come when it will be possible to sort out
pamphlets, arrange them properly, catalog such as are worth it, bind
them singly or in groups, and incorporate them into the library. But
any system of arranging and sorting pamphlets which does anything
more than very roughly to arrange and store them, and attempts to make
them, without much labor, accessible to the general public, is almost
sure to be a failure. This is not true of pamphlets to which the
public has not access. But pamphlets not fully cataloged and not
accessible to the public are, no matter how scientifically arranged,
almost useless plunder. To keep them clean and in order nothing is
as good as a pamphlet case, which any boxmaker can make, of cardboard
about 9 inches high, 7 inches deep, and 2 inches thick, open at the
back. They will cost from 4 to 12 cents each, according to quality of
board used and quantity ordered. For holding a few pamphlets together
temporarily Ballard's "klips" are best. Sold by H.H. Ballard,
Pittsfield, Mass.

[Illustration: L.B. pamphlet case. (Various sizes.)]

CHAPTER XXIX

Public documents

Adelaide R. Hasse, of the New York Public library

How issued

Government documents are issued in two sets or editions, viz.: the
Congressional or sheep, and the Departmental or cloth. The annual
reports of the heads of departments, with many of the serial and
occasional publications of the various departments, are contained in
the sheep set, and in addition, all the reports of committees, and
records of the transactions of congress, except the debates which are
contained in the Congressional record. The cloth set contains all the
publications of the various departments, irrespective of the fact that
some of them may have appeared in the sheep set.

To whom issued

The depository libraries receive the sheep set by law from the
superintendent of documents. Each department has its own list of
"exchanges" (i.e., designations) which receive gratis the publications
of that department intended for general distribution. Non-depository
libraries receive their documents regularly from the departments
when on the department exchange list, or irregularly from their
representatives in congress. "Remainder libraries" receive from the
superintendent of documents such documents as can be supplied from the
fractional quotas sent to him after the editions ordered for the
use of congress have been equally divided among the senators and
re