push this work through successfully. To people out of town, just such lists as this are especially valuable.

President Nelson thought that the severest part of the work of editing could be obviated by laying out a clear scheme, so that each contributor would send his work well arranged and ready for the printer.

Mr. Cole considered it highly desirable that a general list should be prepared, and thought it would not do to have different cities make simply the lists of periodicals in their libraries, as this would lead to too much duplication of work. People in different sections should be invited to join in the work and send in lists of local periodicals. In my own library," he said, I find it hard to decide whether we have the last numbers published of certain defunct magazines. The new list should decide such questions by including all."

Mr. Richardson thought the A. L. A. should take up the work.

President Nelson here remarked that the question seemed to be taking a different turn. Prof. Bolton's plan seemed the more feasible, not to take New York City simply, but proceed on the broader scheme endorsed by Mr. Cole.

Mr. Soule, a welcome guest of the club at this meeting, being now called on, remarked that it was fitting that this club should initiate the work, and after it is begun here, other parts of the country will take it up, and Boston will take a full share.

Mr. Baker thought that if such a list was made, there should be some indication as to where periodicals which are not in every library can be found, and in the case of all rare ones just what library they are in.

President Nelson proposed that the original committee, which consisted of only three members, Mr. Cole, Mr. Josephson, and himself, be increased by the addition of Mr. Baker and Mr. Richardson, and the club approving, these two members were added, and the committee was instructed to formulate a plan for a "General catalog of all American literary periodicals." President Nelson then thanked the club for their kind and hearty support during his year of office and wished them all success in the future. On motion of Mr. Cole, the club passed a vote of thanks to Mr. Nelson for his able and efficient work as president.

HARRIET B. PRESCOTT, Secretary.

Reviews.

ROWELL, Joseph C. Classification of books in the library. Berkeley, Cal., 1894. 49 p. O. (University of California. Library bulletin, no. 12).

Our notice of this important pamphlet has been too long delayed. Mr. Rowell's work has various ingenious features that merit attention both in classification and in notation.

The general arrangement of classes is a cross between the Decimal and the Expansive Classi

fication, adopting many of the original features of the latter, but modifying them in such a way as to show Mr. Rowell's entire independence. The very first page is a good example of this. In the Expansive Classification, Book Arts is the last of the Arts of Communication, and includes, besides Bibliography, the Composition of the book (which is usually put under Language), all that relates to the manufacture and selling of books (which is usually put in Useful Arts), works treating of the final deposit of the books bought in Private or Public Libraries, and finally that description and enumeration of books that is specially called Bibliography. These subjects are in the E. C. arranged in the order in which they come in the existence of the book Writing, Manufacture, Sale, and Storage. Mr. Rowell keeps them together, but, as so many other classifiers do, makes Bibliography a sort of preface to the whole classification, also altering their order so that Libraries, the final resting-place of the books precedes the classes which describe its creation.

Bibliography is followed by Encyclopædias and Periodicals. These three classes are the only ones that are denoted by letters (A, B, C), and the bibliographies, encyclopædias, and periodicals of special subjects are put under those subjects, with a lower case a, b, or c added to the classmark, a good correspondence.

The general order of classes is that of the E. C., in which Language and Literature end the scheme, instead of the Historical Sciences, as in the D. C., but there are various minor deviations intended to make "the collocation of subjects conform more nearly to courses of instruction at present pursued in the university." Chemistry, for instance, is not put in Physics, but in the Useful Arts, between Agriculture and Mining. Civil Engineering, on the other hand, is put into Physics and not in the Useful Arts. Architecture is taken out from Fine Arts and put after Building in Useful Arts. As in the E. C., the evolutionary order of classes is followed in the Natural Sciences. In the Social Sciences, while the subdivisions are almost exactly the same, the order of classes is reversed, which has the good result of bringing Politics next to History, but leaves the awkward break between the Social and the Natural Sciences as objectionable as ever. In Philosophy and Religion, again, the order of subclasses is almost exactly followed, including the position of Bible as a connecting link between Judaism and Christianity; but this is combined with a feature taken from the D. C., 、 of putting Mohammedanism and Mormonism immediately after Judaism as its derivatives.

