that, by this means, we who promoted it will be more likely to see our efforts emulated elsewhere, and the results, I trust, surpassed. I shall then shortly state our methods of working, and follow this up by some of the resulting statistics. Having in the first place carefully selected a small committee, we proceeded to draw up provisional rules founded upon those of the London Library.' These, together with an explanatory introduction, condensed from The Gentle Art of Book-Lending,' were printed as a pamphlet, and this, with an invitation to attend the 'First Ordinary Meeting of the Club,' was sent round to about a hundred of the leading inhabitants of the place. About half the number attended, and of these thirty-two applied for election, thus giving us two over the number which we had regarded as a minimum. The following three rules will explain the liabilities which our members incurred: (1) 'All Members of the Federated Library shall place their books in the General Catalogue, with such reservations however as they may think fit. Until his list is in the hands of the Librarian no Member will be entitled to the benefits of the Club.' rower. (2) 'Loss or damage shall be made good by the borWhen loss or damage cannot be traced the Committee may, as far as possible, make it good out of the funds of the Club, but the Committee can accept no responsibility, individual or collective, for such loss or damage.' (3) The Hon. Librarian shall prepare the Catalogue from lists provided by owners of books who are members of the Malvern Federated Library, such lists to be for the purposes of the General Catalogue. He or she shall arrange for receipt and delivery of books by means of checks and dockets, or otherwise, keep the accounts of the Club, and generally conduct the business of the Federated Library under the direction of the Committee.' Our next step was to send out notices to the members, instructing them in what form the Lists of Books should be made, from which the General Catalogue would be compiled. The main points were: 1st. That all available books should be included, the Library Committee undertaking the task of selection. 2nd. That the name of the author, the title of the book, the name of the illustrator (if any), the number of volumes, and the date, should be given in parallel columns. 3rd. That a special mark should be put against the entry of any book whose use was to be limited to examination either at the house of the hon. librarian or at the house of the owner. Practically, no use was made of the last rule. We should have done better for ourselves if we had substituted for it such directions as Write plainly,' 'Be careful to give the authors their baptismal initials, not imaginary ones of your own invention,' and 'Do not make sentimental notes as to the circumstances under which the volumes came into your possession.' Of all these we had bitter cause to lament the omission. The lists received in response to the circular ranged in length from 3 volumes to just over 2,000, and their total contents approached 15,000, a somewhat appalling number when we consider that the 'London Library began business with only 3,000. The lists were next edited with a view to the eradication of useless and merely ephemeral literature. After this each entry was written, together with the owner's index letter (particulars of which are given below), upon a separate slip of paper gummed at the back. These slips were then arranged in strict alphabetical order, and carefully edited for the elimination of unnecessary duplicates, etc. They were then pasted on sheets of foolscap and 1 Where the number of books was large, we undertook to make arrangements for having them catalogued by volunteers, but this was only in very exceptional cases, where the owners were busy men or women. sent to the printer. By the time the proofs were finally passed, we had grasped the meaning of Henry Stevens's remark: If you are troubled with a pride of accuracy, and would have it completely taken out of you, print a catalogue!' Each entry in the catalogue has appended to it one or more capital letters. These indicate the ownership, and are for the guidance of the librarian only. Where the letter is succeeded by a † it merely shows that the alphabet is not long enough for our purpose, as we have more than twenty-six members, and the letters have to be used over again. A Federated Library in Armenia, Russia, or Persia would be better off in this respect than we are. Where a letter is succeeded by one or two asterisks, the borrower is informed that special conditions attach to the loan under our third rule. This, however, as stated, did not work out in practice. The following is a fair example of the general appearance of the pages: 'Gostwick (J.). German Culture and Christianity Gostwick (J.), and Robt. Harrison. Gould (J.). See Dictionary. 1882. B. 1873. B. Ct. R.** Bt. 1890. K. Govett (L. E.). The Kings' Book of Gower (Lord Ronald). Biographies of 1882. C. 1880. C. F. Graesse (Dr.). Guide de l'Amateur de Porcelaine et de Porterie. 1880. K.' Having thus secured our members, and prepared a catalogue, we were in possession of a working library, the use of which was regulated by the following rule: Application for the use of books shall be made upon forms provided for that purpose. These can be obtained on application to the librarian. Every member shall be entitled to take out three volumes at a time, but may claim further volumes on payment of sixpence for each or five shillings per annum per volume.1 Books must in any case be returned within a month at latest, but members must return volumes immediately upon formal application being made by the librarian under a fine of sixpence a day. All volumes must be returned to the librarian. Volumes will be delivered to borrowers free of charge when they live within two miles of the librarian's house; otherwise special arrangements must be made. In the event of any member keeping a volume or volumes after application has been made by the librarian, no other book shall be issued to him or her until the volume or volumes shall have been returned, and if not returned within three months of the date of issue, provided that during this period the librarian shall have made two written applications for its return, the subscriber shall pay such sum as the committee may determine. 'In order to increase the usefulness of the library, supplementary members may be admitted by the committee, such supplementary members to be persons who are believed to be not in a position to pay the annual subscription, and for whose good conduct the introducing member shall be personally responsible. To each such supplementary member there shall be issued on election a printed slip enjoining proper treatment of books.' 1 This is in practice now treated as a dead letter. The number of books had out at a time is left to the good sense of the borrower, and the privilege has never been abused. The form used by the applicant for books is printed upon a postcard, which bears the hon. librarian's address on the reverse. MALVERN FEDERATED LIBRARY. I shall be obliged if you will send me the following books: Member's signature Address Date On receipt of this application the hon. librarian sends the following form filled up to the owner of the book. If required the messenger will sign this card when he receives the book. The messenger, instructed to call at the owner's house on the following day, receives the book, signs the card, and proceeds to deliver the former to the applicant. Thus, so far as the borrower is concerned, all he has to do is to fill up the application form and in due course the book is |