Page:The Library, volume 5, series 3.djvu/137

GERMAN LIBRARIES. 125 II. THE RULES OF THE INTER-LIBRARY LOAN SERVICE. i. THE PRUSSIAN LEIHVERKEHR. THE present rules of the Prussian Leihverkehr (decree of ist November, 1910) are printed in the ' Zentralblatt,' 27, 1910, pp. 507-10, and in the 'Jahrbuch,' 9, 1911, pp. 151-4. Only libraries and only Prussian libraries are concerned : State libraries or libraries of State institutions as far as belonging to the classes enumerated in these rules without further formality ; non-State libraries, etc., if admitted by the Beirat fiir Bibliotheks- angelegenheiten ; in the towns of the eleven libraries only these, in Braunsberg only the Library of the Lyceum Hosianum, and in the town of Posen only the Kaiser Wilhelm Bibliothek. A list of the libraries concerned in aoth January, 1912, is printed in the 'Jahrbuch,' 10, 1912, pp. 160-2. At present, there are more than four hundred libraries in this federation, and it is still increasing. Among them will be found State and Provincial libraries, University libraries, Town libraries, public libraries, libraries of archives, and of schools of any description (elementary 1 schools excepted) . The school libraries are now three-fifths of the whole number, and their part in the system is daily growing greater. The system practically means mutual help among the large libraries and an assistance given by the large ones to the small