=265. Preparation of Catalogue Copy.=--The quickest and most economical method of preparing catalogue copy for the printer is to do it as perfectly as possible, according to set rules of typing or handwriting, punctuation, type-marking, and revision. Irritations innumerable pursue the librarian who allows copy to go to the printer which leaves anything to the imagination or discretion of that too often unjustly abused person; printers’ corrections are an alarming addition to the cost if they have not been anticipated; and what is and what is not a correction has always been a matter upon which author and printer have rarely seen eye to eye. If the copy is fool-proof and composition-proof the chances of corrections are reduced to the minimum, although it is impossible to remove them entirely. Separate entries should be made for each book on slips, of uniform size to permit of rapid arrangement; and in most cases the 5 in. × 3 in. paper slips used for suggestions will serve, although where annotation is used to any extent the size is rather too small for type- or hand-written entries. On these the entries are made according to the rules in force, and if hand-written, they should be according to a standard hand-writing. The models given (Fig. 91) are the best forms of hand-script that have yet been devised, and every beginner in cataloguing should be required to learn their use. If the slip is ruled horizontally, with two vertical lines (a double margin) at the left side of the slip, it will be easier to regularize every entry by commencing the leading word or name at the first vertical line, the title at the second, and leaving a horizontal line blank between the title and the annotation. Every type distinction should be indicated according to the standard rules for marking printing copy (see Brown’s _Library Classification and Cataloguing_, p. 256, “printer’s corrections,” which apply to the preparation of copy as well as to its correction). Finally, all copy should be checked microscopically before it is sent to the printer, even if it has been written by the librarian himself or by the chief cataloguer. The slips should be arranged in order and numbered, or they may be mounted on sheets of paper in columns of about ten or twenty, in order to prevent loss. Two proofs at least should be required from the printer, the first in slip, or galley, form, the second in page form; it is better to have three proofs, especially if the catalogue has elaborate type distinctions, employs many abbreviations, etc. Moreover, the most minute reading of proofs is necessary. It is really wonderful to what an extent errors creep into proofs, and the practice of the printer’s reader who went over every page of proof however perfect until he _did_ find an error, although it is a counsel of perfection, is suggestive of what may be expected from the reader of catalogue proofs. A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z