APPENDIX XV REPORT OF THE LIBRARIAN To the President of the University: SIR: I have the honor to submit herewith my annual report on the University Library for the year ending June 30th, 1908. The following table shows the additions made to the various collections composing the University Library and the total present extent of the Library: Of the accessions to the general library (numbering 10,977 volumes), 3,646 volumes were gifts. In the accessions to the general library are included 806 volumes added to the various seminary and laboratory collections. Of the additions to the Law library 464 volumes were gifts, as were also three volumes of the additions to the Flower library and 21 volumes of the additions to the Stimson Hall library and 315 volumes were gifts to the Goldwin Smith Hall library. The establishment of the Goldwin Smith Hall library is perhaps the most noteworthy event of the year. This is, in a way, for the students in the literary and historical courses a counterpart of the collections of apparatus and tools in the laboratories and workshops. It consists chiefly of additional copies of books, already in the general library, used in undergraduate work in the humanities, providing in some cases many copies of the books most in demand in the larger classes. The collection now numbers about eleven hundred volumes and is distinctly a reference collection. The books have been arranged on open shelves in a commodious reading room and have been classified according to the departments of instruction represented. Among the more important gifts of the year the largest consists of 368 volumes of legal works bequeathed to the Law library by the late F. M. Finch. The general library received from ex-President White, 279 volumes; from Theodore Stanton, of the class of '76, 168 volumes; from C. W. Wason, of the class of '76, a complete set of the valuable publications of the Rowfant Club, complete sets of which are rare; from Samuel Fraser, a complete set of the Ayrshire Herdbook in 30 volumes. To yourself and to Professors Burr, Carpenter, Hart, Hewett, Tarr and Willcox, the Library is also indebted for many valuable additions. From the Hispanic Society of America we received three of the Society's costly facsimile reprints of rare Spanish works, and from Mr. C. H. St. John Hornby, a copy of his privately printed edition of Dante's Purgatorio. From the National Government and from various state and municipal governments the usual supply of federal, state and municipal documents has been received. From the English, Canadian and Australian Patent Offices we continue to receive their valuable publications. For the gifts here mentioned, and for the numerous minor gifts received during the year, prompt acknowledgement of our thanks has been made to the respective donors. Among the more important and costly works purchased during the year may be noted a fifteenth century manuscript of Cicero's Tusculanæ Disputationes, a fifteenth century manuscript of St. Bernard's Miracula in itinere germanico patrata; facsimiles of the Codex Vindobonensis of Livy, of the Orsini codex of Petrarch's Rime, and of a modern illuminated manuscript of Petrarch's Trionfi; a set of the Tudor facsimile texts; Fry's Description of the Great Bible; Proctor's Index to Early Printed Books; Recopilacion de leyes de los reynos de las Indias, 1681; Imhoof-Blumer's Kleinasiatische Münzen; De Morgan's Mémoires de la Délégation en Perse; Cassin's Mammalogy of the U. S. Exploring Expedition; Dumerilet Bocourt's Études sur les Reptiles; Dumeril et Bibron's Erpétologie générale; Boulenger's Fishes of the Nile; Gratiolet's Mémoire sur les plis cérébraux de l'homme; Rothschild's Extinct Birds; Saccardo's Sylloge Fungorum; Semmler's Aetherische Öle; Sanmicheli, Fabbriche Civili; Watts' Dictionary of Chemistry. Complete sets of Analecta Hymnica Medii Aevi, Boletin de la Real Academia de la Historia, (Madrid), Comptes rendus des séances de la Société de Biologie, Dekorative Vorbilder, Igl Ischi, Publicationen aus den K. preussischen Staatsarchiven, Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, Scottish Notes and Queries, and Vierteljahrschrift der astronomischen Gesellschaft. The following important sets have been completed: Bulletin de l'Académie Royale de Belgique, Kgl. Svenska Vetenskaps Academiens Forhandlinger, Hedwigia, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, Répertoire du Théatre français, Stenographische Berichte des Reichstags, Forschungen zur Brandenburgischen und Preussischen Geschichte, State Records of North Carolina, and Pflüger's Archiv für die gesammte Physiologie des Menschen und der Thiere. Dr. A. C. White, assistant librarian in charge of the classification, reports that, in addition to the regular work of classifying the accessions to the general library, he has classified the Goldwin Smith Hall library of reference books for the College of Arts and Sciences and has made a duplicate shelf-list of these books on cards. He has also classified most of the books accumulated in past years by the College of Agriculture and the Experiment Station. These books together with the current accessions to the library of the New York