l result in handing down to a new
generation of readers many a rare and precious volume, which would
otherwise be destroyed or irretrievably injured in a very few years. The
library treasures which cost so much to bring together should never be
permitted to suffer from want of care to preserve them.

All writing upon the margins of books should be prohibited--other than
simple pencil corrections of the text, as to an erroneous date, name,
etc., which corrections of errors should not only be permitted, but
welcomed, upon due verification. The marking of passages for copying or
citation should be tolerated only upon the rigid condition that every
user of the book rubs out his own pencil marks before returning it. I
have seen lawyers and others thoughtless enough of right and wrong to
mark long passages in pen and ink in books belonging to public libraries.
This is a practice to be sternly repressed, even at the cost of denying
further library privileges to the offender.

Turning down leaves in a book to keep the place is one of the easily
besetting sins of too many readers. Those who thus dogs-ear a volume
should be taught that the vile practice weakens and wears out the leaves
thus folded down, and makes the book a more easy prey to dust and
disintegration. However busy I may be, I instinctively turn back every
turned-down leaf I notice in any book, before using it, or handing it to
another. A good safe-guard would be to provide a supply of little narrow
strips of paper, in the ticket boxes at the library tables to serve as
the book-markers so frequently needed by readers. For this purpose, no
thick or smooth calendered paper should be used, which falls out of any
loosely bound book too readily--but a thin soft paper un-sized, which
will be apt to retain its place. I have lost valuable time (which I shall
never see again) in trying to find the pages marked for me by a searcher
who had thoughtlessly inserted bits of card-board as markers--which kept
falling out by their own weight. The book-marks should be at least two
inches long, and not more than half an inch wide; and rough edges are
better than smooth ones, for they will adhere better to the head of the
volume where placed. Better still it is, to provide paper book-marks
forked at the lower end by slitting, then doubled so that the mark will
go on both sides of the leaf at once. This is the only sure safe-guard
against these bits of paper falling out, and thus losing