Guidebook

“ On my return home I sought for particulars of this house in two or three modern guide-books to the county, but could find no mention of it, although the church was briefly noticed, which shows that guide-book compilers miss many interesting features by the way, to the discovery of which the traveller must trust to his own devices; and do we not take a special personal pride and a greater delight in the good things that [Pg 79] we discover for ourselves, than in those we first read of, or are told about? ”

“ These titles, too, show how broad is the field covered by the essay and how delightful a variety there may be in the one style of composition. The departments of Travel and Adventure, Patriotism and History have not been neglected. On the whole it is a serious volume, one which will give the high school student and the older members of the family a plentiful supply of good reading material and a suggestion of study for the evenings of many a winter day. ”

“ A somewhat erroneous deduction has been gleaned by many people from guide-books, in which particulars are given respecting the limited extent of arable land available, but guide-book makers mostly prefer to guess at the figures rather than go to the trouble of ascertaining the truth. ”

“ The manual is interesting not merely as giving a general study of the nature of man and the existence of modes of education, but because it includes a list of books recommended for the student, a list which gives an impression of the extent of the education and literature of that date. ”

“ In all this we see that guide-books are very important to us, and that there is little or no fault to be found with them, since even the worst give some guidance and enable us in after times mentally to revisit distant places. It may then be said that there are really no bad guide-books, and that those that are good in the highest sense are beyond praise. ”

“ The work is the most masterly exposition of the scientific principles of Bookkeeping and their practical application which has ever appeared in the English language, and it should be in the hands of every school boy or girl, every clerk, farmer, teacher and business or professional man; for a knowledge of Bookkeeping, even though it may not be followed as a profession, is a necessity felt by every person in business life and a recognized prime factor of business success. ”

“ These Manuals will differ from those already in existence in that they are not intended for School use, or for Examination purposes; and that their aim is to educate, rather than to inform. The enumeration of mere details will be avoided, except in so far as they illustrate the working of general laws, and the development of principles; while the historical evolution, both of the literary and scientific subjects, will be kept in view, as well as their philosophical significance. ”

“ The numerous type lessons that are contained in the Manual are intended to suggest principles of method that are to be applied in lessons upon the same and similar topics, but the teacher is cautioned against attempting to imitate these lessons. This error can be avoided by the teacher's careful preparation of the lesson. This preparation should include the careful study of the concrete materials that are to be used. The books, bulletins, etc., that are named in the Manual as references will be found helpful. ”

“ A preliminary lesson may consist of a simple demonstration of the purpose and means of access to the library—its divisions, cataloguing and classification, and an exercise in finding books; and this may be followed by other lessons on the making, use and care of books; and other lessons may follow on reference work, subject-hunting, the use of periodical indexes, bibliographical aids, dictionaries, maps, etc. They must be purely objective to succeed, and everything described should be placed before the children. ”

“ First technical training along the lines of adult library work, such as ordering, accessioning, classifying, shelf-listing, cataloging, the study of library organization, history of libraries, history of printing and bookbinding, business methods, such as making out of reports, statistics, blanks, and schedules. ”

“ American methods deserve study, with a view to their adaptability to British conditions; and such works as Gilbert O. Ward’s The High School Library, in the A. L. A. Manual of Library Economy (as showing the field and its possibilities) , and Florence M. Hopkins’s Reference Guides that Should be Known, and How to Use Them (as showing a practical method in one part of library teaching) , will repay such study.
508.
508. In council and similar elementary schools the municipal library has one of its best fields of work. ”

“ With these qualifications, the conference committee agrees that the guidelines are a reasonable interpretation of the proviso of section 108 (8) (2) in the most common situations to which they apply today. [52] As for Professor Spaulding’s request, remember that these are guidelines. You may exercise some judgment. We think that a short-term project is a good example of when you may go beyond the “five article” guideline. Requesting six articles from the same journal title from other libraries does not bother us and, frankly, neither does a few more. ”

“ Then my guide-book would go on to tell how one should climb ordinary mountains, and why one should avoid feats; and how to lose a guide which is a very valuable art, for when you have lost your guide you need not pay him. ”

“ And, finally, it must have an index which forms a ready key to the tables of the schedule, and is a convenient means of checking the placings of books.
233.
233. The theory of classification is a subject for special study, and there are rules of order, division, nomenclature, notation and indexing which it is useful for a library student to master. As the ground has been covered adequately by the text-books [208] which are listed at the end of this, we shall do better to refer the reader to these rather than to enlarge this manual by attempting to traverse it. ”

“ By mail, 35 cents.
AN accurate knowledge of how to attend to the every-day affairs of a business life is, indeed, a most valuable possession. The requirements of modern business life are manifold and exacting, demanding technical information, and, besides, quite a degree of what may justly be termed "cultivation." This valuable and indispensable book covers a wide range of information of much importance, and is designed as a text-book for schools, and for ready reference for young people and those who need such instruction as it contains. ”

“ Here it may be said that a diplomate is a librarian who has received at least three years’ training in a library recognized by the Association, has gained the six provisional certificates of that body in literary history, bibliography, classification, cataloguing, library organization and library routine, and has in addition shown a knowledge of Latin and one modern foreign language, and has presented an acceptable written thesis showing independent research upon some department of librarianship. ”

