316 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLV. No. 1161 



Of course there will always be eases where 

 it is difficult to decide under what head to file 

 a pamphlet; e. g., whether one on the snakes 

 of Ireland should go with reptiles, British 

 Isles, or mythology. But in some such cases 

 the scale is easily turned by the owner's inter- 

 ests, and in others duplicates may be at hand, 

 or obtainable on request, and can then be filed 

 in both places. Still another plan is to make 

 notes, on slips of paper of convenient size, or 

 in thin note-books, of the titles of papers in 

 serials, in other parts of the library, or in other 

 libraries, and assemble them under their re- 

 spective subjects. To provide a full series of 

 such cross-references for a library of any 

 size would of course be quite a task; but the 

 references can be jotted down one at a time 

 whenever one comes across them in reading, 

 so that the time spent will not be missed; and 

 their usefulness is directly proportional to 

 their number, completeness not being essential. 



If the library is catalogued the pamphlets 

 can be numbered the same as books, whether 

 they are kept separate or bound together in 

 volujnes of convenient size. For small special 

 libraries it is well for the owner to devise his 

 own classification, for the subject classifica- 

 tions in common use may not be detailed or 

 up-to-date enough for his purposes. For ex- 

 ample, Dewey's decimal system, which seems 

 to be the favorite one with public libraries in 

 this country, lumps geography and history to- 

 gether, arranges the families of plants by the 

 Bentham and Hooker system, which was aban- 

 doned by most botanists about twenty years 

 ago, and provides only one number (634.9) for 

 forestry, which has become a pretty complex 

 subject in recent years. 



For taking care of the pamphlets on the 

 shelves there are several methods, some of 

 which are mentioned by Mr. Storer and some 

 are not. The most logical is to put each one 

 that is not part of a series in separate stiii 

 covers, which can be done quickly and cheaply 

 by means of some devices that are on the mar- 

 ket. The principal objections to this method 

 are that it more than doubles the bulk of the 

 average author's separate, and unless the gum 



on the binding strips is supplemented by 

 staples or stitching the pamphlet is liable to 

 become detached from its paper cover or outer 

 pages after a little handling. Furthermore, 

 with thin pamphlets standing on shelves the 

 titles can not be read without pulling them 

 out a little way. A compromise might be 

 made, however, by putting separate covers only 

 on those exceeding a certain thickness, say a 

 quarter of an inch. 



Binding a nimiber of pamphlets together, 

 unless they belong to a closed series or are all 

 on one subject, by the same author, and of the 

 same size, is almost sure to lead to regrets 

 later. For as a library grows or the owner's 

 interests become more specialized its contents 

 will need to be classified more and more 

 minutely, and papers once thrown together will 

 preferably be separated. And it is exceptional 

 too for a bunch of independent pamphlets on 

 the same subject to be of so nearly the same 

 size that they can be trimmed alike to make a 

 smooth-edged book. 



For a growing collection of pamphlets on a 

 given subject, not yet numerous enough to bind 

 into a volume, or for current nmnbers of 

 serials, there are various kinds of temporary 

 bindings, suitable for reference libraries that 

 have several dozen users. One of the cheapest 

 of these consists of a pair of flexible pieces of 

 cardboard of proper size, with two to four holes 

 reinforced with metal eyelets near one of the 

 vertical edges, and a small shoestring to go 

 through the holes. Each pamphlet is then per- 

 forated with an awl, to correspond with the 

 holes in the covers, and they are tied together 

 with the string. The awl-holes do not weaken 

 the pamphlets, and are scarcely noticeable 

 after the collection is boimd into a book. But 

 such an outfit makes a rather ragged appear- 

 ance, and the title can not very well be marked 

 on the back of it. A more temporary method, 

 that consumes less time and mutilates the 

 pamphlets less, uses a piece of stiff paper for 

 a cover, held on by a pair of strong spring 

 clips. These, however, do not allow much 

 variation in thickness, so that one using them 

 at all must keep a large stock of assorted sizes 

 on hand. 



