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INTRODUCTION.

THIS

HIS catalogue comprises all the works at present contained in the Milwaukee Public Library, aggregating about 35,000 volumes, and divided among the several literary classes as follows: Bibliography and general works and magazines 3234, Philosophy 474, Religion and theology 1446, Sociology, including collective documents of national, state and municipal governments 5324, Philology 219, Natural sciences 1566, Applied science and useful arts 1393, Fine arts and amusements 699, Literature in general 3778, Prose fiction 7082, Reading for children 961, History 3168, Geography, description and travels 2275, Biography 2869 volumes. In the belief that, as a rule, the title-page of a book is its own best explanation, the entries have been made as full and accurate as possible, only omitting unimportant or redundant words, and occasionally supplying an explanatory word or phrase, indicated by being placed in [brackets]. Contents have been added in all cases where the character of a book seemed to require it, and a special effort has been made to record in their proper places the important contributions to the scientific and special series published by various governments, national and local. The same attention has been paid to works published under collective titles, each component part being entered in the class to which it belongs; but no mention has been made of magazine articles, however important, since Dr. Poole's admirable "Index to periodical literature" furnishes an adequate clue to that class of publications.

The systematic method of arrangement was adopted mainly for two reasons: a personal conviction, strengthened by previous experience in this library, that the general public is better served by a catalogue of this kind than by one arranged on the plan of a dictionary, unless it be made extreme ly full and minute in its details, and, secondly, the necessity of providing, in a rapidly increasing library, for a printed catalogue that may be added to, as new accessions make such an addition desirable, without necessitating a reprint of the work already done or destroying the unity of the catalogue as a whole. The latter problem can be solved in no other way than by the arrangement here presented, where the main catalogue is intended to be permanent, subsequent supplements being made on the same uniform plan and paged consecutively with the old part, while the author-index will be recast with each new edition so as to refer, in one single alphabet, to the entire catalogue. By this means, it is expected that at least 100,000 volumes can be conveniently included in this catalogue, without making the use of it so burdensome, as to require a reconstruction of the whole work. It is intended to issue temporary lists of new books added to the library at regular intervals of three months, until so large a number of titles shall have accumulated, as will render the preparation of a regular supplement necessary.

The catalogue consists of three principal divisions :

1. The alphabetical index of authors represented in the main division, which also includes the titles of all anonymous publications (except fictitious literature, for which special provision is made), together with a large number of striking or indefinite titles, not readily suggesting the class where these works belong. For the sake of convenience, the names of learned and economical societies, and the titles of all periodical publications, not included among the general periodicals in col. 36-42, have also been added to this index. All such title entries are distinguished by being printed in the regular roman type.

2. The main catalogue, arranged systematically and following the numerical order of the shelf classification as closely as the number and character of the books in the library would permit. As to the arrangement of the works in each ultimate subdivision, no fixed rule has been observed, but in each case such an arrangement employed as seemed best suited for convenient reference in that particular class. In general, an analytical order, commencing with books on the entire subject

in question, followed by those on special branches or topics, has been most frequently used, minor distinctions being sometimes indicated by a line of asterisks (***). In other cases, a chronological order has been preferred, being either a "subjective-chronological" arrangement according to the date of printing (as, for instance, in Chemistry, where the oldest publications are practically useless for modern requirements), or an "objective-chronological" arrangement according to the date or period of the matters treated, which has been largely employed in the division of History and Travels. An alphabetical arrangement based on the name of the subject has been followed principally in individual Biography, and the name forming the catchword in such cases spaced so as to be more readily perceived. Where no other arrangement seemed to offer any positive advantage, the strict alphabetical order of the authors' names has been made the guide. Wherever a sharp distinction between certain works for and against was apparent, as for instance in Roman-catholicism, the books have been arranged accordingly. Geographical divisions follow the order of the scheme of classification, even if there is no heading to indicate the fact.-Included in this division of the catalogue are title-indexes of dramatic literature and prose-fiction, and an index to subjects of biography, which contains references to special works, as well as to essays, in all classes of the library, even when the biographical feature is subordinate to a general estimate of the person in question.

3. The synopsis of classification and alphabetical index of subjects. The latter gives a clue to the number of the specific class or classes, in which books on each subject have been placed or will be placed as they are received, and forms an index to the catalogue, which will, in some measure, answer the same purpose as a dictionary catalogue with its cross-references.

MINOR POINTS OF ARRANGEMENT.

