of documents. Return all your duplicates to the superintendent of
documents; arrangements for their transportation will be made by him
upon notification, and anything he has that is needed will be sent in
exchange.

Do not try to collect a complete set of government documents; the
government of the United States has not yet been able to do that.




CHAPTER XXX

Checking the library


Check the library over occasionally. It need not be done every year.
It is an expensive thing to do, in time, and is not of great value
when done; but now and then it must be gone through with. It is not
necessary to close the library for this purpose. Take one department
at a time and check it by the shelf-list. Make a careful list of all
books missing. Check this list by the charging slips at the counter.
For those still missing make a general but hasty search through the
library. Go over each part of the library in this way. Then compile
all lists of missing books into one list, arranged in the order of
their call-numbers. Once or twice a week for several months go over
the library with this list, looking for missing books. Even
with access to the shelves, and with great freedom in matters of
circulation, not many books will be found missing, under ordinary
circumstances, at the end of a six months' search. Such books as are