shelf-list

Updated: May 7, 2025

All libraries lose some books, however few, and these losses will be small or great according to the care exercised and the safe-guards provided. The method is to take one division of the library at a time, and check off all books on the shelves by their numbers on the shelf-list, supplemented by careful examination of all numbers drawn out, or at bindery, or in other parts of the library.

Ainsworth Rand Spofford - A Book for All Readers: An Aid to the Collection, Use, and Preservation of Books: and the Formation of Public and Private Libraries

Not a volume should be absent unaccounted for. Those found missing after a certain time should be noted on the shelf-list and accession book, and replaced, if important, after the loss is definitely assured. First, there can be no standard prescribing what words should or should not be capitalized, and the cataloguer will be constantly at a loss, or will use capitals in the most unprincipled way.

Ainsworth Rand Spofford - A Book for All Readers: An Aid to the Collection, Use, and Preservation of Books: and the Formation of Public and Private Libraries