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While the metric notation would be exact, if the size of every book were expressed in centimetres, the size-notation in the table given is wholly wanting in precision, and has no more claim to be adopted than any other arbitrary plan. Still, it will serve ordinary wants, and the fact that we cannot reach an exact standard is no reason for refusing to be as nearly exact as we can.
While the matter has been much exaggerated, some concert or uniformity in describing the sizes of books is highly desirable. A Committee of the American Library Association agreed to a size-notation, figured below, adopting the metric system as the standard, to which we add the approximate equivalents in inches. Centimetres Size outside Sizes. abbreviations. height. Inches.
Library catalogues are full of these heterogeneous descriptions, and the size-notation is the bête noir of the veteran bibliographer, and the despair of the infant librarian. Yet it is probable that the question has excited a discussion out of all proportion to its importance. Of what consequence is the size of a book to any one, except to the searcher who has to find it on the shelves?
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