XV. 



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 College 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 ques- 

 tions, or offer such congratulations, 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 li- 

 brary 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 a dozen 

 years, or whenever a " new catalogue " is thought 

 to be needed. " How often do you make a cata- 

 logue ? " or, " When will your catalogue be com- 



