rd "damaged," or "defective" written
on it. Then, on returning the book to the library, his simple statement
of finding it damaged or defective when he came to read it should be
accepted by the librarian as exonerating him from blame for any damage.
And this gives point to the importance of examining every book, at least
by cursory inspection, before it is handed out for use. A volume can be
run through quickly by a practiced hand, so as to show in a moment or two
any leaves started or torn, or, usually, any other important injury. If
any such is found, the volume should under no circumstances be given out,
but at once subjected to repair or restoration. This degree of care will
not only save the books of the library from rapid deterioration, but will
also save the feelings of readers, who might be anxious lest they be
unjustly charged with damaging while in their hands.

The treatment of their imperfect books (which tend perpetually to
accumulate) is very different in different libraries. Some libraries,
where funds are ample enough to enable them to do it, condemn any book
that has so much as a sentence torn out, and replace it on the shelves
with a new copy. The imperfect volumes are sold for waste paper, or put
into some sale of duplicate books, marked as imperfect, with note of the
damage upon a slip inserted at the proper place in the book, and also in
the catalogue, if sold at auction or in a printed list of duplicates
offered by the library. This notice of what imperfection exists is
necessary, so that no incautious purchaser may think that he is securing
a perfect copy of the work.

Other libraries not blessed with means to pursue this course, do as best
they can afford, supplying what is deficient when possible without much
cost of time or money, or else continuing the damaged book in use "with
all its imperfections on its head."

The loss of a single plate does not destroy the value of the book for
readers, however to be regretted as diminishing the satisfaction to be
derived from the volume. And one can sometimes pardon the loss of a part
of a page in a mutilated book, especially when he is made aware of the
fact that the library which welcomes him to the free enjoyment of its
treasures cannot well afford to buy another.

It is disheartening to read, in an annual report of a public library of
circulation in Massachusetts, that many of its popular books are so
soiled and defaced, after a few readings, as t