Recatalogued in part and under way: General worksPolygraphy (A); Anthropology (GN); Telegraph and telephone (HE); Commerce (HF); Musical theory (MT). General works on science (Q); Astronomy (QB); Meteorology (QC 851-999); Geology (QE); Natural history (QH); Zoology (QL); Medicine (R); Agriculture (S); Bridges and roofs (TG); Hydraulic engineering (TC); Mineral industries (TN). rules The proposition of the Catalogue Rules Committee of the Catalogue British Library Association to join with the corresponding committee of the A. L. A. in considering the adoption of a joint code of rules for American and English libraries has given added importance to the work on which this committee has been engaged since January, 1901. A meeting of the American committee was held in New York city March 25-28, 1905, at which the A. L. A. rules were carefully considered, many disputed points definitely disposed of and considerable progress made toward the settlement of the remaining ones. The draft code submitted by the British committee was considered point for point. As the latter was based in part on the American preliminary code published by the Library of Congress in 1902, the points of difference were found to be fewer and less serious than was at first anticipated. The report of the decisions arrived at, subsequently forwarded to the British committee, will no doubt go far towards establishing a common understanding with reference to these questions. An international agreement on cataloguing which shall enlist at least the great majority of libraries in English speaking countries is therefore in sight. The ultimate importance of such an achievement in its bearings on cooperation between libraries, and uniformity in their practice can not well be overestimated. The total number of volumes classified was 131,986; Classification reclassified, 57,243 (including 11,272 transfers); new ac Statistics 1901 1905 cessions, 74,743; shelf listed, 83,381, of which 37,410 were new accessions. The reclassified portion of the Library is composed as follows: Class A (Polygraphy), 20,000; D (History), 62,000; E and F (America), 41,000; G (Geography), 12,000; H (Social sciences), 23,000; L (Education), 4,000; ML (Literature and theory of Music), 8,000; Q (Science), 75,000; R (Medicine), 24,000; S (Agriculture), 22,000; T (Technology), 37,000; U (Military science), 7,000; V (Naval science), 5,000; Z (Bibliography), 41,000; Congressional reference library, Incunabula collection, etc., Total, approximately, 385,000 volumes. 4,000. Increase 1904-5 DISTRIBUTION OF PRINTED CATALOGUE CARDS The offer to sell copies of our printed catalogue cards to other institutions was made in the autumn of 1901. The sales began November 1, 1901. The statistics of the sales by years since that date are as follows: The increase during the past over the preceding year has been: In gross receipts.. In sales..... Per cent 82 106 The amounts covered into the Treasury as aboveduring the past year $15,496.55-represent only the cash receipts. Exclusive of these are the amounts debited to These are other Government libraries for sales to them. The amount appropriated specifically by Congress for service in the Card Section was last year $6,800. To this should be added the salaries, aggregating $3,000, of five employees of the Government Printing Office engaged in certain work intermediate between the actual printing of the cards and their distribution. With this expenditure for service ($9,800) the Card Section has handled the entire output of cards during the year, including those sorted away into "stock," has distributed the $16,014.46 worth of cards (in number, say, 2,000,000) sold, and has carried. on all the correspondence and maintained the records necessary to the business. It has also classified and distributed the 1,200,000 cards issued without charge to the 31 depository libraries. Business During the past three and a half years the business has CARD SECTION: been experimental. A small staff has sufficed for it, and a system of record somewhat elementary. The volume of business is now so considerable and growing so rapidly that a rapid increase must be sought in the service and a more elaborate system of record. The recent increase in sales is traceable in part to the demand for cards covering the titles in the "A. L. A. Catalog of 8,000 volumes for a popular library." Cards for individual books in this collection can be ordered with facility and precision by merely quoting the "consecutive numbers" affixed to their titles in this catalogue. But a complete set of the cards covering the entire collection may be had for $154.56. For this small sum therefore (less than three months' salary of a competent cataloguer) a CARD DISTRIBU- braries library having or buying this collection may secure the cards for a complete dictionary catalogue of it under author and subject. It is little wonder that libraries newly starting or reorganizing should promptly adopt this method of solving the difficult problem of selection and the expensive problem of cataloguing. Better for them to take even a large number of books that may not be absolutely the best for their purpose than to forego the benefit of this list already made and this catalogue already provided. The saving to a library by the purchase of our cards over Saving to li- the cost of cataloguing independently the books which they represent and printing or otherwise manifolding the cards for them, is estimated to be from four to seven times the price they pay us. They have paid us during the past year $16,000. They have therefore saved during the past year from four to seven times this sum-$64,000 to $112,000. Let us take the mean of this as certainly within the mark. It is $88,000. The distribution of our printed cards has then directly saved the libraries of this country during the past year not less than $88,000. This saving is equal to the total sum ($88, 140) expended by the Government during the year for the maintenance of our entire force of classifiers and cataloguers, 91 in number. That force was established for our own immediate needs. There can not be a doubt that its indirect service to the community would more than justify its maintenance even if we had no need of catalogues of our own and no use for the books catalogued; even if, in other words, we were not a library, but a mere cataloguing bureau. The jury of award at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition granted a grand prize for this system of catalogue card distribution. Composed as the jury was in part of eminent librarians from abroad, this award was a con firmation of the reputation which this work has gained in all countries where improvements in library administration and cooperation among libraries are studied and sought. The work needs no advertisement from us, for it is brought voluntarily into notice in publications and at library meetings wherever such matters are under discussion. I mention this recognition with gratitude to my colleagues whose devotion and whose efficiency have deserved it; but in particular with gratitude to Congress, which, in granting me the means to secure such experts, has enabled the work to be undertaken in a way to insure its success. PUBLICATIONS The publications of the Library during the past year have been as follows: Library of Congress publications. A List. 1897-1904. 1904. 7 pp. 4°. The Library of Congress and its work. 1905. 16°. A. L. A. catalog, 1904. from class list, part 1, pages log, October, 1904. 1905. A. L. A. catalog, 1904. 8 pp. Section 600 reprinted 139-161, A. L. A. cata(4), 139-161 pp. 4°. Section 800 reprinted from class list, part 1, pages 179-264, A. L. A. catalog, October, 1904. 1905. (4), 179-264 pp. 4°. A. L. A. rules-Advance edition. 1904. 28 pp. 4°. [2d issue.] Report of the Librarian of Congress for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1904. 1904. 522 pp. Plates. 8°. Compiled by the Division of Bibliography: A List of books (with references to periodicals) on immigration. Compiled under the direction of Appleton Prentiss Clark Griffin, chief bibliographer. 2d issue with additions. 1905. 99 pp. 4°. |