xii. j A LIBRARIAN'S WORK. 245 



dozen alphabets, besides depending after all on the 

 ready memory of some library official as to the books 

 which have come in since the last supplement was 

 published. 



This inconvenience is so great that printed cata- 

 logues have gone into discredit in all the principal 

 libraries of Europe. Catalogues are indeed printed, 

 from time to time, by way of publishing the treasures 

 of the library, and as bibliographical helps to other 

 institutions ; but for the use of those who daily 

 consult the library, manuscript titles have quite super- 

 seded the printed catalogue. In European libraries 

 this is done in what seems to us a rather crude way. 

 Their catalogues are enormous brown paper blank- 

 books or scrap-books, on the leaves of which are 

 pasted thin paper slips bearing the titles of the books 

 in the library. Large spaces are left for the insertion 

 of subsequent titles in their alphabetical order ; and 

 as a result of this method, the admirable catalogue 

 of the library of the British Museum fills more than a 

 thousand elephant folios! An athletic man, who has 

 served his time at base-ball and rowing, may think 

 little of lifting these gigantic tomes, but for a lady who 

 wishes to look up some subject one would think it 

 desirable to employ a pair of oxen and a windlass. 



All the libraries of Western Europe which I have 



