=45.= All specifications and contracts should be carefully preserved. The former should be entered up in a specification book, which need be but an ordinary foolscap folio blank book, ruled faint. Accepted contracts should either be filed in boxes or guard books, or copied into a contracts book similar to the specification book. Accepted estimates for occasional work should be fastened to the accounts. It is important to be able to lay hands on any given document or its terms without the slightest delay. All tenders for regular supplies and estimates for occasional work should be opened in committee, in meeting duly convened, unless by special resolution the librarian or a sub-committee is authorized to deal with them. Envelopes, printed with the address of the library and having the words “Tender for ----” printed boldly in one corner, should be enclosed with all invitations for estimates to prevent the risk of accidental opening. =46.= In connexion with contracts it is important to note that Public Library Committees and officers are subject to the penal provisions of the “Public Bodies Corrupt Practices Act, 1889,” 52 & 53 Vict., c. 69, in the event of bribes or commissions being given or received in connexion with pending contracts or supplies. As this does not seem to be generally known, the essential words of the Act are quoted: “Every person who corruptly solicits or receives, or agrees to receive, for himself, or for any other person, any gift, loan, fee, reward, or advantage, as an inducement to any member, officer, or servant of a public body, doing or forbearing to do anything in respect of any matter or transaction in which such public body is concerned; and every person who shall, with the like object, corruptly give, promise, or offer any gift, loan, fee, reward, or advantage to any person, whether for the benefit of that person or of another, shall be guilty of a misdemeanour. Any one convicted of such an offence shall be liable to imprisonment for two years, or to a fine of £500, or to both imprisonment and fine; and, in addition, be liable to pay to such public body the amount or value of any gift, loan, fee, or reward so received by him; and be adjudged incapable of holding any public office for seven years, and to forfeit any such office held by him,” etc. =47.= AGREEMENTS for leases, loans, joint use of libraries with adjoining authorities, or between committee and librarian or other persons, should be drawn up by a solicitor. Minor agreements may be drawn up by the library authority, but they should all be stamped with a sixpenny stamp if in connexion with a consideration of £5 and over. The legal limits within which agreements between various kinds of library authorities can be made are duly set forth in the various Public Libraries Acts, and, as these matters seldom arise in the course of ordinary library routine, there is no need further to consider the subject.