5th. All periodicals having the volume on the back, without the year, to
have the year lettered; and periodicals having the year, but not the
volume, are to have the number of the volume added.

If these things, all essential to good management and prompt library
service, are not done before the books go to their shelves, the chances
are that they will not be done at all.

The second requisite to be attended to is to examine whether any of the
volumes catalogued require to be bound or re-bound. In any lot of books
of considerable extent, there will always be some (especially if from
auction sales) dilapidated and shaken, so as to unfit them for use. There
will be others so soiled in the bindings or the edges as to be positively
shabby, and they should be re-bound to render them presentable.

The third point demanding attention is to see what volumes need repair.
It very often happens that books otherwise pretty well bound have torn
corners, or rubbed or shop-worn backs, or shabby marbled paper frayed at
the sides, or some other defect, which may be cured by mending or
furbishing up, without re-binding. This a skilful binder is always
competent to take in charge; and as in the other cases, it should have
attention immediately upon the acquisition of the books.

All books coming into a library which contain autographs, book-plates of
former owners, coats of arms, presentation inscriptions from the author,
monograms, or other distinguishing features, should preserve them as of
interest to the present or the future.

And all printed paper covers should be carefully preserved by binding
them inside the new cover which the book receives, thus preserving
authentic evidence of the form in which the book was first issued to the
public, and often its original price. In like manner, when a cloth-bound
book comes to re-binding, its side and back covers may be bound in at the
end of the book, as showing the style in which it was originally issued,
frequently displaying much artistic beauty.

Whoever receives back any books which have been out in circulation,
whether it be the librarian or assistant, must examine each volume, to
see if it is in apparent good order. If it is found (as frequently
happens) that it is shaky and loose, or if leaves are ready to drop out,
or if the cover is nearly off, it should never be allowed to go back to
the shelves, but laid aside for re-binding or repair with the next lot
sent to the binder.