upon the Swift and the Carlyle,--as they should
be--you find instantly what you want, with one glance of the eye along
the backs. If put to the trouble of opening every volume to find the
contents, or of hunting it in the index, or the library catalogue, you
lose precious time, while readers wait, thus making the needless delay
cumulative, and as it must be often repeated, indefinite.

Each volume should have its date and place of publication plainly
lettered at the lower end, or what binders term the tail of the book.
This often saves time, as you may not want an edition of old date, or
_vice versa_, while the place and date enable readers' tickets to be
filled out quickly without the book. The name of the library might well
be lettered also on the back, being more obvious as a permanent means of
identification than the book-plate or inside stamp.

Books should never be used when fresh from the binder's hands. The covers
are then always damp, and warp on exposure to air and heat. Unless
pressed firmly in shelves, or in piles, for at least two weeks, they may
become incurably warped out of shape. Many an otherwise handsomely bound
book is ruined by neglect of this caution, for once thoroughly dried in
its warped condition, there is no remedy save the costly one of
rebinding.

Books are frequently lettered so carelessly that the titles instead of
aligning, or being in straight horizontal lines, run obliquely upward or
downward, thus defacing the volume. Errors in spelling words are also
liable to occur. All crooked lettering and all mistakes in spelling
should at once be rejected, and the faulty books returned to the binder,
to be corrected at his own expense. This severe revision of all books
when newly bound, before they are placed upon the shelves, should be done
by the librarian's or owner's own eye--not entrusted to subordinates,
unless to one thoroughly skilled.

One should never receive back books from a binder without collating them,
to see if all are perfect as to pages, and if all plates or maps are in
place. If deficiencies are found, the binder, and not the library is
responsible, provided the book was known to be perfect when sent for
binding.

In the Congressional Library I had the periodicals which are analyzed in
Poole's Index of Periodical Literature thoroughly compared and
re-lettered, wherever necessary, to make the series of volumes correspond
with the references in that invaluable and labor-sav