On appointment as librarian, the author took over 1,500 trade catalogues in addition to the usual library stock. The catalogues had been stored on shelves, loosely inserted in Manila folders, a system which proved hopelessly inefficient. It was necessary to continue to use the shelving but, because of the varying size of the catalogues, box files would be wasteful of space. The existing classification was in alphabetical order according to firms, subdivided by numbers, but failed when a subject approach was needed. Lastly, there was the problem of keeping the catalogue collection up to date. The author asked: