Bulletin boards are necessary in all rooms for the display of notices, manuscript lists of recent additions, books of the hour, &c. They are best made in the shape of a shallow picture frame, with glass front to protect the notice from damage. In news-rooms they are useful to exhibit the large pictures and engravings issued with the illustrated papers, and which, from their size, cannot be kept in the reading-cases. A form of board formerly used at the Liverpool Public Library was useful for this purpose. It consisted of a series of strips of thin wood, each about six inches in length, which were placed between uprights, allowing them to be moved easily up and down. The titles of the recent additions were pasted one on each wooden slip, and inserted in its proper place, the whole list being thus kept in regular order. It took considerable wall-space, a square foot for about forty entries, and was for this reason abandoned. A good adaptation of the same idea is that shown in Fig. 33, which is a representation of Lambert's adjustable holder for lists of magazines and newspapers.
The protection of valuable plates from injury by handling is very important, but very difficult. It can perhaps be best effected by only allowing them to be examined through some transparent material, such as xylonite, a patent substance now coming into use for many purposes, as tough as gelatine, and as translucent as glass.
In very large libraries some rapid means of communication throughout the building is very
