TAKING THE INVENTORY.

The results of the present stock-taking will appear in my next annual report; but it seems proper to add to the account of other work an explanation of the method by which the exact number of volumes in the collection and in each class is ascertained.

The "shelf-list," as already explained, consists of over 95,000 cards arranged in drawers in exactly the same order as the books on the shelves. Each book has its corresponding card bearing the same accession number, author and title. One of the drawers-say the one containing classes 1 to 4-is taken to the section of the stack where the books in those classes are shelved. Two assistants must work together. One takes the first book on the shelf in "class 1" and calls out its author, title and accession number. The other finds the corresponding card and notes its agreement in all particulars with the book. Then the book and card are stamped "95", and the next book is taken. This goes on through all the classes in the collection. If all the books could be called in, the task would be comparatively simple and easy; it would consist merely in comparing and stamping 100,000 books and as many cards. But with 10,000 to 12,000 books in circulation and 1000 to 2000 coming in and going out every day, the process is much more difficult. After a class has been inventoried the shelvers are instructed not to put up any books in that class unless it is stamped. Those not stamped are set aside; and the first thing each morning the stock-takers go over them, stamping book and card. Books coming back from the bindery are treated in the same manner. They must not be shelved or issued till they have been inventoried. In a book provided for that purpose are listed at the time of their withdrawal from circulation all the books that are worn out during the year, and in another blank book the books that are lost and paid for or sold. These records are posted monthly onto the shelf-list, and the absence of the books listed is thus accounted for. This posting, if not up to date, must be completed during the taking of the inventory. But, with 2000 to 4000 volumes passing over the counter every day and 1000 books a month going to and returning from

the bindery, it is impossible, in spite of all the care that can be exercised, to "catch" every volume the first or second "round." The next step in the process is to make a list of the books in each class that have not been "accounted for." The books on these lists are then looked for on the regular shelves and among unentered duplicates, in their proper places and in all places, likely and unlikely. The missing lists are also compared with the lists of books withdrawn, lost and sold, to see if they escaped at the first examination; and finally the record of the books in circulation is searched. The missing list is thus reduced, at first, easily and rapidly, and afterwards slowly and laboriously, till there remains a list of volumes that for the time being must be reported as" unaccounted for." Some of these turn up months afterwards; and at every stock-taking books reappear that were not found at the last.

The main object of all this work is, of course, to ascertain just what and how many volumes the library has in its possession. There are besides various incidental results. In the first place, the comparison of each book with its shelf-list card leads to the discovery and correction of all sorts of minor mistakes that will creep in among the numerous details of the cataloguing work. The list of books unaccounted for furnishes the Book Committee with an authoritative guide for its work; and at the same time shows the Committee on Administration whether greater precautions are necessary for the safekeeping of the books.

BINDING.

During the year 781 volumes (periodicals and books received in paper covers) were bound for the first time at a cost of $525.41, an average of 67 1-3 cents per volume; 2874 volumes were rebound at a cost of $1,275.95, or 44 1-2 cents per volume. Besides these, 7427 volumes were repaired in the library. These cost for labor and material $277.70, an average of 3 2-3 cents. The repairing occupied about threefourths of the time of a binder's apprentice, the remainder being given to pasting in book pockets and other similar

jobs. That there is considerable work in the repairing of over 7000 volumes is readily understood: how much is involved in having 3655 volumes bound by contract is not so apparent. It seems a very simple thing, requiring scarcely any expenditure of time or thought, to have a binder call for 3000 to 4000 volumes in the course of a year and bring them back bound. But this is not all there is to it.

SENDING BOOKS TO THE BINDERY.

First, binding for the first time. This comprises books bought in paper covers, numerous volumes of periodicals and pamphlets put together into volumes, making in all last year 781 volumes.

