ACCOUNTS, &C., OF THE BRITISH MfJSEUM. 



VIII. — PROGRESS made in the Arrangement and Catalogues of Collec- 

 tions, AND Statesients OF ADDITIONS, in the Year 1881. 



Department of Printed Books. 



I. Arranfjement. — The works added to the Collection during the year have, as far as 

 possible, been placed on the shelves of the Library according to the system of classifi- 

 cation adopted in the Museum. The press-marks, indicating their respective localities, 

 have been mai'ked on the inside, and affixed to the back of each volume ; also on the 

 title-slip and entry in the Catalogue. The total number of these press-marks amounts to 

 100,235; in addition to which 57,723 press-marks have been altered, in consequence of 

 chiinges and re-arrangements carried out in the Library. 30,8b3 labels have been affixed, 

 and 47,206 obliterated labels have been renewed. The duty of attaching third press- 

 marks to the books in the New Library has been continued; 8,048 books have been 

 thus marked during the year, and the corresponding alterations have been made in the 

 Reading Room Catalogues. 



IL Cataloguing : — (a.) 59,730 title-slips have been written for the various Catalogues 

 (the term "title-slip" applying equally to a main-title and a cmss-reference). Of these, 

 44,166 were written for the New General and Supplementai-y Catalogues, 589 for the 

 Catalogue of Early English Books, and 14,975 for the separate Catalogues of Music and 

 the several Oriental Collections. 



(&.) Printing. — 60,100 titles have been prepared for printing during the year, upon 

 the plan announced in the Statement of Progress for 1879, and 66,448 titles have been 

 printed off. During the year the scheme of printing has been extended by sending to 

 press those volumes of the Catalogue which had become filled with entries, and which 

 under the former system would have been broken up and re-laid ; 38 MS. volumes have 

 been thus printed during the past year, forming 14 volumes of print, including the headings : 

 Ariosto, Aristophanes, Augustine, Australia, Burke, Burnet, Burns, Clement, Fox, etc. 



(c.) Transcription and Inrorporaiion. — It is still fovmd necessary, for various reasons, to 

 transcribe a certain number of the titles. In the first or amalgamated portion of the 

 Catalogue, from A to S, and T, the number of titles thus transcribed amounts to 661, and 

 of index-slips, prepared and transcribed to facilitate consultation of the volumes, to 

 403. 40,089 titles and 327 index-slips have been incorporated into each of three copies 

 of this portion of the Catalogue. This incorporation has rendered it necessary, in order 

 to maintain the alphabetical arrangement, to remove and re-insert in each copy 51,212 

 title-slips and 493 index-slips, and to add to each copy 448 new leaves to receive new 

 entries. 



In the second or supplementary portion of the Catalogue, Ston to Sz, and U to Z, 2,570 

 titles have been incorporated into each of three copies of this portion of the Catalogue. 

 In order to maintain the alphabetical arrangement during the incorporation, 2,818 titles 

 were removed and re-inserted in each copy, and 24 new leaves were added to each copy 

 to receive them. 



The number of new entries made in the Hand-Catalogue of the Periodical Publications 

 was 472, and in that of Academies 300. 



(d.) Music Catalogue. — 14,148 title-slips have been written, and 20,908 title-slips have 

 been transcribed fourfold for this Catalogue. 13,006 transcripts of title-slips have been 

 incorporated into each of the two cojjies of this Catalogue ; and, in order to maintain 

 the alphabetical arrangement, 16,231 titles have been removed and re-inserted in each 

 copy. 



(e.) Hebrew Catalogue. — 397 title-slips have been written for this Catalogue. 



(/.) Oriental Catalogues'. — The number of title-slips written is 398, in addition to 

 which 271 short titles have been written for the various Hand- Catalogues of Arabic, 

 Persian, Hindustani, and Bengali Books. 



{g.) Chinese and Japanese Catalogues. — 32 Japanese titles have been written. 



(A.) Carbonic Hand- Catalogue. — Of that copy of the fourfold transcript of the title-slips 

 used to form a Hand-Catalogue, by arranging the title-slips in order of the press- 

 marks, 50,971 titles have been mounted on cartridge paper, 154,638 have been arranged, 

 and 83,276 have been partially arranged, preparatory to incorporation, and 162,083 

 have been incorporated. 



(t.) List of Books of Reference in the Reading Room. — The number of alterations and 

 additions in the interleaved copies of this List, made to record the changes in the books 

 of reference by the addition of new works, and the exchange of old for new editions, 



O.go. B amounts 



