small but legible type, form a part of the book plate, or library label, which goes on the left-hand inner cover of each volume. Thus every reader will have before him, in da:ly prominence, the regulations which he is to observe, ard no excuse can be pleaded of ignorance of the rules.

As no law is ever long respected unless it is enforced, so no regulations are likely to be observed unless adhered to in every library. Rules are a most essential part of library administration, and it should be a primary object of every Librarian or assistant to see that they are observed by all.

CHAPTER 19.

LIBRARY REPORTS AND ADVERTISING.

We now come to consider the annual reports of librarans. These should be made to the trustees or board of rary control, by whatever name it may be known, and should be addressed to the chairman, as the organ of the

rd. In the preparation of such reports, two conditions. are equally essential conciseness and comprehensiveness, Every item in the administration, frequentation, and incase of the library should be separately treated, but each

uld be condensed into the smallest compass consistent with clear statement. Very long reports are costly to pubish, and moreover, have small char e of being read. In ft, the wide perusal of any report is in direct proportion to its brevity.

This being premised, let us see what topics the 1.brarian's report should deal with.

1. The progress of the library during the year must be viewed as most important. A statistical statement of ar cessions, giving volumes of books, and number of pamphlets separately, added during the year, should be followed by a statement of the aggregate of volumes and pamphlets in the collection. This is ascertained by actual count of the books upon the shelves, adding the number of volumes charged out, or in the bindery, or in readers' hands at the time of the enumeration. This count is far from a d.. cult or time-consuming affair, as there is a short-hand method of counting by which one person can easily arrive at the aggregate of a library of 100,000 volumes, in a 6:5gle day of eight to ten hours. This is done by counting by twos or threes the rows of books as they stand on the shelves, passing the finger rapidly along the ba ka, from left to right and from top to bottom of the shelves As fast as one hundred volumes are counted, simply write down a figure one; then, at the end of the second hundred, a figure two, and so on, always jotting down one figure the more for each hundred books counted. The last figure a the counter's memorandum will represent the number of hundreds of volumes the library contains. Thus, if the last figure is 92, the library has just 9,200 volim. T. rapid, and at the same time accurate method, by wi one of average quickness can easily count two hund volumes a minute, saves all counting up by tallies of fre or ten, and also all slow additions of figures, 3.1. v figure at the end multiplied by one hundred, expresses the whole.

2. Any specially noteworthy additions to the 1imary should be briefly specified.

3. A list of donors of books during the year, with na

ber of volumes given by each, should form part of the report. This may properly come at the end as an appendix.

4. A brief of the money income of the year, with sources whence derived, and of all expenditures, for books, salaries, contingent expenses, etc., should form a part of the rej- rt, unless reported separately by a treasurer of the library funds.

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5. The statistics of a librarian's report, if of a lending rary, should give the aggregate number of volumes circuated during the year, also the number of borrowers recorded who have used and who have not used the privilege of borrowing. The number of volumes used by readers in the reference or reading-room department should be given, as well as the aggregate of readers. It is usual in some rary reports to classify the books used by readers, as, so any in history, poetry, travels, natural science, etc., but ts involves labor and time quite out of proportion to its utility. Still, a comparative statement of the aggregate venes of fiction read or drawn out, as against all other , may be highly useful as an object lesson, if emled in the library report.

6. A statement of the actual condition of the library, as to books, shelving accommodations, furniture, etc, with any needful suggestions for improvement, should be included in the annual report.

7 A well-considered suggestion of the value of contri 1 ions to the library in books or funds to enrich the collection, should not be overlooked.

The librarian should not forget a word of praise for assistants, in the great and useful work of carrying on the library. This will tend to excite added zeal to excel, when the subordinates feel that their services are apprecated by their head, as well as by the public.

The preparation of an annual report affords some text

of the librarian's skill and judgment. It should aim at plain and careful statement, and all rhetoric should be dispensed with. Divided into proper heads, a condensi statement of facts or suggestions under each should be made, and all repetition avoided.

Such a library report should never fail to set forth the great benefit to the community which a free use of its treasures implies, while urging the importance of building up the collection, through liberal gifts of books, periodicals, or money, thus enabling it to answer the wants of readers more fully, year by year. It will sometimes be a wise suggestion to be made in a librarian's report, that the library still lacks some specially important work, such as Larned's "History for Ready Reference," or the extensive "Dictionary of National Biography," or Brunet's Manuel du Libraire, or a set of Congressional Debates from the beginning; and such a suggestion may often bear frat in leading some public-spirited citizen to supply the want by a timely contribution.

Of course, the annual report of every public library should be printed, and as pamphlets are seldom read, and tend rapidly to disappear, its publication in the newspapers is vastly more important than in any other form While a pamphlet report may reach a few people, the newspaper reaches nearly all; and as a means of diffusing information in any community, it stands absolutely with out rival. Whether the library reports shall be printed in pamphlet form or not is a matter of expediency, to be de termined by the managing board. Funds are rarely ample enough, in the smaller town libraries, to just fy the expense, in view of the small circulation which such reports receive, and it is much better to put the money intǝ printing library catalogues, which every body needs and will use, than into library reports, which comparatively

few will make any use of. A judicious compromise may be usefully made, by inducing some newspaper, which wold print a liberal share of the report free of charge, as new, for public information, to put the whole in type and strike off a few hundred copies in sheet form or pages, at a n. derate charge.

This would enable the library officers to distribute a

lly number, and to keep copies of each annual report for reference, without the expense of a pamphlet edition. In some of the larger and more enterprising of city librares, reports are made quarterly or monthly by the libraThese of course are much more nearly up to date, and if they publish lists of books added to the library, they are correspondingly useful. Frequently they contain specal biograplees of books on certain subjects. Among these, the monthly bulletins of the Boston Public Library, Harvard University Library, New York Puble Library, Salem, Mass., Puble Library, and the Providence Public I..3rary are specially numerous and important.

The relations of a public library to the local press of the city or town where it is situated will now be noticed. It the interest of the librarian to extend the usefulness of the library by every means; and the most effec effective means 1 to make it w de'y known. In every place are ford Hany who are quite torart of the stores of knowledge while at their doors in the free Library. And among those who do know it and resort to it, are many who need to have their interest and attention aroused by frequent Totices as to its progress, recent add. ons to its stores, etc. The more often the brary is brought 1.fore the public by the press, the more interest will be taken in it by the comnun ty for whose inform ation it exists.

It is of the utmost importance that the library conductor should have the active good will of all the new-piper