Pamphlets that are to be bound together must be of similar size, and it is at least highly desirable that they shall be on closely allied, if not the same, subject. Before being made up into volumes, they are kept in order in pamphlet boxes, which have class-marks on the lid to indicate the character of the pamphlets contained. When a sufficient number of pamphlets of a kind and size have accumulated, they are bound into a volume. (The volume is entered in the accession ledger just like a book; but in cataloguing, each pamphlet is treated individually, so that a volume comprising ten pamphlets would require more than thirty cards. This belongs to the cataloguing; but it seems to call for mention here).

Periodicals must be carefully collated to see if they are complete, and missing numbers must be written for. The volume is then entered as a book, and all volumes, whether books, periodicals or pamphlets, are treated as follows:

They are first arranged into groups according to the style of binding, half morocco, full duck, etc., and in each group alphabetically. Each volume is then entered on a blank divided by vertical lines into sections headed Binder's Number, Accession Number, Author and Title, Volume Number, Class Number, Cost, Style of Binding, Remarks. Each book has the "binder's number" penciled on the first page back of the title page. A new series is begun with the first of

each library year; and the last number at any time shows how many volumes have been sent to the bindery up to that date. The binder's number is placed opposite the entry of each volume on the binder's blank and takes the place ordinarily filled by the accession number in identifying the book. These blanks thus filled out constitute the binder's bills and are returned by him with the books. A letterpress copy of them is taken, which gives the library a record of all books at the bindery. When the books come back they are checked off in the "binder's book" (the letter-press copy of the bills) and are prepared for use by the process described under cataloguing.

RE-BINDING.

The preparation and billing of new books is a simpler matter than classifying and giving directions for the rebinding of old books. This is a task that calls for knowledge, experience and judgment. The person who does the responsible work of sorting the books must consider in each case; 1st, whether the book should be condemned as not worth the cost of re-binding and no good in its present condition; or, 2d, whether, though not worth the cost of rebinding, it still has some service in it and should go back to the shelves to be worn out completely; or, 3d, whether the library binder can repair it; or, 4th, if it is to go to the bindery, whether it shall be replaced in the same cover; or, 5th, if entirely rebound, whether it shall be in cloth, or leather, or duck.

The judgment necessary for the proper performance of this work implies a knowledge of the use to which individual books are likely to be put, the wearing qualities of different kinds of binding, the limitations of the repairer's skill, the cost of replacing the book under consideration, and, in addition to other technical requirements, general good sense and that underlying conscientiousness which is the foundation of all satisfactory work-the more essential when the work is one of seemingly insignificant details.

This being done, the measuring of each volume, filling the blanks and copying them in the binder's book and checking

them off when returned are simple clerical details; but they take time when the volumes, twice handled, reach into the thousands. With volumes rebound there is another little item in the process that does not pertain to new binding: the book-cards must be removed from the pockets and arranged in a tray to be taken out and replaced on the return of the books. Until recently new pockets had to be written; but the experiment is now being tried of paying the binder for removing the pockets from the old covers and replacing them on the new.

CIRCULATION.

Though the library was not opened free till June and was not under fair headway till August, the home issue is more than four times that of the previous year and nearly three times that of the years preceding. The increase from an issue of 4000 volumes in May of 1894 to more than 40,000 in March of 1895 sufficiently attests the greater usefulness of a free library. It will be observed that against this enormous increase in the circulation of books for home reading there is some loss in the issue of books for use in the library. Some of this is probably due to the greater freedom of access to reference books: most of it, however, must be attributed to the fact that many persons who did their reading at the library, because they could not afford the subscription fee, now take home the books they want to read. There has been, at the same time, a much greater gain in the issue of current periodicals in the reading-room. This, I think, comes from two sources: first, the making of the institution really a public library brings to it many who did not know that the Reading-Room had been free for twenty years; second, frequenters, who formerly read books in the ReadingRoom, being able now to take books home, devote all their time while at the library to reading periodicals, thus lessening the issue of books and increasing that of periodicals.