+--------------+-------------+-----------------+ | Numbered | Cut | Stamped | | | | | +--------------+ | | | Process Lab. | | | | | | | +--------------+-------------+-----------------+ | Book-plated | Catalogued: | Checked | | | Slip: | | | | | | | | Annotation: | | | | | | +--------------+-------------+-----------------+ | Accessioned | Book-carded | Finally Checked | | | | and Issued | | | | | +--------------+-------------+-----------------+ FIG. 68.--Process Stamp (or Label). The assistant carrying out the process initials the appropriate blank on the impression, and this protects the good assistant from blame for the faults of the occasional careless one. What is more important, they show anyone coming newly to a batch of books the stage that has been reached in their preparation. Such stamps are readily applied and have justified their use. =224. Stock Book.=--This is the chief inventory or record of the books contained in the library in every department, and should be ruled to show the history of each book from its accession till its final withdrawal. The intermediate renewals of worn-out copies need not be shown in this book, as they complicate the record immensely, and there seems no strong reason for doing more than noting the total number of renewals in the Routine book, as already shown in Section 215. There are many forms of stock books, but for ordinary British municipal libraries the variety shown in the ruling on page 202 will be found, with its accessories, sufficient for every purpose. There does not seem to be any obvious advantage in the American plan of printing the accession numbers progressively down each page, as this renders it impossible to re-enter a new book which has been given a withdrawn number, and there is a decided waste in using up from two to a hundred lines for a single work. =225.= The stock book now recommended can be adapted to any system of classification, and when used in conjunction with the annual abstract sheets, ruled as shown on page 203, the exact position of the stock can be easily and correctly ascertained.