270 A Librarian's Work. [xn. 



given, before it is sent off, to one of our most trust- 

 worthy assistants, to be compared with the various 

 catalogues as well as with the record of outstanding 

 orders. To ascertain whether a particular work is in 

 the library, or on its way thither, may seem to be a 

 very simple matter; but it requires careful and in- 

 telligent research, and on such a point no one's opinion 

 is worth a groat who is not versed in all the dark and 

 crooked ways of cataloguing. The fact that a card- 

 title is not to be found in the catalogue proves nothing 

 of itself, for very likely the card may be "out" in the 

 hands of some assistant. Nothing is more common 

 than for a professor to order some well-known work 

 in his own department of study which has been in the 

 library for several years, and so long as the art of 

 cataloguing is as complicated as it now is, such mis- 

 understandings cannot be altogether avoided. Very 

 often this is due to the variety of ways in which one 

 and the same book may be described, and cannot be 

 ascribed to any special cumbrousness or complexity 

 of our system. All this necessitates a thorough 

 scrutiny of every title that is ordered, for to waste 

 the library's money in buying duplicates is a blunder 

 of the first magnitude. Yet in spite of the utmost 

 vigilance, it is seldom that a case of two or three 

 hundred books arrives which does not contain two 



