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Bolton. Twenty-ninth Annual Report of the Public Free Library and Museum Committee, 1881-82. [Dated Oct. 19, 1882]. Bolton, 1882. 8vo, pp. 16.

The Committee report a decrease in the issues of 5,632, but this is more than compensated by the diminution of fiction, there being on this head alone a decrease of 6,645. The issues were, in the Reference library, 78,532; in the Lending library, 49,129. The percentage of fiction in the latter was over 75 per cent. The issues at the Little Bolton Branch were, in the Reading-room, 28,278; lent out, 31,753. The additions to the libraries were 1,584 volumes, of which 1,331 appear to have been transferred from the Subscription Library. The number of subscribers for the year was 369, an increase of 4. The amount voted for library purposes was £1,500, and the value of the books received from the Subscription Library £325.

Borough of Bradford. Annual Report of the Free Libraries and Art Museum Committee, 1881-82... [Dated 7th Oct., 1882]. Bradford, 1883. 8vo, pp. 28 and wrapper.

The tot..1 number of visits made to the various departments during the year was 1,010,322, of which 518,196 were to the central news and reading rooms, 215,470 to the central libraries, and 111,352 to the six branch lending libraries and three branch reading rooms. The number of volumes issued from the libraries was 292,535, of which 67,704, together with 1,134 specifications of patents, were for use in the reading rooms. 4,547 volumes were added to the libraries, 368 being for the reference and art library. The number of volumes now in the libraries amounts to 38,685. The rate produced £3,500. There are appended a balance-sheet and statistics for the eleven years ending Aug. 1882. There is a full table of contents with references to page and line, the lines being numbered for that purpose.

Borough of Doncaster. Thirteenth Annual Report of the Borough
Free Library Committee, 1882. Presented to the Mayor and Town
Council, January 1st, 1883. Doncaster. 8vo, pp. 12.

The issues from the Lending Department were 52,515, being an increase of 2,151 on the previous year. The number of volumes added was 634. A larger News-room is said to be urgently required. The rate produces £378, and the year ends with a balanee of £326 148. 8d. in hand.

Dundee Free Library. Report of the Free Library Committee to the
Town Council of Dundee. November, 1882. 8vo, pp. 26.

The Library has issued 248,172 volumes during the year-an increase of 1,814 over last year. Of these, 188,748 were from the Lending library, and 59,426 from the Reference library. These numbers do not include the reviews and magazines which are placed on the tables, and the issues would have been larger but for the more stringent enforcement of the bye-laws regulating the admission of boys. The issue of fiction was under 52 per cent of the issues in the Lending Department. Large donations of books were received from the University Club and the Subscription Library. The number of volumes in the Library is now 37,222, of which 7,387 are in the Reference department. The amount received for the year was £2,508 2s. 6d., out of which, however, a Museum and Art Gallery are supported."

Hull Subscription Library ... Report of the Committee of the One hundred and Seventh Annual General Meeting, Wednesday, Dec. 6, 1882; with... List of Books admitted during the past year. Hull. 8vo, pp. 49.

The number of volumes in the Library in August last was 41,268. 597 volumes were added during the year. The number of subscribers for the year was 514, and the income £841 168, 5d.

Leeds. Twelfth Annual Report of the Leeds Public Library, 1881-2. Leeds, November, 1882. 8vo, pp. 22, and wrapper.

Mr. Yates reports that the issues were 662,018 vols., showing a decrease of 54,301 vols. upon the previous year-" which may be accounted for by the improved state of trade in the town, and also by the decision of the Committee to discontinue the purchase of three-volume novels." The decrease in the issue of fiction from the Lending libraries was 37,000 volumes. The total number of volumes in the Library is 117,138. The usual elaborate statistical tables are appended, Table X presenting a "Comparative View of work accomplished Leading Public Libraries."

Preston. The Fourth Annual Report of the Committee of the Free Public Library and Museum of the Borough of Preston. For the year ending December 31st, 1882. Preston. 8vo, pp. 17.

The issues in the Lending Department showed a continued increase, although the library was closed for a month in consequence of the Guild festivities. They were altogether 92,421. The number of vols. added was 791, making the total number now in the Library, 10,528. The visitors to the reading room averaged 1,375 daily, for a period of one month. The rate produced £1,020. A balancesheet is appended.

