ABSTRACT
A wide knowledge of literature, familiarity with the particular needs of local readers, practical acquaintance with all sorts of bibliographical tools, patient research, and experience are all required for the work of book selection, and these qualifications must be systematically applied if satisfactory stock is to be acquired. Each library will have its own method of ordering books, but a practice so common as to be almost universal is that of making carbon copies in duplicate or triplicate. The book stock should be balanced in such a way that whilst all sections are represented no one division is exploited at the cost of others; but little or no attempt should be made to conform to standardized limitations. The librarian who forms original stock has to work more or less in the dark, but in the maintenance of a library his task is easier, for the use of the books in use can be tabulated and the demand is largely known.
