Tollef Thompson. extended to the commercial values of prints or other works of art, including books, as to which his memory and the certainty of his information was a constant surprise to dealers, a great safeguard to the Library, and a frequent benefit to owners of material who sought his judgment or counsel. He was in fact an outstanding authority. And he was always a prompt and generous one. Born in 1846, he was in his seventy-ninth year; but with no apparent impairment of his faculties or diminution of his interest in this service to the public. On his retirement from Williams, Professor Rice came into receipt of an annuity (allowance) from the Carnegie Foundation. At that date the authorities of the foundation had not definitely determined whether the recipients of its annuities might accept employment on pay, other than teaching, which is of course barred. The case of Professor Rice helped to determine the policy, for had the decision been adverse it would have deprived the Government and the public of the accumulated knowledge, experience, and enthusiasms which for the 12 years succeeding his retirement rendered such notable · service. Such a deprivation would have involved to the community an economic waste, as well as to himself the lapse of vitality which useful work alone sustains. Until his final year with us his "salary" was but an honorarium-$2,000 a year. B. On March 13 an accident, immediately fatal, brought suddenly to a close the temporary service of Tollef B. Thompson, who last November came to us for nine months' conduct of our division of documents. With long experience in teaching, in the University of South Dakota and the University of Maryland, covering political science, political economy, and sociology, a familiarity with the Scandinavian languages, and an ardent enthusiasm, a useful service had been expected of him in perfecting our collections of official documents. Hedwig J. Koehler. The death on May 4 of Miss Hedwig J. Koehler has taken from our division of prints its main expert, apart from Professor Rice himself, competent for the cataloguing of prints, a competence gained from a lifetime of association with them, beginning and long pursued under her father, the late Sylvester R. Koehler, curator of prints at the Boston Museum of Fine. Arts, a master of his subject. The copyright office lost by death on September 30, 1924, James W. Crooks, a valued member of its staff who had served it for 27 years; and the staff there shared the sorrow of many who appreciated his fine qualities at the death on January 29 of Arthur Crisfield, who had retired on August 20, 1920, after 35 years of service. Among the retirements of the past year have been the following: On August 20, 1924, Horace M. Jordan, after 27 years of service; William H. Grimshaw after 27 years of service. 1 On January 22, 1925, Francis H. Parsons after 25 years of service in the Library and 52 with the Government. On February 15, 1925, Miss Emily B. Mitchell after 16 years of service. On May 16, 1925, Otto Delbe after 20 years of service. On July 24, 1925, Hamilton Rucker after 45 years of service. The ill health which necessitated the retirement of Mr. Parsons would not, we hoped, preclude him from years of comparative comfort and satisfactions in which his fortitude would have its reward. This hope was disappointed by his death, on July 26, 1925. James B. Childs. The conduct of the division of documents has for the APPOINTMENTS: coming year been placed in the hands of James B. Childs, who on June 1, 1925, left the John Crerar Library (where he had been chief cataloguer) to join our service. He is a graduate of the University of Illinois Library School with a useful library experience succeeding. Brasch. For the Smithsonian deposit, so long in charge of Mr. Frederick E. Francis H. Parsons, we have secured Frederick E. Brasch, a man of scientific training, with a library experience at Leland Stanford, the John Crerar Library, the St. Paul Library, and at Washington (as librarian of the department of terrestrial magnetism of the Carnegie Institution). In cooperation with Professor Corbin, librarian of the Smithsonian, he should do much to advance the development, use, and repute of the collection. Henry S. Parsons. Mrs. Gertrude T. The vacancy in the periodical division caused by the resignation of Yale O. Millington as chief on October 1, 1924, has been for the present arranged for by the transfer to it of Henry S. Parsons, for many years at the head of the cataloguing section of the copyright office. The resignation in August, 1925, of Mrs. Gertrude T. Resignation of Rider, who leaves us for personal reasons (see under reading room), deprives us of an associate who in her 13. years of service here has enlarged what was a mere collection and issue of embossed books into a national bureau of information upon all matters involving the welfare of the blind; developed relations of active cooperation with numerous organizations, especially the American Red Cross (see her report, infra); and become indeed an authority in the field. McGuffey. Since the above passages were drafted two additions have been made to our service which for convenience should be noted here. Both involve a return to it of persons already experienced in it. One is of Miss Margaret D. McGuffey, for three years Margaret D. (1905-1908) secretary