Book Description

Excerpt from Index to the English Catalogue of Books, Vol. 4: Jan. 1881 to Dec. 1889 IN the case of professional instruments or of a box of tools it is understood that a certain amount of training is needed in order to use them properly. Long experience has led to the formation of certain rules which guide both the maker and the user of the instruments. Catalogues are the instruments or the tools of librarians and booksellers. The making of them is getting to be regarded as a science; but one dare not call it so yet. It may be worth while to indicate the cause of this, or one of the causes. The first duty of a man who makes a catalogue is to consider how it will act, how the consulter will be affected by it. And, in composing a volume which is but one in a series, he has to think of those who have been in the habit of consulting previous volumes. What this means will be appreciated by any one who has occasion to refer to a number of back volumes of the Annual Register. The indexes of some will be found to differ in plan from those of others, to the great perplexity of the consulter. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.