what may be termed the medium grades-i. e., work subject to revision by classifiers and revisers of the highest grades assistants with a college degree and four to five years of practical experience are required. It is the above-mentioned classes that suffer most from resignations and in which it is becoming more and more difficult to fill gaps by appointment from the outside or by promotion from the lower grades. On the one side salaries are not sufficiently high to attract outsiders of proper training, and on the other the high-school graduates who must be depended upon for the clerical work of the lower grades, do not, as a rule, qualify for the most difficult work of the medium grades, nor do the assistants of the medium grades, except in rare instances, acquire that fundamental cultural training requisite for the duties of the highest positions. If the standard of work is to be kept up, therefore, it would seem that efforts must be made to provide salaries that will not only attract persons of broad education and large experience, but serve to keep them in the service after they have once acquired familiarity with the methods of cataloguing and classification peculiar to this Library. The following classes were completed during the year: Recataloguing General periodicals (AP); Heraldry (CR); Genealogy (CS); Remainders of works on Temperance, Crime, etc. (HV); Constitutional government (JF); Civil government, U. S. (JK); Civil government, Europe (JN); Colonies and colonization, Emigration (JV); International law and relations (JX). Recatalogued in part, and under way are: Philosophy (B); Fine arts (N); Philology (P). Cards representing books printed in America prior to Americana 1821 have been filed during the past year for about 5,000 titles, the arrangement being as follows: (1) By author; (2) by place of publication; (3) by date of publication; (4) by printer. Printing The last named list has offered by far the greater difficulties, as in so many cases all clues to the identity of theprinter seem to be lost. Nearly 300 titles still remain on which the printers have not been absolutely identified. Cards have also been selected and set aside for books printed after 1820 in certain of the Southern and Western States. In addition to the schedules of classification noted in the report of the Chief Classifier, a preliminary catalogue of American and English genealogies in the Library of Congress is now in process of printing. This catalogue will comprise about 1,000 pages and include all the English and American genealogies in class CS, Genealogy, added to the Library prior to August 1, 1910, with a few additional titles selected from collections in local history and biography. The Proof-reading section has handled 53,096 entries, of which 13,826 were entries reprinted because the stock of cards had been exhausted. Ten new catalogue rules were printed as follows: (a) Available for use in other libraries (numbered series)— 34 Courts of law. 35 Capitals Titles of honor-Royalty. 36 Hospitals and charitable institutions. 37 Impeachment trials. (b) For use within the Library only (unnumbered series)— Call numbers. Dissertations, German, 1908–9. Subject headings. Subject headings (Abbreviations). Indians-Tribes. Reference books in divisions, office books, etc. Other special requisitions were: Circular containing references on Library science. 4 p. Preliminary list of language subdivisions. New Preliminary list of subject headings (additions and Printing of subject headings at the head of cards for Library of Congress catalogues of which a test had been made during the year, had to be suspended. Pending the installation of a small hand press which may be utilized for this purpose, it will be necessary, as heretofore, to write these headings by hand or typewriter. At the request of the president of the American Library Cooperation Association, the Chief of the Catalogue Division prepared a report on the history and status of the catalogue rules question in America which was submitted to the International Conference of Librarians and Archivists to convene at Brussels in the latter part of August. Steps were to be taken at this Conference to secure, if possible, an extension of the Anglo-American agreement on cataloguing rules of 1908 to other countries. In case these efforts are successful they may ultimately lead to the preparation and printing of catalogue cards in various countries according to uniform standards, thus facilitating the interchange of entries and saving a large part of the expenditure for cataloguing and printing now incurred by most libraries. Cards of the Berlin The Royal Library in Berlin began on January 1, 1909, Ro to print on standard size cards its catalogue titles for books added after that date. A set of these cards is received at the Library of Congress, but has so far not been put to much practical use, mainly for the reason that only one copy of each card can be obtained. As soon as the annual index for 1909 covering these entries is at hand it may be possible to withdraw from the files cards for books received at the Library of Congress, the cards after revision to be utilized as copy for the printer. It is hoped that the Royal Library may soon be in a position to furnish cards for separate titles in any desired number. Until this stage is reached it is doubtful whether other libraries will derive much profit from a subscription to a single set. In the case of the Library of Congress particularly, where from ten to twenty Library, copies are required of cards for any given title, one copy is entirely inadequate. While the Royal Library cards for general publications have not therefore as yet proved a direct saving, the entries issued by the same institution for German dissertations published after 1908 are freely utilized. It has even been deemed advisable to discontinue the printing of cards for German dissertations received at the Library of Congress and for which the Royal Library has already furnished entries, the procedure in dealing with these publications being as follows: When a dissertation is received the card is withdrawn from stock, entry compared with the book, changes necessary to make it agree with the catalogue noted, subject cards written for the public catalogue, and an authority card for the official catalogue on which is stamped a reference to the public catalogue for full entry. While we are at a disadvantage, therefore, in not having a sufficient number of copies of each card to supply stack lists, shelf lists, and the extra copies of the dictionary catalogue, it is nevertheless deemed inadvisable at the present time to go to the expense of printing in order to have the dissertations fully represented in all the catalogues. This curtailment of entries, permissible in case of dissertations, can not well be considered for the bulk of our other German accessions, and until arrangements are made whereby a sufficient number of copies of each card can be secured to correspond with our needs, it will be necessary to continue printing as heretofore. If the Royal Library should later on find itself in a position to furnish cards under conditions similar to those which obtain in the Library of Congress, there seems to be no good reason why this duplication of printing might not be avoided, at least for entries representing books of individual authorship. In case of publications of corporate bodies and anonymous books the differences in rules of entry would probably inter fere somewhat with the use of the German cards in American libraries. The use of analytical cards supplied by the American Library Association has been extended so as to include all entries relating to American history, not only those for a limited number of historical serials, dealing almost exclusively with America. Entries for Incunabula, which in the author catalogue fall under letters E and F, have been prepared for the Union list of Incunabula in America, so also additions to letters A-D, already submitted. CLASSIFICATION (From the report of the Chief Classifier, Mr. Martel) The number of volumes classified was 151,727 (1908–9, 150,410; 1907-8, 145,889); reclassified, 69,834 (including 3,256 transfers; 1908-9, 71,751; transfers, 3,510); new accessions, 81,893 (1908–9, 78,659); shelf-listed, 132,569, of which 65,991 were new accessions (1908-9, shelf-listed 132,690; new accessions, 64,449). a The reclassified portion of the Library now contains, in round numbers, 979,000 volumes, as follows: Class A (Polygraphy), 64,000; B-BJ (Philosophy), 10,000; C-D (History), 96,000; E-F (America), 71,000; G (Geography), 17,000; H-J (Social and political sciences), 236,000; L (Education), 42,000; M (Music, literature, and theory), 17,000; a N (Fine arts), 23,000; P (Language and literature), 18,000; PZ (Fiction), 40,000; Q (Science), 117,000; R (Medicine), 37,000; S (Agriculture), 36,000; T (Technology), 66,000; U (Military science), 14,000; V (Naval science), 12,000; Z (Bibliography), 59,000; Congressional reference library, Incunabula, etc., 4,000. Of the arrears roughly estimated, by classes, last year, Arrears there remain: Class B (part 2), Religions and Theology, a Not including the Schatz collection of librettos, 12,065, shelf listed in the Music Division, 1908-9. |