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plied an average of 21,432 people, while in 1903 there was a library to every 11,632 people, showing that the number of libraries had increased twice as rapidly as the population.

Table 12 is also historical, showing the aggregate number of volumes and the number to each 100 people in the years mentioned. The increase in volumes in twenty-eight years has been at even a greater rate than the increase in number of libraries. In 1875 the libraries had 11,487,778 volumes, or 26 to the 100 population, while in 1903 there were 54,419,002 volumes, or 68 to the 100 people. While the population increased 83 per cent in twenty-eight years, the number of books accessible to the people increased 374 per cent.

Table 13 shows that from 1875 to 1885 there was an increase of nearly 69 per cent in the number of volumes in the libraries; in the six years from 1885 to 1891 the increase was nearly 34 per cent; in the five years from 1891 to 1896 the increase was a little more than 27 per cent; in the four years from 1896 to 1900 the increase was almost 35 per cent, while the last three years, from 1900 to 1903, show an increase of 22 per cent. The large per cent of increase from 1896 to 1900 (averaging nearly 9 per cent a year) was due to the stimulus given to library development by the benefactions to libraries of Andrew Carnegie.

Dividing the twenty-eight years into three periods, Table 14 shows that the increase in the ten years from 1875 to 1885 was nearly 69 per cent in the number of volumes; in the eleven years from 1885 to 1896 the increase was over 70 per cent, and in the seven years from 1896 to 1903 the increase was nearly 65 per cent.

The statistics in detail of the 6,869 public, society, and school libraries of 1.000 volumes and over will be found following the 14 tables of summarized statistics in this chapter. To obtain the information here given it was necessary to send out more than 20,000 blank forms of inquiry. The Office had a trial list of over 13,000 libraries, and returns were received from about 10,000 of these. After selecting the 6,869 having 1,000 volumes and over there were found 2,242 having over 300 but less than 1,000 each, while those remaining had less than 300 each. To several thousand libraries it was necessary to send a second request, and more than 1,000 reports were delayed until after the third request for information. Most of the libraries from which no information could be secured are undoubtedly very small. Several hundred important libraries which were reported to this Office in 1900, but not heard from in 1903, are retained in the list for this year. Information relating to college and school libraries has appeared in every Annual Report of this Bureau since 1867, and periodically the detailed statistics of public, society, and school libraries have been published. The Annual Report for 1870 contained a list of 161 principal libraries, not including college libraries. The report for 1872 had a list of 1,080 libraries of 1,000 or more volumes. In 1875 a special effort was made to obtain the statistics of all libraries having 300 volumes and over. The list as printed in the Commissioner's report for that year included 3,648 libraries, and of these 2,039 had 1,000 volumes or more. This list was also printed in the large special report on libraries published by this Bureau in 1876, a volume of about 1,200 pages, under the title "Public Libraries in the United States of America: Their History, Condition, and Management.”

In the Annual Report for 1884-85 was printed a list of 5,338 libraries having 300 volumes and over. Of these 2.988 had 1,000 volumes or more. This list was reprinted in a pamphlet of about 100 pages. A chapter of about 70 pages appeared in the 1886-87 report, devoted to "Libraries in the United States," including the statistics of 1,779 libraries.

In 1893 this Office published 20,000 copies of a circular of information of 213 pages, giving statistics of 3,503 libraries in the United States having 1,000 volumes and over. The information for this publication was collected in 1891.

This Office published in 1893, 20,000 copies of "Catalogue of 'A. L. A.' Library,

5,000 Volumes for a Public Library Selected by the American Library Association and Shown at the World's Columbian Exposition." Several subsequent editions of this 600-page report were printed.

The papers prepared for the American Library Association for its annual meeting held at Chicago in 1893, and read before the World's Library Congress at the Columbian Exposition, were printed in the Annual Report of the Commissioner of Education for 1892-93.

Cutter's Rules for a Dictionary Catalog was published by this Bureau in 1876 as Part II of the special library report for that year. Several revised editions have been printed since that date.

In the Report of this Bureau for 1895-96 were printed two important chapters on libraries. One contained the statistics of 4,025 public, society, and school libraries, and the other showel what library legislation had been enacted in the various States up to that time. A reprint of these two chapters was published in a separate pamphlet.

In the Report of the Bureau for 1899-1900 was published the statistics of public, society, and school libraries for the latter year, the list comprising 5,383 libraries of 1,000 volumes and over. This chapter was also separately printed, and in 1903 another edition of the same matter was published, together with the chapter on library legislation from the 1895-96 Report.

The report of the committee of the National Educational Association on the relation of public libraries to public schools was also printed in the Annual Report of this Bureau for 1899-1900.

TABLE 1.-Summary of statistics of public, society, and school libraries of 1,000 volumes and over in 1903.

NUMBER OF LIBRARIES AND NUMBER OF VOLUMES.

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TABLE 2.-Summary of statistics of public, society, and school libraries of 1,000 volumes and over in 1903.

NUMBER OF PERIODICALS, VOLUMES ADDED, AND BOOKS ISSUED.

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small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][subsumed][subsumed][merged small][merged small][subsumed][merged small][ocr errors][subsumed][merged small][subsumed][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]

TABLE 3.-Summary of statistics of public, society, and school libraries of 1,000 volumes and over in 1903.

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