THE ROMANTIC APPEAL OF A CATALOGUE Available to Purchase

THIS DOES NOT PURPORT TO BE an apologia for the old guard‐book style name‐catalogue, but, forgetting mere canons of stream‐lined efficiency, let us admit that there is some character, some romantic appeal about it that a card catalogue cannot rival. Cards just haven't got personality or colour: they are unitary and strictly functional, a jumble of unconnected parts without a common link to make them a homogeneous entity. The guard‐book catalogue, for all its problems of maintenance and often cumbersome inefficiency, does, I contend, make life more interesting for the cataloguer—and the imaginative user.