Chateaubriand is declared by the English Cyclopaedia to have been born September 4th, 1768; September 14th, 1768, by the Nouvelle Biographie générale of Dr. Hoefer; and September 4th, 1769, by the Conversations-Lexicon. Of course it is clear that all these authorities cannot be right; but which of the three is so, is matter of extreme doubt, leaving the student of facts perplexed and uncertain at the very point where certainty is not only most important, but most confidently expected.

Of another kind are the errors that sometimes creep into works of reference of high credit, by accepting too confidently statements publicly made. In one edition of the Dictionary of Congress a certain honorable member from Pennsylvania, in uncommonly robust health, was astonished to find himself recorded as having died of the National Hotel disease, contracted at Washington in 1856. In this case, the editor of the work was a victim of too much confidence in the newspapers. In the Congressional Directory, where brief biographies of Congressmen are given, one distinguished member was printed as having been elected to Congress at a time which, taken in conneetion with his birth-date in the same paragraph, made h.m precisely one year old when he took his seat in Congress,

Even in reporting the contents of public and private libraries, exaggeration holds sway. The library of George the Fourth, inherited by that graceless ignoramus from a book-collecting father, and presented to the British nat: n with ostentatious liberality only after he had failed to sell it to Russia, was said in the publications of those times to contain about 120,000 volumes. But an actual enumeration when the books were lodged in the King's library at the British Museum, where they have ever since remained, showed that there were only 65,250 volumes, berg but little more than half the reported number. Many libra

res, public and private, are equally over-estimated. It is so much easier to guess than to count, and the stern test of arithmetic is too seldom applied, notwithstanding the fact that 100,000 volumes can easily be counted in a day by a single person, and so on in the same proportion. Here, as in the statistics of population, the same proverb hods good, that the unknown is always the magnificent, and on the surface of the globe we inhabit, the unexplored antry is always the most marvellous, since the world be

gan.

These discrepancies in authorities, and exaggerations of writers, are not referred to for the purpose of casting doubt un all published history, but only to point out that we cannot trust implicitly to what we find in books. Bearing in mind always, that accuracy is perhaps the rarest of human qualities, we should hold our judgment in reserve upon controverted statements, trusting no writer implicitlv, unless sustained by original authorities. When asked to recommend the best book upon any subject, do not too confidently assert the merits of the one you may think the best, but say simply that it is well accredited, or very

pular. It is not always safe to recommend books, and the librarian does well to speak with proper reservations as to most of them, and to recommend only what are well known to him to be good, by his own intimate acquaintance with them, or, which is the surest test of all, by the verdicts of critical reviews, or by the constant reprint.ng of them in many successive years.

It was the well-nigh unanimous report at a Conference f American librarians, upon the subject of "aids to readers", that "nothing can take the place of an intelligent and

ging assistant at the desk.” This was after a thorough canvass of the relative merits of the various reference books and help to readers in book form. Not only the casual

reader, and the reader with a purpose may be constantly aided by the librarian's knowledge, and larger experience in the art of finding things, but teachers in the schools, clergymen preparing discourses, and every one seeking to know anything, should find the librarian a living catalogue. There is nothing so effective in the world as individual effort.

CHAPTER 11.

ACCESS TO LIBRARY SHELVES.

The matter of free or unrestricted access to the books on the shelves is a vexed question in libraries. Open and protected shelves, either in alcoves or the main reading rom, while they appear to be a boon to readers, who can has browse at will through the literary pastures, and turn ver volumes at their pleasure, furnish by no means good urity for the books. Some of the smaller public libra*ex protect their books from access by glass doors in front the shelves, which form also a partial protection against

Ofers again, use wire screen doors, opened, like We others, by lock and key when books are wanted. Both f these arrangements give to readers the advantage of waling the titles on the backs of most of the books in the

rary, while protecting them from being handled, disarranged, or removed. But they are also open to the obpection that they obstruct the prompt service of the books, by just the amount of time it takes to open the doors or *reens, and close them agan. This trouble and delay tav av overbalance the supposed advantages. Certainly they rast do so in all large libraries, where the frequentation « greit, and where every moment's delay in the book service works disadvantage to numerous readers. While private 1braries, or quite small publie ones, can indulge in t'e Lxury of glass cases, no extensive collection can be managed with the requisite promptitude under their ob

But how to avoid the indiscriminate and usually care*** han lling of the books on shelves, by the people fre

quenting the library, and still extend to readers prompt and full service of all the books they wish to consult on any subject, is a problem. In a few of the great libraries, where that modern improvement, the stack system, prevails, the difficulty is solved by the storing of the books in the outside repositories, or iron book-stacks to which realers are not admitted. In this case the reading room is only for books in use by those frequenting it, or is supplie with a selection of reference books simply, the stacks being drawn upon for all the rest. This of course secures the books both from misplacement and from pillage.

In smaller libraries which have no stack system (and this includes by far the greater number) a variety of treatment prevails. Most of them are unprovided with any effective means of guarding the books on the shelves from handling. The result is great insecurity, and inevitable misplacement of books, amounting often to confusion ani chaos on the shelves, unless corrected by much daily rearrangement by the librarian or assistants. This consumes much valuable time, which ought to be devoted to other pressing duties.

One remedy is to guard the shelves by a railing of some kind, which cannot be passed, except at the gates or pas sage-ways provided for the attendants. This simple provision will protect the orderly arrangement as well as t'e safety of the library-two objects both of cardinal imp rtance. Absolutely free access to all the shelves means, sooner or later, loss to the library. And the books mist certain to be taken or mutilated are those which it is enstly, or deult, or in some cases, impossible to repla The chances of abstracting engravings from books much greater in the shadow of the shelves, than in the open reading room, under the eyes of many. In any library but the smaller ones, the diculties and dangers of