Page:The Library, volume 5, series 3.djvu/135

GERMAN LIBRARIES. 123 pose is inserted in the Supplement Catalogue. The letters seeking information are preserved in the archives of the bureau, and a register of the inquirers with the date and day-book number of their demands is kept. If the researches are suc- cessful, the bureau sends the original answer of the library to the inquirer; if not, it writes him word after the first circular enquiry and also after the failure of the search-list, if he desires it. In some cases he is asked before the title is entered in a search-list. The work done and the results yielded are shown by the following figures for 1912-13 : l i. IN THE INFORMATION-BUREAU. (a) Letters received . . 5,207 [1,841] Books asked for . . 13,955 [4>579] Books found . . . 9,737 [3,004] (70%) [66%] Manuscripts found : I4 2 6?% [66%] of the books found were found in the eleven Prussian libraries so often referred to, 30% [33'3/o] i n other German libraries only, 3/ [0*7%] in foreign libraries only. () Calls of inquirers and verbal answers : 347 [1909-10: 150]. (r) Books asked for by A order slips 3 . 1,536 [1911-12 : 1,356] Books found . . 295 [ 195] 1 The figures in square brackets are those of 1906-7; business has been trebled in six years. 2 In general, manuscripts are no objecl: of the information service. 3 Libraries participating in the Prussian Leihverkehr (see below) may add an A (i.e. Auskunftsbureau) on their order slips asking the Royal Library at Berlin for books ; then these books will be looked out in the Central and the Supplement Catalogue without fee, if they are not in the Royal Library.