_The Library Series_ EDITED BY DR. RICHARD GARNETT V ESSAYS IN LIBRARIANSHIP AND BIBLIOGRAPHY _The Library Series_ EDITED, WITH INTRODUCTIONS, BY DR. RICHARD GARNETT, LATE KEEPER OF PRINTED BOOKS IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM. I. THE FREE LIBRARY: Its History and Present Condition. By J. J. OGLE, of Bootle Free Library. II. LIBRARY CONSTRUCTION, ARCHITECTURE, AND FITTINGS. By F. J. BURGOYNE, of the Tate Central Library, Brixton. With 141 Illustrations. III. LIBRARY ADMINISTRATION. By J. MACFARLANE, of the British Museum. IV. PRICES OF BOOKS. By HENRY B. WHEATLEY, of the Society of Arts. V. ESSAYS IN LIBRARIANSHIP AND BIBLIOGRAPHY. By RICHARD GARNETT, C.B., LL.D., late Keeper of Printed Books, British Museum. ESSAYS IN LIBRARIANSHIP AND BIBLIOGRAPHY BY RICHARD GARNETT, C.B., LL.D. LATE KEEPER OF PRINTED BOOKS, BRITISH MUSEUM [Illustration: George Allen colophon] NEW YORK: FRANCIS P. HARPER LONDON: GEORGE ALLEN 1899 PREFACE The essays collected in this volume are for the most part occasional and desultory, produced in compliance with requests of friends, or the appeals of editors of bibliographical journals or organisers of library congresses, to meet some special emergency, and treating of whatever appropriate matter came readiest to hand. The most important of them, however, though composed at considerable intervals, and devoid of any conscious relation to each other, are yet united by the presence of a pervading idea, which may be defined as the importance of scientific processes as auxiliaries to library management.