The notation is not decimal. Classes are numbered I to 999, with no attempt to assign particusubdivision of Geography and 61 is History. lar decades to particular subjects; e. g., 60 is a Where a more minute differentiation of topics is needed it is effected by adding lower case letE. g., 24 is Bible, 24g Old Testament, 240 New Testament, 24z Harmonics. This gives, of course, a much greater number of subdivisions than is possible with a decimal subdivision and is just as easily comprehended.

ters.

98

Local Travel and History London

Ireland Travel

44

66

:

98d Antiquities 98e History This arrangement, which in classification is analogous to that adopted by Mr. Noyes in his catalog of the Brooklyn Library, has manifest advantages. I found it absolutely necessary in treating the local history and description of the United States; I have thought of adopting it in treating the towns and cities of other countries, and have suggested a notation for it in the Seventh Classification of the E. C. Whether it is expedient to carry this concrete method of arrangement yet farther and put in all or some of such subjects as local Ecclesiastical History, Politics, Law, Natural History, Industry, Art, Language, and Literature, indeed all the books that treat of any subject with special reference to a country, is in my mind an open question. Mr. Rowell's classification is not as systematic as either the D. C. or the E. C., and it makes no use of mnemonic aids, but setting these two deficiencies aside, if they are deficiencies, it is a good working classification. C: A. CUTTER.

Library Economy and History.

GENERAL.

JONES, Gardner M. Libraries of local history. (In Putnam's Monthly Historical Magazine, May, 1895, p. 141 – 144.)

Explains briefly the importance and usefulness of local historical collections in small libraries, and the practical methods of establishing and caring for such a collection.

PUTNAM, Herbert. The great libraries of the United States. (In Forum, June, 1895, P. 484-494.)

A review of the chief conditions governing the establishment and administration of the great city libraries of to-day. Those of Boston, Baltimore, and Chicago are instanced, the proposed library consolidation in New York and the possibilities of the Congressional Library are also noted; but Mr. Putnam devotes himself more to a consideration of the principles

of the modern library movement than to examples of what has been accomplished.

LOCAL.

Bloomington, Ill., Withers P. L. Added 754; total 15,155. Issued, home use 51,445; reference use 4901. Membership 2558.

The Withers Public Library was opened as a free library on Oct. 2, 1894, after an existence since 1857 as an association library. During the first eight months, the library has more than fulfilled the hopes of its friends. A complete classified finding-list was issued in November, 1894, and the dictionary card catalog is very near completion. "An unusual amount of reference work has been carefully and energetically carried on. The type-written sheets of our reference file number about 300. This number by no means, however, represents the amount of work done, as it includes only those subjects which required an unusual amount of research; embracing, to some extent, subjects looked up for the seven literary clubs of the city, and debates, essays, etc., for the different educational institutions of the city."

Boston P. L. THE NEW PUBLIC LIBRARY IN BOSTON; its artistic aspects, by Mrs. Schuyler Van Rensselaer; [also] Its ideals and working conditions, by Lindsay Swift. (In Century, June, 1895, p. 260-271.) il.

Two interesting articles, one dealing with the architectural and artistic features of the library, the other describing details and possibilities of its administration. There are many fine illustrations of interior and exterior.

Boston P. L. On May 4 the newspaper-room, established upon the gift of $2000 received from W: C. Todd, was opened for the first time. It now contains about 120 newspapers, all of which are American. When completed, there will be about 200 newspapers on file, of which 115 will be American, eight Canadian, one Vancouvan, and the others foreign.

The library is planning to print, within a year if possible, a catalog of all the books on political economy, taking the phrase in its broadest sense and including some 10,000 titles.

sider the purchase of the late Prince L.-L. BonaThe board of trustees recently voted to conparte's philological library. If this is done the library will possess what is probably the finest philological collection in existence, numbering about 20,000 volumes.

Brooklyn, N. Y. Pratt Institute F. L. At the annual exhibition of the work of the institute, held from May 23-25, the library made an interesting exhibit of the work of the present training class. On tables grouped in the reference-room the work was arranged to show the various processes of the order department, the cataloging department, the circulating department, the reading-room, and the reference-room. It included leading literary journals, catalogs and books of reference, order sheets, requisition blanks, accession book, many examples of library handwriting, sample catalog cards, illustrating various forms of entry, shelf lists,

special lists, statistics blanks, withdrawal book, labels, book-plates, application blanks, students', teachers', and children's cards, and the various notices of fines, reserved books, and special information. A sample card catalog, author, title, and subject, was shown in a small model case, and there were miniature newspaper and magazine racks, binders, etc. The exhibit was carefully prepared and arranged to the best advantage; some of the work shown was remark- | ably good-notably the library handwriting and the catalog cards — and as a whole it was an interesting bird's-eye view of the detail work of a library.

