Examinations collection. As the transfer of the Examinations Division to the northeast pavilion of the Capitol rendered the "E" collection (or books used by the examiners) inaccessible to State Library readers it was decided to discontinue it. All "E" books not actually needed were therefore returned to the State Library with the understanding that the others were to follow as soon as they could be replaced and in future the Examinations Division will maintain its own independent collection. Orders. There were sent to agents 2546 orders, or 765 more than last year, and 181% more than the 904 orders sent in 1890. There were 1137 orders outstanding Oct. 1, 1903, making with new orders a total of 3683 for the year. 2166 orders were filled and 413 canceled, leaving 1104 orders outstanding Oct. 1, 1904. These figures do not include orders for traveling and extension libraries in Home Education, or auctions. In addition, 444 books were bought without orders, from the 1433 volumes sent on approval by our New York agents. There were also bought at auction 2719 books costing $2661.41. Gifts. Among larger gifts received in 1904 were: The Delaware and Hudson Railroad Co. also gave files of 120 newspapers. The valuable gift of manuscripts and maps from Mr Wheeler B. Melius is recorded on p.63. The total gifts during the year were 44,797, an increase of 581% over the 6574 gifts of 1890. Serials. The library receives 13,439 sequents by gift and subscription, of which 12,240 are gifts and exchanges and 1199 are bought. Of those received by gift and exchange 6193 are educa tional. The total is 637 more than in 1903 and 290% more than in 1893, when the complete list of 3438 was printed. The serials check list, which includes all serials except annuals, biennials etc., received by gift, has grown from 398 serials in 1889 to 3085 in 1904, an increase of 675% in 15 years, as shown by the following table. Serials. 1892 1893 1894 1895 1896 1897 1898 1899 1900 1901 1902 1903 1904 1066 1 228 1 408 1 578 1 780 1 940 2 136 2 145 2 280 2 3412 679 2 808 3 085 Of the 3085 on the list in 1904, 1199 were bought, including 60 added during the past year, 1322 were given, and 564 came` as exchange. Lists of the 60 additions bought and of the serials. dropped from our subscription list during the year ending Sep. 30, 1904, are given in table N, p.100. Important additions. The following is a list of 16 of the most important works bought during the year, none of them costing less than $50 and together representing a total value of $1450. Aristophanes. Comoediae undecim cum scholiis, Codex Ravennas 137, 4, A Croquis d'architecture, 1866-98. 25v. in 6 Forest and Stream, 1874-87. 28v. Gand, Maetschappy der vlaemsche bibliophilen. [Publications] 46v. Gt. Br.-Commons, House of. [Papers] 1900, 57V.; 1902, 84v. Haarlem, Hollandsche maatschappij der wetenschappen. Verhandelingen. 88v. Lancette française; gazette des hôpitaux, civils et militaires, 1849 95. 47V. Mauritius-Supreme and other courts. Decisions, 1897-1902. 6v. Netherlands. Staatsblad, 1813-98. 94v. N. Y. (state)-Constitutional Convention, 1821. [Collection of 46 Documents] North Carolina-General Assembly. [Legislative Journals and Documents] 17V. Société de l'Histoire de Normandie. [Publications] 45V. Sussex Archaeological Society. Sussex Archaeological Collections 46v. William Salt Archaeological Society. Collections for a History of Staffordshire. 27V. Two purchases of special importance were Prof. Rupert Jones's collection on foraminifera, probably the largest in existence, 172 volumes for $180, and at the Libbie sale of the Robinson collection of British local history, 597 volumes for $811.93. Exchange section Duplicates. The duplicate collection now numbers 157,424 bound volumes, excluding duplicate University publications received since Sep. 30, 1900. The total number of miscellaneous duplicates received during the year was 1474 volumes (excluding 5831 legislative documents and laws) and 7150 pamphlets. 523 volumes and 20 pamphlets were withdrawn for exchange or sale. Number and value of miscellaneous duplicates received on exchange account are: There were also sold for cash 10 volumes and 16 pamphlets for $9.90. Our vast stock of duplicates is still dead material. We rented the McCredie malthouse on the north side of the city, where they are stored, but as it can not be warmed it is impracticable to start any real system of exchange, sale or distribution till we have a place where the curator of duplicates can work. Exchanges of New York publications. In five years we have sent the following volumes and pamphlets in exchange to American and foreign states and territories and to various institutions in this and other countries. a Not published by the State but bought from private firms and distributed by the State Library to the states and territories. b Chiefly reports of various New York State departments. c Excluding matter distributed by Regents office which was included in previous years. In 1890 we sent out 3075 volumes, placing them in the leading libraries of the world where they would be preserved and be most useful. In 1904 we sent out under the same system 20,958 volumes, an increase of 581%. CATALOGUE DEPARTMENT Besides the large work in cataloguing unbound serials and the many entries added to cards already made, 23,744 new cards, including 734 cards for traveling libraries, were added to our main catalogue, 10,551 author cards, 10,052 subject cards and 3141 title cards. 15,516 temporary slips for unbound pamphlets were also filed in the name catalogue, bringing the consolidation of the pamphlet and name catalogues through the letter L. The catalogue now contains 404,987 cards, or 2014% more than the 19,149 in 1890. Uncatalogued books. Sep. 30, 1904 the collection contained about 12,000 volumes for cataloguing and 1750 for classification. Of the latter, 175 comprised the Jones collection on paleontology, one third being volumes of pamphlets. 500 volumes were in sets, waiting partly for analysis. The uncatalogued books consisted largely either of sets, reports of state, county or city depart ments, or of miscellaneous unimportant titles, added editions, etc. About 700 volumes with printed cards were September accessions. Our arrears of cataloguing must be looked squarely in the face. No amount of care in administration will enable us with a fixed staff to increase largely each year the reference work and lending and to add a rapidly increasing average of new books without getting in arrears. Our difficulty results from our success in training cataloguers. Our Library School students have now filled over 1200 positions. We have constant calls for cataloguers to go to all parts of the country and some abroad. The regular salary of an expert cataloguer is now $100 a month. Naturally our best people leave us to accept these calls when we are paying our cataloguers only $60 and in two cases $75 a month. This has left us with no senior cataloguers' except the department head. The natural result is that books with peculiar difficulties are laid aside by less experienced workers, to be done by experts, and as the experts have gone to better salaries our arrears are two thirds of them made up of "hard books." We need two senior cataloguers at $100 a month, to keep abreast of these "hard books" as they come along and to work down these arrears of some 10,000 volumes. So much time is lost whenever any of these uncatalogued books are required, that the State can not afford not to keep its cataloguing and indexing up to date. It is natural that when more readers come to the library for help, more books are borrowed, so that what are called the pressing duties of the day draw off from the cataloguing, which it is assumed may be done whenever there is leisure, but as our work gives no hope whatever of this leisure, I recommend as a matter of economy that hereafter we undertake to keep abreast of our cataloguing, indexing and other aids which enable us to do our work efficiently and economically, and if we have not funds enough for as large a staff as is needed, that we reduce the proportion of service given to I believe this the true policy for the State, which certainly can not afford to have its library work cost more than is necessary simply because it is allowed to get in arrears. We do not wish people to cease giving us books and we surely must preserve them. Printed cards. During the fiscal year 4054 sets of Library of Congress printed cards were received for our uncatalogued books, at an average cost of about 5 cents a set. Of these, about 100 were for southern and western history (975-979), the sets received in 1903 having been compared with the books on the shelves and the collection of cards made as complete as possible. |