Sir Anthony Panizzi

“ If he has a doubt as to the title or edition, he will then refer to the Catalogue. But in my case, when I had copied both the Title and the Press-mark, I could not obtain the book, and you justify the neglect.
I entirely deny that your system causes a quicker delivery of books. On the contrary, I declare from experience that the delay is now much greater than it was before you introduced your scheme. A Reader is still, sometimes, told that a book is not in the Library, though he may have used it only a few days before. ”

“ This is not all: the endeavours made to correct their mistakes and to decipher their handwriting, take much time; and the delay is not unfrequently turned against the officers and servants of the Museum, who are actually found fault with for doing more than they are bound to do. Meanwhile, readers who have done all that is required of them are probably kept waiting; and though they may submit in silence to the inconvenience, they cannot help feeling dissatisfied with what seem to be defects in the management of the Library. ”

“ In justice to the other readers, as well as to the department, the ticket ought to have been at once returned to Sir N. H. Nicolas, marked "wrong," in order that he might have corrected his own mistakes. If a reader's mistakes are to be corrected by the attendants, all the evils arising from the old system, as described in my evidence before the House of Commons, are increased; for in addition to the loss of time in finding what a reader wants, there is the previous and additional loss caused by the error of the applicant, in directing an attendant to look for a work where it could not be. ”

“ It would be an economy of time for the readers, consequently an economy of time for our men, and consequently a saving of expense in the number of men. But there are other advantages attending this system. Often the readers come to ask for a book which was never printed, or which, if printed, is not in the Library or they write down the title as they have seen it elsewhere, not correctly quoted, and give it to one of the attendants. The attendant begins to look over all the Catalogues, and cannot find the book; he is afraid of being in the wrong ”

“ With respect to "Press-marks" my objection is, as you cannot but know, not to their being inserted in the Catalogue, to be used if a Reader desires to identify a particular copy of a book, but to your insisting, as a sine quâ non to the delivery of any book whatever,—no matter how well known it may be—that the applicant shall refer to the Catalogue, and fill up five columns "LITERALLY," including the "Press-mark." ”

“ A book being wanted, [Pg 4] the shortest way by far is generally found to be (and in the greatest number of cases it is the only one) to search the Catalogue, find the Press-mark, and look for the book accordingly. In 1836, at my suggestion, an alteration in the then prevailing system was adopted, which the Committee of the House of Commons on the British Museum, then sitting, considered an improvement, and so it was universally pronounced to be. ”

“ If the difficulties and delay arise from the regulations, then his complaint of neglect against the attendant was a most ungenerous proceeding; and if he thought this complaint well grounded, he would not complain of the system. As he talked of the attention of the Trustees being called to this subject, I begged of him (No. IV. and V.) to prove what he had asserted—the truth of the habitual delay, and its cause. He declined the offer (which a man, convinced of the veracity of his statements, would have willingly accepted) and wrote in a much lower tone. ”

“ Notwithstanding the concluding part of your letter of yesterday, which shall be submitted to the Trustees with the rest of our correspondence, I think that to find fault [Pg 22] with my Department implies a charge against myself; still more so, as in your second letter you began by declaring—that my first was, "wholly unsatisfactory,"—that in the time of my predecessors things were better managed, by their requiring only the Title of the books wanted by readers, and no Press-mark,—that "your next complaint" should be to the Trustees themselves ”

“ The applicants may almost as reasonably be expected to copy the whole of the first and last pages of books, as what you require; and because an unimportant mistake is made as to the date and size of a book, of which there is only one edition, and no similar Title in the English language, the salaried Officer of the Institution refuses, or rather justifies his subordinate in refusing the book, and thinks it decorous and proper to taunt him with "ignorance or carelessness." ”

“ Any person, who, from either cause, gives wrong references, who writes illegibly, who misdescribes a book, who misspells the name of an author, who asks for a large number of books at the same moment, who will not take the trouble to deliver his tickets to the proper person, but leaves them about to be lost or mislaid, who has [Pg 9] recourse to the pettiest devices to create a grievance for the purpose of complaining of it, such a person will certainly be kept occasionally waiting ”

“ There must be an appeal to a higher authority: and which is the more necessary because you may not be answerable for all, though you certainly are for much, of what seems to be improper in your Department.
You are mistaken in supposing that my unfavourable opinion on those points is of a "recent date." My sentiments respecting "Press-marks," &c. have long been entertained and expressed. I have also long thought that the delay in completing the catalogue was unjustifiable ”

“ THE publication of the annexed correspondence has been determined upon not for the pleasure of exposing the mistakes and inconsistencies of Sir Nicholas Harris Nicolas, but for the purpose of drawing the attention of those who take an interest in the collection of Printed Books in the British Museum to a most important part of its management, viz. the supply of books to readers. ”

“ Yet these are the very persons who complain most, avoiding, however, investigation, when they would be proved wrong, and writing anonymously to newspapers, stating truly, it may be, the fact of having been kept waiting, but taking good care to render it impossible to prove that it was by their fault. ”

“ The additional trouble, however, remains, without the advantage which alone justified its imposition. It is really too much to oblige Readers to waste their time over the Catalogue, and to revert to worse than the old delays. ”

“ The very fact that Sir N. Harris Nicolas considers such a delay a matter, "not of necessity," proves to what he is reduced for want of solid ground of complaint. I expressed a regret, for which there was no occasion, for peace sake, and because the moment I got Sir N. H. Nicolas's first letter, I suspected, that, an article against the Museum Library in the Spectator of the day before being his, his letter was only a peg for a querelle d'Allemand, which I should have been most glad to avoid. With these feelings I wrote letter No. ”