A Library Primer | Page 7

pegs can be
bought in the market in several shapes. The shelves have slots cut in the
under side at the ends to hold the projecting ends of the pegs, thus
giving no obstructions to the free movement of the books. With some
forms of pegs the slots are not needed. The uprights are made of inch
and a half stuff, or even inch and an eighth. The shelves are inch stuff,
finished to seven-eighths of an inch. The backs are half inch stuff,
tongued and grooved and put in horizontally. This case-unit (3' x 7' x 8")
may be doubled or trebled, making cases six and nine feet long; or it
may be made double-faced. If double-faced, and nine feet long, it will
hold about a thousand books of ordinary size when full. It is often well
to build several of your cases short and with a single front--wall
cases--as they are when in this form more easily adjusted to the
growing needs of the library.
A library can never do its best work until its management recognizes
the duty and true economy of providing skilled assistants, comfortable
quarters, and the best library equipment of fittings and supplies.
For cases, furniture, catalog cases, cards, trays, and labor-saving
devices of all kinds, consult the catalog of the Library Bureau.
Very many libraries, even the smallest, find it advantageous to use for
book cases what are known as "steel stacks." The demand for these
cases has been so great from libraries, large and small, that shelving
made from a combination of wood and steel has been very successfully
adapted to this use, and at a price within the reach of all libraries. One
of the principal advantages in buying such "steel stack" shelving, with
parts all interchangeable, is that in the rearrangement of a room, or in

moving into a new room or a new building, it can be utilized to
advantage, whereas the common wooden book cases very generally
cannot.
CHAPTER IX
Things needed in beginning work--Books, periodicals, and tools
The books and other things included in the following list--except those
starred or excepted in a special note, the purchase of which can perhaps
be deferred until the library contains a few thousand volumes--are
essential to good work, and should be purchased, some of them as soon
as a library is definitely decided upon, the others as soon as books are
purchased and work is actually begun.
I. BOOKS
*American catalog of books in print from 1876-1896, 5v. with annual
supplement. The Publishers' weekly, N.Y. Several of the volumes are
out of print. All are expensive. They are not needed by the very small
library. The recent years of the annual volumes are essential.
Card catalog rules; accessions-book rules; shelf-list rules; Library
Bureau, 1899, $1.25. These are called the Library school rules.
Catalog of A.L.A. library; 5000v. for a popular library, selected by the
American Library Association, and shown at the World's Columbian
exhibition, Washington, 1893. Sent free from the United States Bureau
of education.
*English catalog, 1835-1896, 5v., with annual supplement. The annual
supplements for recent years are needed by the small library; the others
are not.
Five thousand books, an easy guide to books in every department.
Compiled for the Ladies' home journal, 1895. Curtis Publishing
Company, Philadelphia, Pa. Paper, 10 cents. Out of print, but can
probably be found second-hand.

Fletcher, W.I. Public Libraries in America, 1894. Roberts Bros., Boston,
$1.
Library Bureau catalog, containing list of library tools, fittings, and
appliances of all kinds, 1898. To be obtained of the Library Bureau,
Chicago, 215 Madison St.; Boston, 530 Atlantic Ave.; New York, 250
Broadway; Philadelphia, 112 N. Broad St.; Washington, 1416 F St.,
N.W.
Plummer, M.W. Hints to small libraries, 1898. Truslove & Comba,
N.Y., 50 cents.
Public library handbook, by the Public library, Denver, 1894. Out of
print.
Publishers' trade list annual, 1900, v. 28. Office of the Publishers'
weekly, N.Y., $2. Catalogs of all important American publishers bound
together in one volume.
Reference catalog of current literature, 1898. Catalogs of English
publishers, bound in one volume and indexed. J. Whitaker & Sons,
London, $5.
Rules for an author and title catalog, condensed. See Cutter, Rules for a
dictionary catalog, 1891, p. 99-103. Sent from the United States Bureau
of education, Washington, free. These are the rules adopted by the
American Library Association.
*Sonnenschein, W.S. Best books, readers' guide, 1891. Sonnenschein,
London, $8. Gives author, title, publisher and price of about 50,000
carefully selected and carefully classified books.
Sonnenschein, W.S. Reader's guide to contemporary literature
(50,000v.), supplement to Best books, 1895. Sonnenschein, London,
$6.50.
*Subject headings for use in dictionary catalogs, Library Bureau, 1898,
$2. In a small library this is not needed, but it will save trouble to get it.

Lawrence, I. Classified reading. A list with