NEW YORK: PUBLICATION OFFICE (Temporary), 54 Duane Street. LONDON: SOLD BY KEGAN PAUL, TRENCH, TRÜBNER & Co., PATERNOSTER HOUSE, CHARING CROSS ROAD. YEARLY SUBSCRIPTION, $5.00. MONTHLY NUMBERS, 50 cts. Price to Europe, or other countries in the Union, 20s. per annum ; single numbers, 25. Entered at the Post-Office at New York, N. Y., as second-class matter. HE above cut is a reduced photograph of the upper end of two card holders hinged together. These holders are 41⁄2 x 16 inches, full size. In the Bibliography column the work was first typewritten on thin paper, five to eight copies at once. One of these copies was pasted on cardboard, and by the use of a RUDOLPH CARD CUTTER, cut apart, each book separately; yet the cards are easily separated for the insertion of new books, each in its proper place. In the Biography column the printed matter is simply a leaf from an ordinary catalogue, pasted on cardboard and then treated in the same way. The card holders are hinged alike at both ends, producing an ENDLESS INDEX CHAIN which is revolved by a crank under the glass lid of the case, showing five pages at once. The size of Indexer Case is 34 inches long by 24 inches wide, 42 inches high. About the only practical difference in use between the RUDOLPH INDEXER and an Unabridged Dictionary is that you turn the Dictionary leaves by hand, while in the Indexer an endless succession of leaves is revolved by a crank. It will accommodate equally a library of 1000, 10,000 or 20,coo volumes. It takes the place of the old style card finding list, is accessible to the public, yet cannot be tampered with, and renders the publication of supplements unnecessary. If the problem of a World's Central Cataloguing Bureau is ever solved it will be done by the use of the RUDOLPH INDEXER. Time saved over the card system, say three-fourths. Money saved over the card system, say two-thirds. Compare looking for a word and its meaning in an Unabridged Dictionary, and for the same word in the latest card index drawer, and you have about the difference between the old card system and the RUDOLPH INDEXER. WRITE FOR CATALOGUE. THOMAS KANE & COMPANY, Sole Manufacturers, 137-139 Wabash Avenue, CHICAGO, ILL. VOL. 20. MAY, 1895. No. 5 Library Society and the New York State Library School are among the most interesting of recent developments in the modern library movement. COLUMBIA College has become the recipient of a benefaction that is fairly colossal in its proportions. President Low's magnificent gift of one million dollars for the construction of the new library building not only marks an epoch THE Iowa Library Society is in the field with a novel and interesting experiment. This is the adoption of a course of home study, to be carried on by the members of the association during the year, under a definite program, and to be the chief subject of discussion and consideration at the annual conferences of the society. The plan is the natural result of the recent library development in Iowa. Within the past year that state has secured legislation | in the development of Columbia, but has few authorizing and simplifying the organization of libraries. A knowledge of how best to take advantage of the opportunities offered is the next necessary step, and it is to disseminate this knowledge that the "course of study suited to the needs of Iowa librarians" has been inaugurated. With a membership of barely 25, scattered over a territory of 50,000 square miles, with no common printed organ for the expression or interchange of ideas, with no school or model library nearer than Chicago, and with no opportunity for mutual intercourse save a twodays' session once a year, the society has evolved this method for banding its members more closely together and giving them practical help in the routine of their work. The practicality and simplicity of the course reflect high credit upon the earnest workers who have given time and thought to its development, and there is no reason why it should not be of the greatest practical value to the librarians of the state. SOMEWHAT akin to the Iowa project is the "correspondence course" planned by the New York State Library School for the coming year. The summer course in library economy, which the school also proposes to establish, is another move in the same direction—that of bringing at least the essentials of library training within the reach of those who are unable to take the long and more or less expensive courses at the library school or at the various training classes. To the librarians of the smaller town libraries and to many library assistants these courses will be of great value, and it is probable that the applications for admission to the correspondence course at least will largely exceed the expectations of its projectors. There is a sufficient field for just such work, and the system of "library extension," if it may be so termed, that is presaged in the "home courses" of the Iowa parallels in the annals of library generosity. Gifts of a million dollars for any purpose are few and far between-least of all are they usual