Volume 1

Subject-index of the London Library, St. James's Square, London / by C.T. Hagberg Wright, secretary and librarian.

  • London Library.
Date:
1909-
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Subject-index of the London Library, St. James's Square, London / by C.T. Hagberg Wright, secretary and librarian. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    14/1294 (page 8)
    DIPFICCL TIES OF CATA LOOUIHO THE library had set his heavt. “The Library can never be really usetnh he was wont to say now that it has grown to its present sise, until we have a Subjeet-Indes Books have increased so that the scholar even forgets what has been written on his own subject and requires a reminder.” There is a “daily deepening drift of books which obliterates and effaces all recollection and record of the older ones. You must hack through much deposit Ere you know for sure who was it Came to burial with such honour in the files. Sir Leslie Stephen urged me to undertake the task of making a Subject-Index, and encouraged me to begin at once. Unfortunately it had to be delayed in consequence o the necessity of first issuing an Author Catalogue. He relucmnt y recognised tha precedence must be given to that work. Though be has not lived to see the In e finished, he did live to see the beginning. One of bis last visits to the Library was to our cataloguing room to see the progress we were making, and his words of as he examined the slips of paper were full of encouragement. It is therefore to the late Sir Leslie Stephen primarily that the credit of the conception of this Index is due The London Library, it had often been said, was especially adapted foi a Subject- Index. It was of the right size and of the right quality. A vast miscellaneous Library like the British Museum is too big to be analysed and indexed except in sections and that is useless to the ordinary reader. A library should not. it is suggested contain more than a quarter of a million books, if the intention be to publish eithei “ ^ Catalogue or a Subject-Index of manageable size. The London Library fulfils t important condition. „ . n i • The peculiar merit of the London Library lies in the fact that since foundation in 1841 it has been governed by committees of literary experts who in succession have devoted much of their leisure to its service, and during the seventy years of its existence have helped to bring together a collection of standard woiks in ev y '’^^The first step towards the present undertaking was the formation in 1908 of a small sub-committee, consisting of Sir Leslie Stephen, Mr. Frederic Ha™on Ito. R E. Tedder Mr. Sidney Lee, Mr. Edmund Gosse, Mr. Austin Dobson, and the Eev. W, Hunt, HZcer general principles and the form of the Subject-Index. The conclusions arrived at by that committee have, with slight modifications, been adhered to. The work itself was definitely begun on the 1st May 1906. and has since been continued without interruption. The time which would be required for the preparation printing of tlie Sulijecl-lndex was then roughly estimated at about six years. The practical diillculty of Subject-indexing the London Library must not be overlooked. Tlie London Library is a circulating library with at least 15,000 to 16 books in the hands of members. A device had to be adopted to prevent the same book coming up for examination twice, and to ensure that each book was <=-“<.gi.ed It has also not always been easy to induce members to return the books .“d ' ^ It is due to this cause that a few books which the Library possesses will be found to have escaped insertion, but everything has been done to minimise such omissions.