Borough of Salford. Thirty-fourth Annual Report of the Museum, Libraries and Parks Committee, 1881-82. [Dated 31 Oct., 1882]. Salford. 8vo, pp. 27.

The Committee report a decrease in the issues of the Lending Libraries from 392,874 to 365,365" which is clearly attributable to the want of a larger supply of new books to the Lending Libraries." The entire amount spent in books during the year was £243 18s. 3d., and most of these were for the Reference library. The Committee explain that the penny rate is barely sufficient to meet the maintenance of the libraries. The average attendance of readers in the Reading and News-rooms was 1,895. The experiment of a course of lectures intended to show people the use and value of the books and objects in the different departments was quite satisfactory. Full statistical tables are appended to the Report.

Borough of Walsall. The Twenty-fourth Annual Report of the Free Library Committee, 1881-82. Walsall, 1882. 8vo. pp. 15.

The Committee report that the increase in the issue of books still continues, the total issues for the year being 71,728, averaging 5,977 volumes monthly. During the year 425 volumes have been added to the Library, making the present total 11,430. These figures include the Bloxwich Branch.

Borough of Wigan. Free Public Library. Fifth Annual Report of the Librarian, January 20, 1883. Wigan, 1883. 8vo, pp. 19.

The issues in the Reference Library were 11,017, nearly double those of the previous year. In the Lending Library 51,859 volumes have been issued-a decrease of 6,887. Mr. Folkard explains that "it is not the reading public to whom this decrease is attributable, but simply to the inadequacy of the present library rate to replenish the losses caused by the wear and tear the department is subject to." The average attendance at the News-room was upwards of 800. The attendance on Sundays during the year was 10,097. The volumes added were 896, and the total number of volumes in the library now amounts to 26,228.

40

MONTHLY NOTES OF THE LIBRARY ASSOCIATION.

From a review of the year "1882," in the number of the Pharmaceutical Journal for January 6th, we learn that about 500 books and pamphlets were added to the Library of the Society, and there has been a considerable increase in the number of persons using it, both in the daytime and evening, the numbers having been: day, 4,218; evening, 1,510; against 3,447 and 1,249 in the previous year.

A report by the Librarian of the work of the past year at the Thurso Public Library appeared in the Northern Ensign for Feb. 1, 1883. As our readers are aware, Thurso is the smallest place in the three Kingdoms that has adopted the Acts. The Library, we are told, still continues its onward progress, and only requires an occasional stimulus, such as fresh supplies of new books. The issues for the year were 6,148, and the number of readers 337.

We learn from the Academy that at the annual meeting of the Faculty of Advocates in Edinburgh the Report presented by the Curators stated that there are no arrears of work in any department, the cataloguing, arranging and placing of books being all kept up to date. The single want, that of space, is in course of being satisfied by new buildings now in progress. The total number of books borrowed during 1882, including those issued for reference, was 90,319. The accessions to the library amounted to 18,711, and were thus classified: books received through the London agent, 3,382; direct from publishers, 402; by purchase or gift, 120; pamphlets, 2,015; parts of periodicals, 9,213; pieces of music, 1,685; maps of ordnance survey, 1,150.

CORRESPONDENCE.

CAUTION.

À propos of your "caution," you will be interested perhaps to know that some such individual as Mr. T. C. George visited me a few months ago, and stated that he was sent by Mr. E. B. Nicholson. I did not, however, think him worth further inquiry, Impostor was written on his face.-J. M. H.

OUR WRAPPER.

I have received the new "Monthly Notes," and am sorry the outside cover is so ugly and vulgar. As the Library Association is connected, through friendly intercourse, with Cambridge and Oxford, could not one of the "blues" be substituted?

[De gustibus et coloribus non est disputandum-certainly not with a lady. We shall be glad to know, however, if the opinion of our fair and candid correspondent is generally shared.-ED.]

*The Editor regrets that, owing to continued pressure upon his space, he is unable to find room for several communications, and for Notices of Books.

LONDON: Printed and Sold for the Association by J. DAVY & SONS, Dryden Press, 137, Long Acre.

