PREFACE
The present writer has not made it his aim to produce an authoritative code of library government—that were too ambitious an aim, and moreover, forbidden by exigencies of space. He hopes, however, to have touched at least upon the salient points of the librarian's duties and difficulties, and while treating them chiefly as affecting libraries of the first rank, to have produced a work not unacceptable in institutions less highly organised.
It is hoped, too, that the account of the processes designed to serve the needs of readers may prove of interest to the layman also, and that the details given of Continental libraries and the methods of the British Museum will be found to possess some claim to novelty.
In conclusion, the writer wishes to express his hearty thanks for kind assistance to the editor of this series, and to many colleagues in the British Museum, to M. Blanchet of the Paris National Library, M. Pâris of the Brussels Royal Library,
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