Author Description

Excerpt from Supplement to the Catalogue of the Free Public Library, New Bedford, Mass <p>The present catalogue is supplementary to the one published in 1858, and contains the larger portion of the books that have since been added to the Library. In the former Catalogue the title of each book was entered under the name of the author, when known, under the subject, and under the im portant words of the title. The arrangement of the supplement is sub stantially the same, but in its details it conforms in some respects to the Index of the Lower Hall of the Boston Public Library. The titles are not, as in the Catalogue, strictly conilned to one line; the imprint is given with the author's name only, and omitted in the other entries. Some new headings for subjects are introduced, under which are included many titles from the former Catalogue. The cross-references also have been increased; these apply to the Catalogue as well as to the Supplement, and in some instances wholly to the former. Works of Fiction and Juveniles, including a few popular works from other departments, are arranged at the end in separate divisions, the one of Authors, and the other of Titles. Some errors that have been noticed while the volume was in press are corrected on the next page. Other and more important ones may occur, but none, it is believed, that will occasion practical inconvenience. To Mr. B. F. H. Reed, for assist ance in reading the proofs, we are particularly indebted. A future supple ment will include a collection of Congressional and State Documents, and files of bound newspapers; for the reception of which a room is about to be prepared. Of Congressional Documents the Library has besides those en tored in the Catalogue a set nearly complete from the twenty-eighth to the present Congress. Additional value has been given to these Documents by the publication of an Analytical Index, carefully prepared by the oiiicers of the Boston Public Library, and so arranged that it can be used