Page:The Library, volume 5, series 3.djvu/344

33 PAPER READ BEFORE manuscript, as a rule (there may be exceptions as to which our Chairman or Mr. Madan can tell us) he can secure that it shall be sent to the University library for his use. At Oxford also a fine scheme is being carried out by which several Colleges have commissioned Dr. Henderson Aitken to cata- logue all the early books they possess which are not in the Bodleian. The number of these thus brought to light far surpasses, I believe, all the expectations of the promoters. 1 Let us hope that they may thus be encouraged to extend their work to the later books as well as the early ones, and thus link up their catalogue with the co-ordinated purchasing, which is already practised to some extent, one college specialising in Law, another in History, and so on. At Cambridge, as we have been told in our c News Sheet/ a co-operative list of learned periodicals has been for some time an accomplished faft, and has already, I believe, produced economies in buying. Trinity College, moreover, has taken the exciting decision to print a new edition of its Catalogue on cards, and the Panizzi-an imagination leaps at once to this example being followed by one college after another, until a co-operative card catalogue for all the College libraries is brought into existence. 2 At 1 It was pointed out during the discussion that as the only available basis for comparison was a catalogue of the Bodleian Library more than half a century old, any figures that have been quoted must be subject to a considerable discount for early books acquired since the catalogue was printed. Even, however, when the fullest allowance is made for this, the success of the enterprise remains indisputable and conspicuous. 2 There seems some real ground for hope that this may come about.