during the lifetime of the giver. It is to President Low's wise and energetic direction that the rapid and sweeping advances which Columbia has made within recent years are largely due, and this crowning evidence of his devotion and generosity will cause his name to be held in grateful remembrance for generations to come. Nor will the influences of his generosity be confined to Columbia alone. His gift is not only to the college, but to the city as well. The library of Columbia College has always been conducted on liberal and helpful lines; in its new building, with full opportunities for development, expansion and systematization, there is every reason for it to become one of the most important factors in the educational life of New York. LOS ANGELES, which for some half dozen years has ranked among the model library cities, has within the past month furnished us with a lamentable instance of retrogression. The news of the retirement of Miss Kelso and Miss Hasse from the administration of the library that they have so long directed with skill and energy is not, perhaps, a surprise to those who have kept thoroughly abreast of library affairs. It is an open secret that for the past year or more there has been a strong political influence adverse to Miss Kelso's continuance in office. The retirement of the former board of directors and the incoming of a new body was the occasion for a reduction of salaries, solely affecting the librarian and the assistant librarian, which has resulted, as it was undoubtedly intended that it should result, in the retirement of Miss Kelso and Miss Hasse. Such a piece of jobbery merits the strongest condemnation. Miss Kelso and Miss Hasse have certainly earned claim to the approval and support of their fellow-citizens. They were among the ablest library workers of the Pacific coast, and together they developed the Los Angeles Public Library from a condition of comparative insignificance into its present position as a medium of broad usefulness and educational force. Even setting aside such personal considerations, the fact that the library should be crippled and its development retarded, even temporarily, for the gratification of political or personal ends, is not only discouraging from a library standpoint, but reveals a lack of public spirit that is distinctly discreditable to Los Angeles. A NOVEL principle in library censorship is involved in the recent action of the Newark and St. Louis public libraries in removing certain books from their shelves for the avowed reason that the moral character of their author rendered them unfit for circulation. The point at issue is whether a writer's personal morality or immorality should be taken into consideration in the critical judgment of his books. Certainly, the objectionable private character of an author does not of itself make his works obnoxious, save when it shows itself in his writings. If the line of exclusion is to be drawn to bar books written by persons of unsavory reputation, there would be frequent gaps in the ranks of established classics. Yet, if this rule is applied to one writer, why not to others? It is not claimed that the books in question were immoral. They were rather uninteresting productions, which had never attained to any degree of popularity. Even though their authorship might awaken a temporary artificial demand, arising from morbid curiosity, their ostentatious removal from library shelves seems a measure well calculated to heighten such curiosity and to lead to sales of the books among people who would otherwise have been unaware of or indifferent to 157. Books of reference. (About 140 titles.) p. 149. is 8°, pp. viii. + 172. Ottino's work is 16°, pp. viii. + 166; Rogers' The latter, however, has an index, without which the pagination in each is identical; the difference in size results from larger type and wider margin. As to figs., the Italian work has 17, the English 37, and they differ throughout. But this difference does not extend to the text, by any means. From p. 1-38 the English book is a good translation of the Italian, with the occasional omission or amplification of a sentence. Then there is an addition introduced as follows: The abbreviations given are by no means half of those used, but have been selected from booksellers' catalogues which have passed through the compiler's hands within the last six months." The abbreviations are the four lists (Ital., French, Ger., Eng.) given by Ottino arranged as one alphabet! After this the translation proceeds as before, right on to the end of the book. The translator omits considerable material from chap. IV. - which, I think, is due to the edition with which the comparison is made - and even goes so far as to substitute Wheatley's rules for cataloging anonymous works. The "preface," however, is original!