Single Numbers, Threepence each. Annual Subscription, post free, 3s. 6d.

MONTHLY NOTES

OF

The Library Association of the
United Kingdom.

Contents:-Official Notices-February Monthly Meeting: Paper by Mr. E. C. Thomas, "Classed Catalogues and the new Classed Catalogue of the German Reichsgericht "-A Distinguished Russian Librarian-Essential Features of a Library Building-Library Notes-Catalogues and Reports-Notices of Books-Correspondence-The Liverpool Meeting.

THE next MONTHLY MEETING of the Association will be held at the London Institution, on Friday, April 6th, 1883, at 8 P.M., when Papers will be read by Mr. RICHARD GARNETT on "Librarianship in the Seventeenth Century"; and by Mr. GEO. R. HUMPHERY on "Librarians and the Working Classes."

As the List of Members has been recently somewhat " depleted," and it would be unfortunate if the Council had to report a serious decrease in our numbers to the Liverpool Meeting, it is to be hoped that our members will do what they can to enlarge the list of fresh accessions. There are still many librarians and friends of libraries who are not yet to be found on our roll. A new prospectus of the Association is being prepared, and copies will be sent as a matter of course to the Local Secretaries, and to any others who apply for them.

After the present number the MONTHLY NOTES will not be sent to anyone whose subscription for last year (i. e. 1881-82) remains unpaid, unless the officers are aware that there is no intention to retire from the Association.

MARCH MONTHLY MEETING.

The Sixth Monthly Meeting of the Sixth Year of the Association was held at the London Institution, on Friday, March 2nd, at 8 P.M. Mr. H. R. TEDDER in the Chair. The Minutes of the last Meeting

having been read and confirmed, it was announced that the following gentlemen had become Members of the Association : Mr. RICHARD HINTON, Librarian, Birkenhead; Rev. ARTHUR WRIGHT, Librarian, Queen's College, Cambridge; Mr. H. W. WOLFF, St. Michael's, Lewes.

Mr. STEPHEN CHRISTY, Highfield, Davenport, Stockport, having been proposed and seconded at the previous Meeting, was elected a member.

Mr. ARTHUR JOSEPHS, 23, St. Charles's Square, Notting Hill, was proposed for election at the next Meeting by Mr. Allchin, seconded by the Secretary.

The Chairman then called upon the HON. SECRETARY to read a Paper on

CLASSED CATALOGUES AND THE NEW CLASSED CATALOGUE OF THE GERMAN REICHSGERICHT. TOWARDS the close of last year a very important Catalogue was pub lished in Germany, a country in which, for various reasons, printed catalogues are not published with a frequency at all corresponding to the number and importance of its libraries. This was the Catalogue of the German Reichsgericht or the Supreme Court of Appeal for the various States now united within the Deutsches Reich or German Empire. It appeared to me that this Catalogue was of sufficient importance, even to English librarians, to justify my calling your attention to it at one of our Monthly Meetings, because, although it is a Catalogue of a special, and an almost purely professional library, it presents features of great interest, and may not inappropriately serve as the text of a discussion with more general bearings than might at first sight appear. The catalogue of a presumably well selected library of 41,000 volumes on a special subject naturally excites interest, though, it may be admitted, chiefly in the minds of those who are more particularly interested in the special subject. From a more general point of view the principal feature of interest in this Catalogue seems to be the fact that it is an unusually elaborate classified Catalogue, and it is this aspect to which I now wish to call your attention.

of it

The classed catalogue has of late years gone a good deal out of use. With the increasing subdivision of knowledge and specialization of studies, the task of preparing a really good and useful classed catalogue has become more difficult, and the worthlessness of a bad and carelessly prepared one more obvious. For this and other reasons, about which it would be possible to say a good deal if I were anxious to weary you, the classed catalogue, it will probably be generally admitted, is less and less likely to be used in large general libraries. I know that some still maintain the possibility and desirability of preparing them. But the enormous practical difficulties must make the task seem all but hopeless to any but very sanguine people. It is quite true, as Mr. Cutter has pointed out, that many of the very earliest catalogues prepared were classed catalogues. But it is

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