Digression

I have been assuming that people know about life BC (before computers): manual issuing systems and catalogues, but for those under the age of 40 or so, here is the scene.

The Browne issuing system involved little pockets glued into the inside front cover of every book, with the author title and accession number of the book written on it. A card with the same information was kept in this little pocket. Fiction works had the author's surname at the top, then the title, accession number and so on, non-fiction had the Dewey (or other) classification number at the top, then author, title, number and so on. Readers were issued with little ticket pockets, the quantity varying according to the habit of the library (3 for children, 5 for adults maybe). Here is an Australian library manual entry:

http://www.slq.qld.gov.au/info/publib/clslibraries/manual/day#iss

I think the Gresswell's catalogue still has the equipment for sale - its used in many school libraries still, even if their catalogues are computerised.

that link didnt seem to work, but I will carry on.

On issue, the reader would present the books and their tickets, the cards would be taken from the books, put into the pockets and the due date stamped on the book's due date label. At the end of the day all the filled tickets would be put into appropriate order behind a label with the due date, and stored in channeled boxes.

When the book was returned, staff would look at the due date, find the section, riffle through to find the tickets and cards, return the cards to the books and the ticket to the reader and hey presto. Job done. Except when you inadvertently put the wrong card into the wrong book...

Renewals were done by stamping the new due date onto a slip of paper and putting it into the original card/ticket file. An ongoing argument ran about putting the renewed record into the new date file, but this meant confusion on return if the reader had failed to note the new date on the due date labe.. Overdues were done by that due date being passed and those tickets remaining in that date being sent letters of threat and encouragement.

Some excitements: when I was working in the Bethnal Green library, early 1970's, some naughty people got into the library overnight and upended the whole lot of these trays all over the floor!! the next morning, as the Senior on duty, I ordered the whole sequence to be put into one, with orphan tickets and cards put into another sequence...and we forgot about overdues for a fortnight. Other problems were caused, even as now, by people using the tickets of other family members without permission, and the wrong person being chased for lost books. Otherwise this system worked very well and depended upon electricity only as far as lighting was needed after sunset.

The dictionary catalogue was maintained by production of cards when thebook was received into stock, the main entry being the author or other (series, festschrift et cetera), and other cards for the title, and subjects. A note was made on the back of the main entry of which other cards had been made, so that they could be removed whrn the book was withdrawn. The accession number was also written on the back of the main entry...several for multiple copies.
Typewriters were used to produce the cards, with cunning grooves in the platen roll, into which the card was set, to hold it in place while typing.

The cards were filed in dictionary sequence in the catalogue drawers - beautiful items of furniture, now redundant - with observance of the word-by-word or letter-by-letter preference of the library. (the latter would have 'machine' in the middle of the usual range of Scottish surnames).