242 A LIBRARIAN'S WORK. [xn. 



complete or not ; title-pages are inserted in the wrong 

 places ; sheets are wrongly folded bringing the suc- 

 cession of pages into dire confusion ; sometimes two 

 or three sheets are left out, and sometimes where a 

 work in ten volumes is bound in five, you will find 

 that the first of these contains two duplicate copies 

 of Vol. I., while for any signs of a Vol. II. you may 

 seek in vain. In all bungling of this kind the 

 Germans are worse than the French ; but both are 

 bad enough when contrasted with the English, either 

 of the Old World or of the New. 



This work of collating is in general of lower grade 

 than the work of cataloguing, and can be entrusted to 

 the less experienced or less accomplished assistants ; 

 but to some extent it is shared by all, and where 

 difficulties arise, or where some book with Arabic or 

 Sanskrit numbering turns up, an appeal to head- 

 quarters becomes necessary. When a book has been 

 collated, the date of its reception and the name of the 

 fund to which it has been charged are written in 

 pencil on the back of the title-page, and at the 

 bottom of the title-page, to the left of the imprint, is 

 written some modification of the letter C, C', C, C", 

 etc., which is equivalent to the signature of the assist- 

 ant who has done the collating and is responsible for 

 its accuracy. 



