[Illustration: FIG. 118.--Box for Filing Prints and Maps (Section 308).]
=309. Newspaper Clippings.=--The vertical file is an excellent instrument for dealing with newspaper clippings. These, in the case of matters of temporary interest, may be dropped into classified folders. For clippings which it is desired to keep, it is better to provide a mount, which may be of paper of sufficient substance to bear them, and paste them down, writing in the top left corner the class-number, subject, source and date of the clipping. The older methods of filing clippings in newspaper-cuttings books, or in any form of guard book, have the disadvantage of inflexibility, want of rational means of indexing the contents, and occasion reference in course of time to several volumes for matter on any subject.
=310. General.=--For most filing purposes quarto folders, to accommodate quarto papers, which file in standard-sized drawers, are sufficient; but both drawers and folders can be obtained in foolscap and other sizes. And notwithstanding our advocacy of the loose method of filing, there is much to be said for such files as the Stolzenberg for papers which have an invariable chronological appearing and are valuable in that order; because the file, having the apparatus already described for securing and binding the papers, has the never-to-be-discounted virtue of book form. Such papers are minutes, periodical reports on special departments, financial analyses, book-lists, etc. Moreover, although the standard Stolzenberg cabinet accommodates its folders in horizontal fashion, the latter are also suitable for filing vertically in the drawers recommended for general purposes.
=311. Lantern Slides and Negatives.=--Modern libraries collect and preserve, occasionally even make for their own use, lantern slides and negatives. The method recommended for storing these is precisely similar to that for prints; that is to say, in drawers in cabinets of suitable dimensions. Such cabinets are made by several firms specializing in photographic apparatus; and drawers can be obtained of a size to accommodate either slides or negatives. Without being dogmatical upon the point, it may safely be said that the best arrangement of slides is a classified one in drawers, the classification number being written on a label on the mount of the slide and on the top edge of the binding. If the slide is made from a negative in the possession of the library the number of the negative should also appear on the mount.