alphabetization, capitalization, punctuation,
arrangement, etc., as set forth in the catalog rules which may be
adopted. Only by so doing can you secure uniformity of entry, neatness
in work, and the greatest possible meaning from every note, however
much abbreviated.

[Illustration: Author card. (Reduced; actual size, 7-1/2 x 12-1/2 cm.)

973.2 Coffin, Charles Carleton, 1823-
C65 _Old_ times in the colonies.
460 p. il. O N.Y. c[1880]]

Preserve this catalog with great care. It is the key to the records in
shelf-list and accession book. In a small library the public may very
properly use it. As soon as possible, if your library is to be
quite large and much used, prepare for public use a duplicate of it,
omitting all those entries in the original which are of use only to
the librarian.

The average reader more often remembers the titles of books than
their authors. Add, therefore, to the author-list, in your public
catalog--not in your private or official catalog, for which
author-entries alone are sufficient--a title-list; a set of cards like
the author cards, except that on each one the book's title is entered
first instead of its author. Arrange author and title-lists in one
alphabetical series.

[Illustration: Title card. (Reduced; actual size, 7-1/2 x 12-1/2 cm.)

973.2 Old times in the colonies
C65 _Coffin_, C.C.]

As the use of the library for reference work increases, the question
will often be asked, has it any books on a certain subject? Add,
therefore, to your author- and title-list a subject-list. Make this by
writing a card for each book with the subject of which it treats the
first word upon it. Arrange this also in the same alphabetical series
with the other two. In some cases the book's title and its subject
will be identical; for example, Geology, by Tompkins, or Washington's
boyhood, by Jones. For such books one card answers for title and
subject. For fiction no subject-card is necessary. On the other hand,
many books have to do with more than one subject; a volume of essays,
for example, or a group of biographical sketches. For such it is
desirable to add to the subject-list by writing as many cards for each
book as the importance of the several subjects therein and the space
the author gives to them seem to demand. Each card will have for the
first word of its entry the subject to which it refers, followed by
the author and title of the book.

Arrange these cards also alph