Canton (O.) P. L. The library was opened in its new quarters in the last week of April. The chief change in administration resulting from the removal is the abandoning the plan of open access to the shelves. It has been arranged to add the books of the public school library to the public library's collection; this gives the library a total of some 6000 v.

Chelmsford (Mass.) P. L. The new public library building, given to Chelmsford Centre by Amos Francis Adams, of Newton, a native of Chelmsford, was dedicated on the afternoon of May 8. There was a large attendance at the exercises, and a dinner was served to over 600

guests. The keys of the building were presented to the president of the board by Mr. Adams, and the speaker of the day was Rev. E. A. Horton,

of Boston.

The building occupies a commanding site and is planned in the shape of a cross; crowned by a

oak panellings. In the reading-room is an open fireplace of brick and oak panelling, with wrought iron andirons. Oak cases are provided for the reference books, and there are oak tables and heavy oak chairs upholstered in leather. The stack-room has shelving for 15,000 v., with a capacity of double this amount.

In addition to Mr. Adams' gift of the library building, the site was presented to the town by J. Adams Bartlett, the grading was done at the expense of C. E. A. Bartlett, and two gifts of $500 each for the purchase of books were received from T: M. Adams and T: P. Proctor.

Chelsea, Mass. Fitz P. L. (Rpt.) Added 434; total 14,384. Issued, home use 67,483 (fict. 55.99%; juv. 27.75 %); reading-room use, 6446.

The improvements made during the year comprise principally the placing of additional bookshelves and racks in the library room, and fitting up two rooms in the second story for library uses, one to be made a “ Chelsea memorial room."

Dayton (0.) P. L. (34th rpt.) Added 1135; total 33,716. Issued, home use 120,689 (fict. 58.7%; juv. .26%); lib. use 50,625. New cards issued 1878; total registration 9366.

The circulation of 1894 showed an increase of 14,958 over any former year.

a public library in Weymouth by the late J: H. East Weymouth, Mass. The $50,000 left for Fogg, in 1892, has just come into the hands of the four trustees. They intend to erect a stone building costing $20,000, reserving the remainder of the fund for books and running expenses.

In construction and in finish care and taste have been exercised. The building covers on the ground floor 2600 square feet, and is 23 feet in height to the top of cornice and 13 feet to the top of the dome. The main walls and partitions are of selected Dover brick. The steps and buttresses and lower courses of stone-work are of

white Chelmsford granite. The polished columns of the porch are of Fox Island granite, and the trimmings of windows, cornices, etc., are of buff terra-cotta. The dome is covered with heavy sheet copper and the roof is slated. The interior finish is all of selected quartered oak, finished in its natural color. The windows are glazed with plate glass in large single lights. The porch is paved with Welsh quarry tiles. Great precautions have been taken against fire; the furnace and fuel are in a special fireproof cellar; the building is divided by two brick crosswalls; walls and partitions have fire stops, and the upper floors are laid over asbestos paper.

The interior decorations consist of cornices and raised mouldings in stucco, and quartered

The library was open for business every day of the year, including Sundays and holidays, from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday opening has proved a success. Librarian Stevens in his report says:

In September our stack-room was thrown open to the public, and patrons invited to secure books from the shelves for inspection. This privilege has added greatly to the educational influence of the library, and is to be recommended, at least, for all town libraries where most of the patrons are known by the attendants."

Fall River (Mass.) P. L. A site for the new library building has been purchased for $50,000, leaving $100,000 to be devoted to the building.

Germantown, Phila. Friends' F. L. (Rpt.) card-holders 1500; no. visits to library during Added 817; total 18,082. Issued 13,625. No. year 21,259. Receipts $4053.47; expenses $3027.44.

There has been a decided increase in the cirthe library by children in their school work. culation of juvenile books, and a growing use of

Girard (Pa.) P. L. The new library building was dedicated on May 3. It was endowed by the late Robert Wilcox, of Hammond, Ind.. who left $10,000 for the erection of a building, and $5000 for the purchase of books.