A printed list or catalog of the library is one of the first things that will be asked for by the public.  It is useful especially for those who cannot well visit the library.  But it is very expensive; it is out of date as soon as issued; it cannot often be sold; it requires training and experience to make it properly, and the money it will cost can be better spent otherwise.  Do not issue one.  Print lists of additions in newspapers.  Post them in the library.  Issue an occasional bulletin of the latest purchases if you think it will be popular.  Put your time, skill, energy, and money into the making of a full card catalog; keep this up to date; give the public access to it; teach them how to use it, and you will find the printed catalog not needed.

On cards prepared for the purpose [see chapter on Things needed (9) and Library Bureau catalog], a card for each book—­and a book is a book although in several volumes—­write the author’s surname (if the book is anonymous write first the title), given name or names, if known, title, date of copyright, date of publication, call-number, and such other data as seem desirable.  The price, for example, may be put here, and the size, indicating this by a letter. [See Cole size card in chapter on Things needed (9) and in Library Bureau catalog.] Arrange these cards alphabetically, by authors’ names for an author catalog.  This catalog will be in constant use in the purchasing of books, in classifying new purchases, etc.  By the call-number one can refer from any entry in it to the entry of the same book in the shelf-list.  To make possible a like reference to the accession book, write the accession number of each book near the bottom of the card on which it is entered.  In making the catalog entries observe certain fixed rules of alphabetization, capitalization, punctuation, arrangement, etc., as set forth in the catalog rules which may be adopted.  Only by so doing can you secure uniformity of entry, neatness in work, and the greatest possible meaning from every note, however much abbreviated.

[Illustration:  Author card. (Reduced; actual size, 7-1/2 x 12-1/2 cm.)

973.2 Coffin, Charles Carleton, 1823-
C65 Old times in the colonies.
      460 p. il.  O N.Y. c[1880]]

Preserve this catalog with great care.  It is the key to the records in shelf-list and accession book.  In a small library the public may very properly use it.  As soon as possible, if your library is to be quite large and much used, prepare for public use a duplicate of it, omitting all those entries in the original which are of use only to the librarian.

The average reader more often remembers the titles of books than their authors.  Add, therefore, to the author-list, in your public catalog—­not in your private or official catalog, for which author-entries alone are sufficient—­a title-list; a set of cards like the author cards, except that on each one the book’s title is entered first instead of its author.  Arrange author and title-lists in one alphabetical series.