except philosophy, the largest outlays being for sociology $1584.31 (including law $1006.61) useful arts $823.67, general works $590.99, history $430.39, science $400.49 and fine arts $115.87.

Special collections. The following table shows the books and subject cards in subjects in which we have special demands. To these specialties were added 14,607 v. in 1899 and 14,833 in 1900, so that we now have 196,720 v.

a Including library school collection.

b Except law and education. See also c-d.

e Including United States, state, municipal and foreign documents.

d Regular municipal documents, charters and ordinances are kept in the law library.

e Including New York history, 974.7.

f Including capitol library books in children's library.

g Additions reported too large in 1899 through error in count.

h Books in the law library are not yet in card catalogue.

i Total reported too small in 1899 through error in count.

j Only additions since 1889 are catalogued

Orders. 1922 orders, or 291 more than last year, were sent to agents, making with the 904 orders outstanding Oct. 1, 1899, a total of 2826; 1703 orders were filled and 75 canceled, leaving 1048 orders outstanding Oct. 1, 1900. These figures do not include the much larger orders for traveling and extension libraries in the home education department, or those sent to auction agents. In addition, 1051 books, or almost twice as many as last year, were bought, without orders, from the 2273 volumes sent on approval by our New York agents; of these 887 were for state library and 164 for home education. There were also bought at auction 373 books costing $466.12.

Gifts. Among the many gifts received in 1900 were: 959 volumes and 64 pamphlets from C. H. Porter, and the annual gift of cases and briefs, numbering last year 8478 pamphlets from Marcus T. Hun, official reporter of the New York supreme court. The New York state bureau of labor statistics also supplemented its large gift of last year with 25 v. and 2437 pamphlets.

The triennial gift list 1898-1900 forms appendix 2 of this report. The total gifts for three years are 22,481 v., 277,046 pamphlets and 13,823 other pieces. The statistics following the gift list show that we have also received from the state and its various departments as additions to our duplicate department for exchange with other libraries 44,278 v. and 554,240 pamphlets. The grand total of additions to library and duplicate division which have come without payment during three years is therefore 66,759 v., 831,286 pamphlets and 13,823 other pieces or a grand total of 911,868 pieces to be received and shelved in the state library or to be put as rapidly as practicable into libraries where they will do most good. Only those who have done such work can understand how much labor this great record has involved.

Serials section. The library receives 8657 sequents by gift and subscription; of these 3343 annuals, biennials, etc. received by gift are recorded by the education division, 3034 by the general library and 2280 other serials in the serials check list. This is nearly three times as many as 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 during the past 12

years from 398 serials in 1889 to 2280 in 1900 or 572% as shown by the following table.

1889 1890 1891 1892 1893 1894 1895 1896 1897 1898 1899 1900

Serials..

398 623 863

1 066 1 228 1 408 1 578 1 780 1 940 2 133 2 145 2 280

Of the 2280 received in 1900, 1078 are bought and 1202 are given. Of the former, 181 were added during the past year. Lists of these additions and of the serials on our subscription list which have ceased publication during the year ending Sep. 30, 1900, are given in table N1-2, p. 83-88. Table N3, p. 88, is a list of the 34 daily newspapers, mainly gifts, received regularly. The annual record of the cost of serials in each class may be found in tables E-F, p. 61-64.

Important additions. A list of 171 of the most important works added during the year, representing a total value of about $6000, is shown in table M, p. 77.

EXCHANGE SECTION

Established 27 Ap. 1892

Duplicates. A. L. Bailey, sublibrarian of the accession department reports as follows:

Since the last report of the exchange section little or no change has taken place in the general plan outlined there. Considerable progress has been made in cataloguing and there is now a complete catalogue of all 000's (general works) and 900's (history) while all the other classes are partially catalogued. All uncatalogued duplicates have been sorted into main classes and the 600's (useful arts) and most of the 300's (sociology) into the main subdivisions, so that it is possible to find any work wanted. College publications have not been catalogued but arranged 1) by state, 2) alphabetically by name of institution, 3) by decimal classification tables of college publications, 4) chronologically. There is a large number of these publications, filling completely a double 10 tier case.

Some space has been gained during the year by shipping to the superintendent of public documents in Washington about 2000 volumes of government publications and by packing for

storage the great mass of supreme court cases and briefs of counsel.

More space, however, is still needed. Several libraries in the state have sent several hundred volumes of old books, most of which were duplicates, and we are now receiving 50 copies each of nearly all state reports. The number of duplicates added is constantly increasing and it is a question of but a year or so before we shall have to pack up and store elsewhere most of our state reports.

No effort has been made to arrange exchanges with libraries in the state or with the various special libraries in the country. Some time must elapse before the material we have can be put into proper condition to enable us to solicit exchanges.

There have, however, been several exchanges made during the year, the most notable being with the Buffalo historical society, from which was received some very valuable historical matter.

With more space at its disposal and more clerical help the duplicate department could be made one of the library's most valuable sources of acquisition.

Summary of duplicates received, exchanged and distributed and the total in stock

a Including unbound duplicates estimated at 30,000 still inaccessible for want of shelving.

Exchanges of New York publications. During the past five years the following volumes and pamphlets of New York state

publications have been sent from the library under the system of exchange to American and foreign states and territories and to various institutions in this and other countries:

In 1891 we sent out 3657 volumes, placing them in the leading libraries of the world where they would be preserved and be most useful. In 1900 we sent out under the same system 35,067 volumes or almost ten times as many.

The large increase in 1900 over the previous year was due to the fact that this was the first general distribution of bibliog raphy and library school bulletins.

1 Not published by the state but bought from private firms and distributed by the state library to the states and territories.

2 Chiefly reports of various New York state departments.