A special effort has been made to enter authors' names with as much fulness and detail, as possible. Pseudonyms have been replaced by the real name, when known, with the pseudonym following immediately after it, italicized and enclosed in parenthesis, and a reference made from the pseudonym at its proper place in the alphabetical indexes. Given names and parts of surnames omitted on the title-page have been supplied, and initials expanded into the full name. The vernacular form of the names of foreigners has been used exclusively, which seems to be the only safe rule to follow in the catalogue of what will ultimately become a cosmopolitan collection of books, care being taken to represent accurately any peculiar sounds expressed in a differentiation of symbols by means of diacritical marks, in those languages that make use of the roman alphabet. The names from other languages employing a special alphabet of their own, russian, greek, arabic, etc., have been transliterated in such a manner as to express, as nearly as practicable, the actual sounds of the original name. For this purpose, the consonants have been used with their usual power in english, but to the vowels must be given their continental pronunciation (a as in father, e as a in ale, i as in machine, u as in pull). In oriental names, the rules formulated for the use of the collaborators in the "Sacred books of the east" have been followed. Any inconsistency, however, that may be noticed in the method of transliterating a particular name is attributable to the impossibility of finding, among the resources of the library, the name expressed in its original characters.

Compound english names, as a rule, have been entered under the last, and names from other languages under the first component part, with a reference from the other part, when necessary. English names with the prefix De or Van appear under the prefix, as well as french names beginning with Le, La, L', Du, Des; but french and other names beginning with de or d', german names beginning with von, vom, von der, zu, im or auf, dutch names beginning with van, van der or ten, swedish names beginning with af, etc., must be sought under the letter immediately following the prefix. O' and M', Mc or Mac have been put under their initial letters, the latter names invariably arranged as if spelled out in full. German names, in which the letters ä, ae, ö, oe, and ü, ue, occur, have been arranged as if spelled with the ordinary letters, a, o and u, except in the beginning of a name, where they follow the order of Ae, Oe and Ue.

English noblemen have been put under their family name, generally with a reference from their title, but the nobility of other countries have been entered under their titles. All titles of honor, whether hereditary or personal, have been printed in italics, and the proper vernacular form of each

employed, instead of a frequently inaccurate or, at the best, merely approximately correct translation. Titles of sovereign princes, however, have been given in english. A list of the foreign titles of nobility occuring in the catalogue will be found below, arranged under the english equivalent most nearly corresponding to each.

The capitalization of words has been reduced to a definite system of uniformity for all languages in accordance with the evident tendency of modern catalogue work. An extravagant use of capita letters in a catalogue, where a great number of words must be capitalized under any circumstances, confuses the eye, instead of aiding it, and makes them meaningless. Each language has a system of its own, differing in important particulars from the usage of other languages, which makes it impossible to conform with any existing standard, and the following simple rule has, therefore, been adopted as the easiest solution of the difficulty. Capitals are to be used only in proper names and at the beginning of a new sentence or book title; but are discarded in english adjectives and generic nouns derived from names, such as french, spencerian, darwinism, etc., (with the exception of indian and other little known tribes), and in german aud danish nouns, as well as in other instances of merely local use. The result is a system of capitalization almost identical with the present french and swedish usage. When a capital letter does occur in this catalogue, it has a definite meaning, either denoting the individual name of a person, a country, and so forth, or the beginning of a title of a book or its component parts, including a new or secondary title of the same book. In practice, however, it is sometimes extremely difficult to determine from abstract principles whether to use or not to use a capital, and there will be noticed occasionally apparent discrepancies, for which the only existing excuse is contained in the words of the illustrious Gibbon: "I can feel, where I cannot explain, the motives of my choice."

In conformity with the recommendations of the American Library Association, the most common masculine christian name under each letter has been abbreviated by means of a colon after the initial, and the size marks have been given in letters, instead of the usual 8°, 12°, etc., in order to emphasize the fact, that size, in this catalogue, means, not a certain folding of the sheet, but merely the height of the book within a certain limit. Full explanation of these symbols and abbreviations will be found hereafter.

BOOK NUMBERS.

