[DCRM-L] Beware double leaves

[Tony Curwen]

Dorothy Leslie has kindly suggested that this true tale deserves a wider  
readership --


In the early 1950s I had just started as an assistant in the City of  
Westminster Public Libraries, London.  At each branch there was an  
employee who was a general dogsbody, running messages, portering, you name  
it.  Amongst other tasks, he pasted the date-of-return labels in the front  
of the books newly received from the accessions/cataloguing department,  
wielded a rubber stamp to add the library's mark of ownership on them in a  
couple of places, and so on.  Not very exciting (but he did get a first  
look at all the new books coming in).

He was also equipped with a sharp paper knife, and was instructed to keep  
an eye open for the small number of books which had an odd gathering or  
two which had been missed by the binder's trimming process, and slit them  
neatly.  Okay, you guessed it!!  One day we *did* get one of those modern
Asian productions which consisted in its entirety of those double leaves.   
Our man was not the brightest, to be honest, and instead of bringing the  
book to anyone else's attention, he set to work with his paper knife...  I  
cannot now remember whether he completed the job, began to have second  
thoughts half-way through, or was interrupted by someone else, but the  
damage was done.

I echo Dorothy's prayer: may they never come across your desk!


Greetings and thanks to listers -- I still cannot bring myself to  
unsubscribe!

Tony Curwen, Aberystwyth
Long retired from cataloguing, teaching, CERL ...

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