assumed to be a thing 

 that is somehow " made " at a single stroke, as 

 Aladdin's palace was built, at intervals of ten or 



