SHELF DEPARTMENT. This has entire charge of arrangement and preservation of books, and all other material. It must keep all the library col lections in order and clean. and find or replace missing books. A complete inventory is taken once a year. hut well-managed libraries no longer close fur this purpose. but distribute the work of stock-taking and cleaning throughout the year. The inventory is called a shelf-list. This has class, book, volume, and accession numbers, au thor, and brief title of every book, written on loose sheets laced together in a binder, or on cards arranged in the order in which the hooks stand on the shelves. • It forms a brief and very convenient subject catalogue. As this is the cheek list for losses. the old rule was not to al low it on cards, which could be removed by a book-thief without detection except by aceidenf. As books are constantly added, a bound book is impracticable because of frequent recopying, and even with the small sheets 10 X 25 cm. holding
only 20 titles each the labor has led many li braries to take the greater risk of cards.
In the relative system, now almost universally preferred. shelves require no numbers, the class numbers being the sole guide. For greater legi bility these are often printed large on movable label-holders. If shelves are numbered, the plan should be so comprehensive that numbers signify position as well as sequence. Here as every where numbers must run from top to bottom and left to right, to read as the columns of a news paper are read, e.g. 2435.S might mean second floor, fourth room or face. third tier, fifth shelf from the top. and eighth hook from the left-hand end. The unit figure should nniformly represent a height the same distance from the floor, so that one seeking a shelf ending in 5 knows on what level to look.