—"The following work, compiled from various sources, English and foreign, is offered as an introductory guide to the knowledge of books. It does not pretend to be a complete summary of that vast subject, but merely a key to open other works. Should it awaken in the reader a desire to know more of those friends of man, the aim of the compiler will have been accomplished." If this is humility, to my way of thinking it is scarcely honesty, since the work is from beginning to end a translation, the original of which Mr. Rogers has not only failed to acknowledge in his preface, or anywhere else, but has wittingly excluded from his amplified bibliography. FREDERICK J. TEGGART. STANFORD UNIversity, California. PAPER AND INK.* BY ROBERT T. SWAN, Commissioner of Public Records of the State of Massachusetts. AN investigation into the subject of paper and ink used in the records of the Commonwealth, and a report made in their interest, led the president and secretary of the Massachusetts Library Club to ask me to speak to that club upon paper and ink. I do not attempt any scientific presentation, but simply give the result of inquiries and experiments, reinforced by the testimony of paper and ink manufacturers, and in the matter of ink by well-known chemists. is no paper made wholly of linen except as it is made for special purposes, such as for bonds, etc. Paper made of all linen would be stiff, and as one manufacturer expressed it, "it would crackle like onion-skin." In fact, a very thin paper is made called onion-skin. It is rather an amusing fact, and one showing how laws become obsolete, that for years until 1891, when the law was repealed, the statutes of this Commonwealth required that all matter of Not until we consider the important place | public record in any office should be entered on paper and ink take in the world, and have taken paper made wholly of linen, when no such paper since the earliest days, do we fully appreciate was made. their value. Which is the more valuable, or was in one or another form first used, it is difficult to decide, and there seems to be no reason for precedence in considering them. I will, therefore, follow the order on the announcement of the meeting and first take paper. My investigation in paper was, of course, dlrected towards writing paper, and for that reason I feel some hesitancy in speaking to those whose chief interest is naturally in book paper; but as the two are somewhat related, though less so than formerly, I will take the general subject, and that is too large to more than outline. In considering the subject of paper it is not necessary to review the history of paper-making, | which, unlike the manufacture of permanent ink, has been towards improvement. Paper has been made of substances too numerous to mention, which were susceptible of being converted into pulp. Bark, leaves, hay, jute, moss, nettles, stalks of all kinds, sea-weed, tan, canvas, carpets, and leather are among the substances which have been used. A book printed in Germany as early as 1772 contains 81 kinds of paper. To-day rags, wood, rope, and paper itself are the chief substances used in this country. In England large quantities of esparto, a Spanish grass, are used, filling the place which wood takes with us. The rope paper can be dismissed with a few words. The genuine manila paper is made of old manila rope and is the strongest paper, but the amount of paper masquerading under the name is vastly greater than the genuine. Linen has become the name by which the best paper is known, but it is a misnomer, for there * Read at a meeting of the Mass. Library Club, March 1, 1895. The best paper is made of linen and new cotton rags in about equal proportions, sized with animal sizing or glue, and dried in the air. New linen rags are not desirable, being too harsh. The process of manufacture of rag paper, stated in a general way, consists in sorting the rags, cutting, dusting, boiling in lye, washing out the lye, reducing to pulp, bleaching," beating" the pulp to make the fibres interlock, loading with certain substances, sizing, coloring, and rolling into sheets. To cleanse the rags and bleach the pulp chemicals are used, and it follows as a matter of course that the cleaner the rags the less necessity for chemicals; therefore, with new rags, such as clippings of new cloth from factories of certain kinds, the quantity of chemicals needed is insignificant, and these rags, having neither absorbed much of them nor suffered from their action, make, of course, the best paper, for the failure to remove or "kill" the bleach would injure the paper and have a deleterious effect upon ink. The further, then, we get from new clean rags, the further from the best writing paper. In making book paper the newness of the cotton rags is not so important; in fact, the manipulation which the cloth undergoes in wear, together with the washing, makes it better in some particulars for book paper. In the attempt to cheapen rag paper foreign substances, chiefly clay and gypsum, are added, and as there is no fibre to these, the sizing must be depended upon to hold them together. Very few papers are not somewhat loaded. Some of the loading substances help the finish. That rag paper, well made, is best for both writing and printing is not denied; but the immense increase in the use of paper within 39 |