to the Library and subsequently, for a year, chief of our order division, resigning then for personal reasons. With an experience preceding of 10 years as chief of the issue department of the Boston Public Library, and one succeeding her departure from Washington, in successful conduct of social service work in New York and at Cincinnati, she seemed of all the possibilities presented the one most likely to carry forward with sympathy, understanding, familiarity with our usage, and the requisite personal qualities, the work for the blind which Mrs. Rider has so remarkably developed. And it is for the conduct of this that in September she returned to our service. Johnston. The other reappointment is of Dr. W. Dawson JohnW. Dawson ston, for the past four years librarian of the American Library in Paris, and prior to that librarian of the Public Library of St. Paul, but with an additional varied experience in the Brooklyn Public Library, as librarian of the Bureau of Education, as librarian of Columbia University, and during seven years (1900-1907) in the service of the Library of Congress, during which he incidentally compiled the first volume of its "History." Doctor Johnston's earlier special interest was bibliography, and especially the bibliography and documentary source material of history (in which he had been an instructor at the University of Michigan, Brown University, and elsewhere). And it is in relation to such that we are securing the renewal of his service with us, with the purpose that he shall give especial attention to the transcripts and facsimiles of historical documents which are, henceforth, partly through Mr. Wilbur's endowment, to assume a larger dimension and importance, aid to the selection of the material, supervise the actual work, and report upon opportunities for acquisition. With periodic residence at Washington, and some field work in the United States, his service will be largely abroad, where in addition to the special undertakings he will also be available as general foreign representative of the Library. A further accession to our service of decided significance Dr. Ernest C. is that of Dr. Ernest C. Richardson, librarian emeritus of Princeton University. He comes to us in an honorary capacity as consultant in bibliography and research, thus adding one more expert to the "faculty" now available in Washington for investigators needing suggestion and students needing guidance; as well as to the resources of our organization for promoting institutional cooperation. in those fields. Richardson. Classification. In providing for each grade a minimum salary and a PERSONNEL: maximum, with intermediates between them, and in vesting with the executives authority to make the advances (provided the necessary funds were available), and in stipulating that assignments to a grade should be to the minimum (without regard to previous experience or length of service or individual merit), the classification act seemed to assume that such advances were within the normal prospect; and that funds would regularly be appropriated for them. The subsequent limitation imposed by the appropriations committee, that the sum of the salaries within any grade should not exceed the product of the number of positions by the average salary of that grade, in effect confirmed this interpretation. sistant. Our estimates for the present year, submitted in September, 1924, included therefore a provision for such advances. The sum involved (about $52,000) was considerable; yet it would have served only to bring the salaries to a point below the average. It was not granted, nor any part of it; and substantially all of our staff remain at the minima of the grades to which they were originally assigned; a few exceptions being some 68 employees who in March received slight advances made possible by the accumulation of a margin through deferred appointments. These exceptions included certain cases where the original allocations seemed to us obviously inadequate. In general, however, the employees remain at the minima of the grades to which they were originally assigned. Executive as- An important particular position was sympathetically dealt with by the Personnel Classification Board, in revising the title of "chief clerk" of the Library into that of “executive assistant," with the recognition of functions which this latter title implies, and a change of grade from CAF 10 to CAF 11. There is a chief clerk in the disbursing office, another in the copyright office. Confusion resulted. Nor is the term "chief clerk" (common in governmental bureaus) in vogue or understood in library usage. "Executive assistant," however, is a title fully descriptive and intelligible. The operation of the classification act assumes in each Government establishment "efficiency ratings" upon which advances or demotions must be conditioned. A system of ratings applicable to positions differing widely in character, and to work in many cases incapable of exact record, was difficult to devise. One has, however, been adopted and before the close of the fiscal year put into operation in our service. FINANCE The following table exhibits the appropriations and expenditures of the Library proper and of the copyright office for the fiscal year, and the appropriations for the preceding fiscal year and the year now current. Included |