22 A Guide to the Use of the Beading Boom. 



(6) The number of books which are in course of being delivered 

 in the Eeading Eoom at any given time. If tickets came- from the 

 room in a regular sequence — so many per minute throughout the 

 day — there v^ould be httle difficulty in returning the books with 

 promptitude. But, in point of fact, the number of tickets sent 

 from the Eeading Eoom varies from hour to hour. Speaking 

 generally, in the earher hours of the morning and in the later 

 afternoon the number of books required is less than during the 

 middle of the day ; consequently they can be more promptly 

 supplied then than during the busiest hours. 



(c) The atmospheric conditions of each day, or the quahty of 

 the light in the portion of the Library in which the book required 

 is placed. In spring and summer the light throughout all but a 

 few portions of the Library is sufficient, but during the autumn 

 and winter the delivery of a book is not infrequently hindered by 

 darkness or fog. 



(d) Imperfectly or incorrectly written tickets. Few days pass 

 on which a number of tickets without signatures or seat-marks are 

 not found in the boxes. The subject has aheady been alluded to ; 

 it is necessary only to repeat here that mistakes of this kind are 

 perhaps the most frequent causes of delay. 



A reader who has waited for more than twenty minutes for a 

 book should appeal to the Superintendent. The appeal will be 

 responded to with more immediate elfect if the reader has noted 

 the press-marks of the books for which he enquires. Books on 

 the open shelves of the Eeading Eoom can be obtained by the 

 reader himself at once, provided that they are not already in use. 



It is always possible that with the books from the Library one 

 or more tickets may be returned marked either In Use, At the 

 Bijiders, or Ojf the Shelf. It is hardly necessary to explain that 

 In Use means that a book is in the hands of another reader; At 

 the Binders, that the book is in course of being bound or repaired ; 

 and Ojf the Shelf, that the book cannot be found, probably because 

 it is on its way to the shelves, having been recently returned by 

 another reader. If the books, the tickets for which are thus 

 retm^ned, are not immediately required, it is best to keep the 

 tickets and apply for them (aftor altering the number of the seat if 

 necessary) on another occasion. If, however, they are urgently 

 needed, the reader should apply to the Superintendent. 



Eeaders must not mark or mutilate books in any way, nor may 

 they lay the paper on which they are writing on a book, news- 

 paper or map. 



