cable to procure certain classes of municipal documents for the use of the Library by circular instructions to the American consular officers in a select list of foreign cities. The desired material consisted of the general administrative reports, public accounts, proceedings of the municipal council (if published), and city ordinances for the last ten years, if possible, and future issues as they appear; also special publications relating to the various activities of each municipality, such as public works, town planning and housing, gas, electric lighting, street railways, local taxation, public health, schools, charitable institutions, employment bureaus, municipal insurance against accidents, unemployment and old age. The Department courteously agreed to render the assistance requested and, under date of January 4, 1910, issued circular instructions to the consular officers abroad to procure and forward the publications wanted. Up to June 30, 1910, 1,107 documents had been received from fifty-one foreign municipalities in response to these circular instructions, and the Library had been advised that packages had been despatched from sixteen other cities. In addition to this special gathering of material we have communicated directly with those foreign cities which supplied collections of their publications in 1903, for the purpose of bringing the sets of these documents up to date. As a result of the special attention given to this class of publications during the year the Library now has a good representative collection of the official issues of the following cities: SOUTH AMERICA: Buenos Aires, Guayaquil, La Paz, Lima, Montevideo, Rosario de Santa Fé. GREAT BRITAIN: Birkenhead, Birmingham, Blackburn, Bradford, Brighton, Bristol, Carlisle, Croydon, Dumferline, Edinburgh, Gateshead, Glasgow, Halifax, Huddersfield, Leeds, Leicester, Liverpool, London, Manchester, Newcastle-on-Tyne, Norwich, Nottingham, Preston, Salford, Sheffield, Sunderland. AUSTRIA-HUNGARY: Budapest, Prague, Vienna. BELGIUM: Anderlecht, Antwerp, Brussels, Ghent, Liège, Verviers. State documents Monthly list of state publications FRANCE: Bordeaux, Grenoble, Lille, Limoges, Lyon, Marseille, Nantes, Paris, Rheims, Roubaix, Rouen, St. Étienne, Toulon. GERMANY: Aachen, Arnsberg, Barmen, Berlin, Bielefeld, Bremen, Breslau, Cassel, Chemnitz, Coblenz, Coburg, Cologne, Danzig, Dortmund, Dresden, Düsseldorf, Elberfeld, Essen, Frankfurt a. M., Freiburg i. B., Hagen, Halle, Hamburg, Hannover, Karlsbad, Königsberg i. Pr., Krefeld, Leipzig, Lübeck, Magdeburg, Mannheim, Munich, Münster, Nuremberg, Pförzheim, Plauen, Posen, Quedlinburg, Schöneberg, Stettin, Strassburg, Stuttgart, Trier, Wiesbaden. GREECE: Athens. ITALY: Bergamo, Bologna, Catania, Florence, Genoa, Milan, Naples, Netherlands: Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Schiedam. Luxemburg. SCANDINAVIAN COUNTRIES: Christiania, Copenhagen, Gothenburg, SPAIN: Barcelona, Madrid. SWITZERLAND: Berne, Geneva, Neuchâtel, St. Gall, Zürich. INDIA: Bombay, Calcutta, Rangoon. AFRICA: Alexandria, Johannesburg, Tunis. AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND: Adelaide, Brisbane, Melbourne, Sydney, Wellington. An important increase shown by the statistics for the past year appears under the heading "Gifts of state governments,' 6,386 volumes and pamphlets having been received, as compared with three or four thousand in earlier years. This is chiefly due to a more effective method of acquisition depending on a new undertaking of this division, namely, the issue of a "Monthly list of state publications.” Under date of December 15, 1909, a circular letter announcing this project was addressed to state librarians and other officers charged with the distribution of state documents on whose cooperation the success of such an undertaking would obviously depend. It was pointed out that a catalogue of this character, with a quarterly subject index cumulative throughout the year, would be of value to state libraries and legislative reference departments, and also to many university and city libraries, public officials, and students of political and social sciences. We inquired whether a copy of each official publication of the state could be sent to the Library of Congress not later than the last day of the month in which it appeared so that its title might be included in the proper number of the list. Favorable replies promising cooperation were received from most of the states and it was accordingly decided to undertake the publication beginning with the month of January, 1910. The time required for the preparation of these lists for the press has been found in part by eliminating, as far as possible, individual acknowledgments by card and certain records previously necessary to the work of the division. The printed lists have been substituted in both cases, one copy being sent in lieu of acknowledgment to each state officer and institution contributing material. Beyond this, no free distribution has been provided for, but the publication is sold on subscription by the Superintendent of Documents at 50 cents a year. The number of subscribers to date is 126. The six numbers for the half year January to June, 1910, amount in the aggregate to 219 octavo pages. From the standpoint of the Library, the result of this undertaking has been most satisfactory, because current state documents are now available for the use of readers, both in a much larger number and more promptly. Thus the number of volumes and pamphlets in this class of publications received in the first half of each of the last four years for which statistics are available is as follows: The increase since the Monthly list was started is even more significant than these figures indicate, because a considerable part of the accessions in this field during previous years consisted of back volumes requested to complete the sets in the Library, whereas the receipts during 1910 were almost entirely confined to current issues. Furthermore, Five-year list the dates of receipt of 226 annual or biennial reports of state officers published since January have been compared with the corresponding dates for the previous issue, and by taking a mean of the differences it has been found that the Library has received these reports on the average nearly four months earlier than heretofore. As the principal demand for state documents is for the latest issues, it is obvious that the publication of the Monthly list enables the Library of Congress to render more effective service to those who use this material. At the same time, a useful bibliographical tool has been provided for other libraries interested in state publications, particularly those which serve the legislatures of the several states. The list was one of the principal topics discussed by the National Association of State Libraries at its annual meeting held in connection with the A. L. A. conference at Mackinac this year, at which a communication was presented outlining some of the difficulties encountered in compilation and inviting further cooperation. The evident interest of the state librarians and their expressed willingness to assist in making the record complete in every way practicable, indicate that a successful continuation of the publication will be made possible as far as the supply of material is concerned. At the meetings of the Special Libraries association and the American Association of Law Libraries, appreciative mention of the Monthly list of state publications was made by various members in the course of the proceedings. One feature which met with special approval was the inclusion of a select list of state laws of general interest, at any rate as far as these are printed separately in advance of the volumes of statutes. A beginning has been made with the compilation of a similar list to cover, in one volume with subject index, the state documents published during the five years, 1905 to 1909 inclusive, between the end of the period covered by vision of Docu Miss Hasse's "Index of economic material in the documents of the States" and the commencement of the Monthly list. It is expected that, with the cooperation of the state librarians, this will be completed for publication early next year. In the rearrangement of the collections consequent upon Location of Dithe completion of the southeast stack, provision has been ments made for the transfer of the legislative journals, collected documents, and general statistical publications to the east stack and the office of the Division of Documents to an adjacent room. This more convenient location will enable the Division to render more efficient service in making the document collections available for use. LAW LIBRARY (From the report of the Law Librarian, Mr. Beaman) The accessions during the year were as follows: The more noteworthy accessions have been: The original manuscript of the Laws of Virginia for the sessions of 1722-1726, on 27 folio pages. North Carolina session Laws, 1792-1799, original editions. Baden, Staats und Regierungsblatt, 1808-1841. 32 vols.; Bremen, Gesetzblatt, 1849-1900. 52 vols.; Denmark, Lovtidende, 1894-1908. 15 vols.; France, Journal de jurispru LAW LIBRARY: |