272 A LIBRARIAN'S WORK. [xn. 



begun to be numbered by millions instead of thou- 

 sands ? Gore Hall is to-day too small to contain our 

 books : will it then be large enough to hold the cata- 

 logue ? Suppose, again, that our library were to be 

 burned ; it is disheartening to think of the quantity 

 of bibliographical work that would in such an event 

 be for ever obliterated. For we should remember that 

 while a catalogue like ours is primarily useful in 

 enabling persons to consult our books, it would still be 

 of great value, as a bibliographical aid to other 

 libraries, even if all our own books were to be 

 destroyed. 1 This part of its function, moreover, it 

 cannot properly fulfil even now, so long as it can be 

 consulted only in Gore Hall. Our subject-catalogue, 

 if printed to-day, would afford a noble conspectus of 

 the literature of many great departments of human 

 knowledge, and would have no small value to many 

 special inquirers. Much of this usefulness is lost so 

 long as it remains in manuscript, confined to a single 

 locality. 



For such reasons as these, I believe that the card- 

 system is but a temporary or transitional expedient, 

 upon which we cannot always continue to rely 



1 Thus I often find valuable information in the printed catalogue of 

 the Bodleian Library, and wish that the splendid catalogue of the mil- 

 lion books in the British Museum were as readily accessible. 