The shelf-numbers, which also from the call-numbers of the books, consist of two parts, a general class-number and a place-number for each work within a class, both together forming the individual book-mark for identification. The two parts of the number are separated by a colon (:) or a plus (+), the latter signifying that the book is more than 23 centimeters high and, therefore, placed among the books that are of more than average size, on the bottom shelf of each division. All the volumes of the same work carry the same number, and when the catalogue shows that a certain work is published in more than one volume, it is, therefore, necessary to give, in addition to the number of the work, also the number of the particular volume desired. When the place-number is omitted and a letter put in its stead, or a letter occurs between the class- and place-number, it shows that the book belongs to a collectiou in a separate part of the library or is subject to special restrictions. Thus L refers to the librarian's room, M to the magazine, D to the public document and Pam to the pamphlet collection, R to the reference room, and P signifies that the book can be taken out only by special permission from the librarian.

In conclusion, I wish to acknowledge the intelligent zeal and faithful devotion to her work of the deputy librarian, Miss Theresa H. West, who has for a number of years been occupied with the preparation of the material for this catalogue. The printing commenced in May 1885 and has proceeded without interruption to the present time, the new books added to the library in the meantime being included as the printing progressed. The first Quarterly index of new accessions, embracing the period from january to june 1886, will comprise all works which were received too late for insertion in their proper places in this catalogue. A few works that have been put into a nearly related class, which was not printed, rather than omit them altogether from catalogue, will be repeated in this list.

Milwaukee Public Library,

in june 1886.

KLAS AUGUST LINDERFELT,

Librarian,

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E: Edward (eng.), Eduard (ger., dutch, dan., russ., bohem.), Edvard (swed.), Édouard (fr.), Eduardo (it., sp., port.), Edvárd (hung.)

F: Frederick (eng.), Friedrich (ger.), Frederik (dutch, dan.), Fredrik (swed.), Frédéric (fr.), Federigo (it.), Federico (sp.), Frederico (port.), Fryderyk (pol.), Fridrik

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H: Henry (eng.), Heinrich, Henrich (ger.), Hendrik (dutch, dan.), Henrik (swed., hung.), Henri (fr.), Henrique (port.), Heinrikh (russ.), Henryk (pol.)

I: Isaac (eng., fr.), Isaak (ger., dutch, russ.), Isak (dan., swed.), Isacco (it.), Izak (pol.), Izsák (hung.), Izaak (bohem.).

J: John (eng.), Johann (ger.), Johan (dan., swed.), Jan (dutch, pol., bohem.), Jean (fr.), Juan (sp.), João (port.), János (hung.).

=

K: Karl (ger., dan., swed., russ.), Karel (dutch, bohem.), Károly (hung.).

L: = Louis (eng., fr.), Ludwig (ger., dan.), Ludvig (swed.), Lodewijk (dutch), Luigi (it.), Luis (sp.), Luiz (port.), Ludovik (russ.), Ludwik (pol.), Lajos (hung.), Ludvík (bohem.)

M:= Mark (eng., russ.), Marcus (ger., dan.), Markus (dutch, swed.), Marc (fr.), Marco (it.), Márcos (sp.), Marcos ( port.), Marek (pol., bohem.), Márk (hung.).

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N: Nicholas (eng.), Nikolaus (ger.), Nikolaas (dutch), Niels (dan.), Niklas or Nils (swed.), Nicolas (fr., sp.), Nicolò (it.), Nicoláo (port.), Nikolai (russ.), Nikołaj (pol.)

0: Otho (eng.), Otto (ger., dutch, dan., swed., bohem.), Othon (fr.), Ottone (it.), Oton (sp.), Othão (port.) Otton (russ., pol.), Ottó (hung.).

=

P: Peter (eng., ger., swed.), Pieter (dutch), Peder (dan.), Pierre (fr.), Pietro (it.), Pedro (sp., port.), Piotr (russ., pol.), Péter (hung.), Petr (bohem.)

R:=

Richard (eng., ger., dutch, dan., fr., bohem.), Rikard (swed.), Riccardo (it.), Ricardo (sp., port.), Ritchard (russ.), Rikárd (hung.)

S: Samuel; Samuele (it.).

T: Thomas (eng., ger., dutch, dan., fr., port.), Tomas (swed., sp., russ.), Tommaso (it.), Tomasz (pol.), Tamás (hung.), Tomáš bohem.)

U: Ulrich (ger., bohem.), Ulrik (dutch, dan., swed, hung.), Ulrikh (russ.), Ulryk (pol.). V: Victor (eng.. dutch, fr.), Viktor (ger., dan., swed., bohem.), Vittore or Vittorio (it.). W: William (eng.), Wilhelm (ger., dan., swed., pol.), Willem (dutch.)

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