SHELF DEPARTMENT

Shelflists. There were 12,689 volumes shelflisted, the subjects 243-249, 600-605, 609, and 621-633 were transferred from large sheets to permanent 10x25 cm shelf sheets and many overcrowded shelf sheets were rewritten. This brings the shelflist work almost abreast of the cataloguing and so in a better condition than ever before.

Shelves. Call numbers were gilded on all current additions and all books in classes 200, 600-605, 621, 633; also on certain sets in 634-699; on catalogued octavo sets in 050-052, 060-080; on recent additions in 053-059; and on set of Great Britain state papers. As in 1899 volume numbers were gilded on many miscellaneous sets for which they were not originally indicated or which had volume numbers on back differing from those on book plate. The new quarto and folio Crocker book supports were put in place early in the year adding much to the appearance of the shelves.

Owing to the general moving of the books involved in the transfer of the administrative departments to the fifth floor and the library school to room 59 only a partial inventory was possible last year, thus deferring inventory statistics to 1901.

During the past two years considerable progress has been made in improving the arrangement of the maps and now we can exhibit with approximate completeness our map resources on any given subject.

Pamphlets. The bibliography, law and education pamphlets are cared for in their respective divisions. The main collection of unbound pamphlets is at present in charge of the history division as, owing to lack of funds, we have been unable to employ a special assistant. The most important current additions including all genealogic and biographic pamphlets are put into binders and accessioned. Of the remainder the more important are classified and entered in the pamphlet catalogues, while the others are classified and shelved before the books on the subject, without cataloguing. As the cataloguing of the unbound pamphlets is often delayed on account of insufficient help, current additions awaiting classification are filed in approximate alphabetic order, this tentative arrangement rendering them immediately available.

We have made some progress in arranging arrears but there are still about 15,000 pamphlets unassorted, unclassified and uncatalogued. The regular work of the history division is so pressing that an efficient assistant should give his whole time to the pamphlets. Only in this way can we care for the new material satisfactorily and make progress on the old. This separation would permit the removal of the pamphlets from the history reading room, where they are a source of disorder, to the fifth floor with the other administrative work.

Mutilation. In common with all great libraries we occasionally suffer from some vandalism. It is highly creditable to human nature that so few people trusted with unusual privileges abuse them, but the exceptions prove the rule. The difficulty often comes from thoughtlessness rather than malice. Some one whose brain is not quite normal ethically, wishes an extract of a half page or so and reflects that probably nobody else will ever want that particular page and that he can save himself time and trouble by cutting it out with a pen knife. We think it unwise to give publicity to these rare cases lest it should suggest to other unbalanced minds the possibility of similar offenses, but we use every endeavor to detect such offenders and to bring them to justice under the stringent laws against mutilation of the property of the public libraries and museums, which we post freely about the library. When a mutilation is discovered it is at once marked by the head of the department as noted, so there shall be no suspicion cast on any later user of the book as the possible mutilator. For costly books we secure a typewritten copy from some other library and replace the part removed. Cheaper books we can sometimes replace from our duplicates or at small cost. It is a matter of educating public sentiment more fully to regard public property as something sacred to be guarded by every user against abuse. One vandal throws a cloud over all his associates till it is known who is guilty. It is gratifying to note that general sentiment is so sound on these matters and that there are so few who feel that because a thing is owned by the public, individual members of that public have a vested right to abuse it.

BUILDING DEPARTMENT

Needs. We urgently need more shelving and better ventilation and heating on the fifth floor, larger card catalogue case, general letter file, a case for coast survey maps, portable cases for serials and traveling libraries in room 55, small desks and chairs for room 59, dormer windows for light and ventilation in room 56 as in 54.

The regents office and its rapidly growing examination work feel keenly the need of more space. The new lecture room on the seventh floor is connected directly by electric elevator with their present quarters and there seems to be no other space which can be conveniently used. At the same time the moving of the library school study room to the Washington avenue side of the building compels the students to walk 300 feet to reach the lecture room, which was immediately above their former study. The solution is obvious. Vacant space, utterly useless, now exists over the northwest pavilion. An electric elevator should be put in to reach it, three stories of bookstacks built on the north side of 59, one floor of book shelves in 69 and on the top floor a large and small class room, the much needed woman's study, and toilet and coat rooms. At a comparatively small outlay the state can thus give greatly needed extra room to two overcrowded departments, and I recommend that an appropriation be asked to do the work for which the state architect has already furnished us most satisfactory detailed plans.