State College of Agriculture have been incorporated in the shelf-lists of the University Library with the appended distinguishing mark Agr. He has also mounted our Græco-Egyptian papyri between panes of glass and has assigned a regular call number to each item of the collection. He also reports that, while the details of the new classification of American literature are not entirely satisfactory, he believes that it is a distinct advance and hopes to apply a smilar method to English literature beginning with the Shakespeare collection. From the catalogue department, Miss Dame, the assistant librarian in charge, reports that during the year the number of volumes and pamphlets catalogued for the general catalogue was 13,385. For these 15,816 cards were written and 1,189 printed cards were obtained from the Library of Congress. The McKim collection of letters relating to slavery and the freedmen has been re-arranged and indexed. The work of filing the set of catalogue cards and slips received from the Library of Congress has been brought down to date, forming a complete copy of the printed card catalogue. From the President White Library, Professor Burr reports a continuance of prosperity. The income of President White's "Warfare of Science" has remained a considerable resource, and has again been supplemented by many gifts received directly from Mr. White. Besides its purchases of current literature and the completion of several valuable series the library has added notably to the wealth of its other collections. From the sale of the library of the eminent German historian Knaake came rare treasures for that on the Lutheran Reformation. From those of the Duc d' Altemps, the Baroness von Güldenstubbs, and one or two less known collectors came precious things for our shelves of superstition and of persecution and tolerance. But the most numerous and notable accessions have been the finds of Professor Catterall for the collection on the French Revolution. And in all these fields we have added manuscripts as well as printed books. Mr. Hermannsson, in charge of the Icelandic collection, reports that the classification and the preparation of the shelf-list of the collection have been completed and that the work on the catalogue continues. Besides provision for the maintenance and increase of the Icelandic collection, Mr. Fiske's will contained the following bequest: the "I give and bequeath to the said Cornell University sum of Five Thousand ($5,000) Dollars, to have and to hold the same forever, in trust, nevertheless, to receive the income thereof, and to use and expend the said income for the purposes of the publication of an annual volume relating to Iceland and the said Icelandic collection in the library of the said University." In pursuance of this provision there was issued this year the first volume of a series entitled “Islandica; an annual relating to Iceland and the Fiske Icelandic collection in Cornell University Library," containing a Bibliography of the Icelandic Sagas prepared by Mr. Hermannsson. The revision and the printing of this bibliography have occupied a large share of Mr. Hermannsson's time during the year. Miss Fowler, who has charge of the Petrarch and Dante collections, reports that the classification, and the shelf-list of the Petrarch collection have been completed, and the shelf numbers added to the cards of the author catalogue, which has also been completed to date. A beginning has been made in the analysis of general periodicals for Petrarch material. Mr. W. H. Austen, assistant librarian in charge of the reference and loan departments of the general library, reports that the Library has been open 309 days during the year, being closed on Sundays, Thanksgiving day, Christmas day, New Year's day, Fourth of July and Labor day. In addition to the number of University officers having access to the stacks, permission to use the stacks has been granted to 52 other readers, for special work. The number of registered users of the Library, as here given, includes only those who have drawn books for home use from the general library: University officers Special borrowers 232 565 39 The number of reserved books in the reading rooms and seminary rooms in the Library building is 12,865, the number reserved at the delivery desk for special use is 1,658 and the number in locked presses 1,335. The number of volumes from the general library deposited in various laboratory and department collections in other University buildings is now 16,782. The number of volumes reported missing from these collections during the year 1907-1908 is as follows: From the reading room shelves From department and laboratories 30 I 69 From the figures reported by Mr. Austen and by Miss Van Natten the following table has been compiled, covering the past two years. The use made of the Library, however, is shown only in part by this table, as no record is kept of the use made of the books on the open shelves in the building. It should be noted that in the statistics for the year 1906-1907 the figures for the open shelf circulating library are not for the full year, but only for the period from January 1st to June 30th, 1907. That |