A Guide to the Use of the Beading Boom. 



13 



The best course to follow in such cases is : — 



{a) If the book has been originally published or reprinted since 



1880, refer to the Subject Index {see below, p. 13) under the 

 heading of the subject of the book. 



{h) If the book is a standard or important work, whether 

 recent or not, refer to the interleaved copy of the List of Books 

 forming the Eeference Library " {see p. 14). 



(c) If the book is neither new nor important, it will be advisable 

 to obtain the Christian or pre-name from one or other of the 

 bibliographies or smaller Catalogues described on pp. 27-44, and 

 when the full name is found to refer to the General Catalogue for 

 the press-mark. 



{d) The General Catalogue is kept as closely as possible up 

 to date, and all, or nearly all the titles of books received during 

 the course of each month will be found in it before the close of 

 the following month. If, however, a recently published work is 

 not found in the Catalogue the reader should refer to the recent 

 " Parts of Accessions," which are placed on the desk at the end of 

 Circle 66. 



Subject Index of the Modern Works added to the Library 

 OF THE British Museum, 1881-1915. Circle 95-100. 



Vols. 1-3 contain the titles of books published between January, 



1881, and December, 1900. The fourth volume continues the work 

 to December, 1905, the fifth to December, 1910, the sixth to 

 December, 1915. Future volumes will be issued at the close of 

 each quinquennial period. In addition to these, a Temporary 

 Subject Index of books published since the appearance of the last 

 quinquennial volume will be found at Circle 98. 



In this Index will be found the greater number of books pub- 

 lished or reprinted since January, 1881, acquired by the British 

 Museum. The only exceptions are novels, poems, plays and 

 indefinite or imaginative works which do not admit of classi- 

 fication. The titles are arranged under the subject or subjects 

 treated of in each book. The general system of classification is 

 described on pp. 48, 49. 



This Catalogue supplies to those who come to the Museum to 

 study the literature of a subject the same facilities which the 

 . General Catalogue offers to those who come to study books of 

 which the authors' names or the titles are already known to them. 

 -Although the Subject Index contains only the books produced 

 "during the last thirty years, it is less incomplete than it appears 

 to be at first sight, since it contains the titles of all the books in 

 the Library which, although originally published during earlier 

 periods, have been re-edited or re-issued since the year 1881. 

 Among these will be found a large proportion of the standard 

 literature of each country. As regards the historical events, the 