New building. Feb. 15, 1900, assembly bill 1087 authorizing a new library building was introduced, read once and referred to the committee on ways and means. See last report, p. 60 for copy of same bill.

We have now over 1200 large packing cases full of books entirely inaccessible till we get a new building. During the next year we shall be driven to boxing the rest of our duplicates, about 600 cases more. By utilizing every odd corner, stacking our books in inconvenient places and encroaching on the room belonging to and needed by readers, we may get on till the new building is ready, provided work is begun next year. If there is delay, we shall certainly have to face the question of

what shall next be driven out of the present quarters. Nothing can be removed without increasing the cost of administration and causing inconvenience, but if we are forced to make space, probably the least objectionable plan would be to hire quarters outside for the entire traveling library collection, now numbering over 60,000 volumes with about half as many pictures. The space thus gained would be filled within three years. The next step will be to box, one after another, parts of the library, which will be nailed up and made inaccessible till the new building is ready. It is not at all improbable that we shall be crippled in this way, but it is only just to the library that we should each year put clearly before the regents as its responsible trustees, the impending danger, repeating briefly the urgent request that needed space be provided. The state of New York certainly can not afford to save the cost of a suitable building for housing its magnificent library when every expert knows the economy to be false because it so greatly increases the current cost of satisfactory administration.

Improvements. Last year the legislature appropriated:

To the commissioner of the new capitol for building rooms for the state library on the sixth floor of the southwest pavilion, for necessary ventilating apparatus on the fourth, fifth and sixth floors of the west end of the capitol, and for ceiling over the upper floors to render them available, $10,000 or so much thereof as may be necessary.

Under this the new state architect, Mr G. L. Heins, designed with great taste and skill the rooms in the cockloft of the southwest pavilion for which I submitted rough plans 10 years ago, but which we have till now never had money to complete. The cables of the new electric elevator were lengthened so as to reach the higher level of a beautiful lecture room three stories above what was considered the top floor of this great building. Coat, toilet, committee and storerooms occupy the corners. The room finished in white, with decorated columns, hardwood floor. and open fire is perhaps the most attractive though one of the least costly rooms of the capitol. This room affords great relief from overcrowding and serves admirably for the meetings of the regents of the University, which occur only about one day in each quarter, interfering very little with its use for two or

three library school lectures daily. The sixth floor directly under this, made by the floor of the upper room, gives storage space for which we have long been suffering.

The electric pumps for the library elevator are a very great advantage, enabling us to have service evenings and holidays when the steam pumps are not running. To illustrate what it means to have no elevator service, we counted for a single day and found there were 1221 calls for the elevator which carried 2090 passengers. As it runs from the ground floor to the main library on the third floor and from there through all the mezzanines to the fifth floor, it is easy to see what a burden is thrown on the assistants if the regular service is discontinued. In case of breakage our elevator man is transferred at once to the staircase car, relieving a part of the difficulty. The improvement is highly appreciated.

Dormer windows cut on the east and west sides of room 54 have given greatly needed ventilation and better light, making what was practically a waste attic into one of the busiest workrooms in the building. The floors of 51 and 51A have been refinished. The iron cases for newspapers have been moved to 65, giving greatly needed space for handling our traveling pictures. An iron and glass ceiling over room 54 prevents the waste of heat and makes it possible to use it all the year, and wood ceiling over the general supply closet protects that from dust. On the fifth floor 22 oak cases have been provided for serials, papers and the overflow of books. These are double face, three tiers long, eight shelves high and hold 1000 volumes, and at a cost of less than $40 are the cheapest and most convenient shelving we have ever found. They can be readily moved when empty to any part of the building and will go with the books to the new library.

Lights. The secretary of the University has laid us under obligations by special efforts in securing greatly needed new lights in a number of our rooms where they have never been supplied. As the most economical device we have used a hand lamp on a long cord protected with a wire cage. As we knew when it was put in, it is not satisfactory in consulting books at the shelves or for pages in returning books, as it takes one hand to hold the lamp and leaves can neither be turned nor