“ The Industrial Arts and those branches of Practical Science which have a direct bearing on our every-day life, such as Domestic Economy, Ventilation, the Heating of Houses, Diet, &c., are treated with the thoroughness which their great importance demands.
The department of Biography is full and complete, embracing the lives of all eminent persons, ancient and modern. In American biography, particularly, great pains have been taken to present the most comprehensive and accurate record that has yet been attempted. ”

“ The technical training which a library assistant must acquire, either in a library or at a library school, includes the classification of books according to subject, the cataloguing of books, some knowledge of binding and repairing, the arrangement of books on shelves, the use of open shelves, how to serve the public, filing and use of periodicals, how to use reference books of all kinds, preparation of reading courses for clubs, how to make the library useful to boys and girls at school, and practice in the children's library. ”

“ If a man can spare the time a course of lessons at some accredited school of mines will be, undoubtedly, the best possible training; but if he asks what books he should read in order to obtain some primary technical instruction, I reply: First, an introductory text-book of geology, which will tell him in the simplest and plainest language all he absolutely requires to know on this important subject. ”

“ Character and Scope of the Department.—The reference library is the communal study, bureau of information, and muniment house, when it is developed to its full possibilities. A definition of reference work turns upon a definition of a reference book to a large extent, and it is not easy to give more than an approximate one. A reference book is one which is consulted to obtain some particular fact or matter from it and not one that is read through as a whole. ”

“ Even where such practical instruction is unobtainable it is possible to acquire a quite considerable knowledge of the craft by a diligent study of practical text-books and the scrutinous handling of volumes bound in all ages. As he reads each page, each section of his manual, the collector should examine repeatedly the volumes lying by his side. ”

“ On the technical side he will find in certain little books a good elementary grounding; among them is Hopkins’s Reference Guides, Kroeger’s Guide to Reference Books, and so on. All juniors in a reference department should go through a course based upon these, and courses in practical book-selection and bibliography. No question should be regarded as trivial; it is no part of the librarian’s duty to assess the value of any information asked; and patience even beyond what may seem reasonable limits is an everyday requirement. ”

“ An annotated multidisciplinary guide to reference works published through 2004 that are important to research in the Victorian period (1832–1900) in Great Britain, Ireland, and the British Empire. The 957 entries are organized by ascending date of publication in seven classified divisions: guides and bibliographies; union lists, catalogs, and guides to collections; manuscripts and archives; guides to museums and collections; general reference works; multidisciplinary reference works; works devoted to a specific discipline (including book arts, literature and language, and theater and drama) . ”

“ Librarians in such positions are on their own responsibility and sometimes do important reference and bibliographical work. Civic and engineering libraries, municipal libraries, libraries on music, architecture and art, the cataloguing of prints and pictures, special work in bibliography and indexing, offer in a few cities opportunities to trained and gifted librarians. ”

“ The Manuals will be issued simultaneously in England and America. Volumes dealing with separate sections of Literature, Science, Philosophy, History, and Art have already been assigned to representative literary men, to University Professors, or to Extension Lectures connected with Oxford, Cambridge, London, and the Universities of Scotland and Ireland. ”

“ The other purpose of the Manuals is, to serve as Text-books in Schools. The mode of treatment naturally adopted in what is to be studied without a teacher, so far from being a drawback in a school-manual, will, it is believed, be a positive advantage. ”

“ To such students, a manual arranged so as to facilitate inquiry, by making every explanation correspond, in order of time and place, with the regular progress of initiation, must be of great value, because its study involves neither a great expenditure of time, which many can not well spare, nor does it demand more intellectual exertion than almost every one is able to bestow. ”

“ No staff of agriculturists or any other specialists trained for scientific or literary research can be expected to order, catalog and care for books as quickly and efficiently as can the well organized library staff of forty, with its order department, gifts, exchange and periodical assistants, and cataloging, binding, loan, and reference departments, whose whole time and attention is devoted to these special lines of library work. ”

“ In libraries near foreign centers special departments are needed to supply practical and simple information in different languages on requirements for naturalization, instruction, employment, investments, American customs, travel and history, demands of law and order, American money and banks, and friendly advice on many things of fifty-seven or more varieties. ”

“ Below the lists of Patrons, Committee, and Lady Visitors, it is stated that the Committee is prepared to give certificates in any of the following subjects: The knowledge of Scripture; English Grammar and Literature; History, Ancient or Modern; French, German, Italian, Latin, Greek, Hebrew, etc.; Music, Vocal or Instrumental; Arithmetic, Algebra, Geometry; Geography, Geology, Natural Philosophy, Botany, etc.; Drawing, Painting in any style; Principles and Methods of Teaching. ”

“ Local history, family history, the possession of important documents such as may be found in every country house, and almost every parish register or court roll, open ways of access to historical interest of a varied kind, in which the extent of research may be almost unbounded, in which a critical spirit may be trained and disciplined, and the results of which are sure to be valuable, certainly invaluable to the worker himself. ”

“ Organized by country, roughly by county (in the case of England) , city, and then institution, entries typically include address, telephone number, hours, requirements for admission, research facilities, and sometimes a brief history of the library. Each collection is then described separately, typically with a note on its origin and history, indication of size, summary of content and major holdings, and citations to finding aids. ”