How to Form a Library Author:Henry Benjamin Wheatley Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER II. How To Buy. DISCUSSION has arisen lately in bibliographical journals as to how best to supply libraries with their books, the main principle... more » agreed upon being that it is the duty of the librarian to buy his books as cheaply as possible. Some of these views are stated by Mr. H. R. Tedder in a letter printed in the Library Chronicle for July, 1884 (vol. i. p. 120). It appears that Professor Dziatzko contends that the books should always be bought as cheaply as possible, but that Dr. Julius Petzholdt holds the opinion that the chief object of the librarian should be to get his books as early as possible and not to wait until they can be had at secondhand. Mr. Tedder thinks that the twoplans of rapidity of supply and cheapness of cost can in some respect be united. Of course there can be no difference of opinion in respect to the duty of the librarian to get as much for his money as he can, but there are other points which require to be considered besides those brought forward before a satisfactory answer to the question —How to Buy ? can be obtained. There are three points which seem to have been very much overlooked in the discussion, which may be stated here. 1. Is the librarian's valuable time well occupied by looking after cheap copies of books? 2. Will not the proposed action on the part of librarians go far to abolish the intelligent second-hand bookseller in the same way as the new bookseller has been well-nigh abolished in consequence of large discounts ? 3. Will not such action prevent the publication of excellent books on subjects little likely to be popular ? 1. Most librarians find their time pretty well occupied by the ordinary duties of buying, arranging, cataloguing, and finding thebooks under their charge, and it will be generally allowed that ...« less