xii.] A LIBRARIAN'S WORK. 241 



to the funds to which they are charged. Five or 

 six more assistants now arriving on the scene, the 

 work of " collating " begins. 



Properly speaking, to " collate " is to compare two 

 things with each other, in order to estimate or judge 

 the one by a reference to the other taken as a stand- 

 ard. In our library usage the word has very nearly 

 this sense when duplicate copies of the same work 

 are collated, to see whether they coincide page for 

 page. But as we currently use the word, to collate a 

 book is simply to examine it carefully from beginning 

 to end, to see whether every page is in its proper 

 place and properly numbered, whether any maps or 

 plates are missing or misplaced, whether the back is 

 correctly lettered, or whether any leaves are so badly 

 torn or defaced as to need replacing. In English 

 cloth-bound books this scrutiny involves the cutting 

 of the leaves, a tedious job which in half-bound 

 books from the Continent is seldom required. En 

 revanc/te, however, the collating of an English book 

 hardly ever brings to light any serious defect, while in 

 the make-up of French and German books the 

 grossest blunders are only too common. Figures are 

 unaccountably skipped in numbering the pages ; 

 plates are either omitted or are so bunglingly num- 

 bered that it is hard to discover whether the quota is 



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