248 A Librarian's Work. [xn. 



moreover, being accessible only to the librarian 

 and his assistants, were of no use to the general 

 public, who, for the 135,000 titles added since 1833, 

 were obliged to get their information from some of 

 the officials. To remedy this state of things, a new 

 card catalogue, freely accessible to the public, and 

 destined to embrace in a single alphabet all the titles 

 in the library without distinction, was begun in 1861 

 by my predecessor. Professor Ezra Abbot. This 

 catalogue was not intended to supersede the private 

 card supplement begun in 1833, which for many 

 reasons it is found desirable to keep up. But for the 

 use of the public it will, when finished, supersede 

 everything else and become the sole authoritative 

 catalogue of the library. Since 1 86 1 all new acces- 

 sions have been put into this catalogue, while the 

 work of adding to it the older titles has gone on with 

 varying speed : in 1869 it came nearly to a stand- 

 still, but was resumed in 1874, and is now proceeding 

 with great rapidity. About fifty thousand titles of 

 volumes, and as many more of pamphlets, still 

 remain to be added before this new catalogue can 

 become the index to all the treasures of the library.^ 

 Another great undertaking was begun simul- 



^ About seventeen thousand of these old titles were added during 

 the two years ending in July 1S77. - 



