queathed by her late sister, Miss Eliza Mary Thayer, in 1877, the whole forming the Thayer library.

From His Excellency, Gen. Porfirio Diaz, President of the Republic of Mexico, was received the magnificent work "Monumentos del arte Mexicano antiguo," in three large folio volumes; and from the family of the late J. Ingersoll Bowditch, Esq., four volumes comprising letters to or from his father, Dr. Nathaniel Bowditch, relating mainly to the translation of Laplace's "Mécanique Céleste.'

The trustees avail themselves gladly of this opportunity to express their hearty appreciation of the many proofs of good will as manifested by these generous gifts, whether prompted by a desire to respond to a request or as a spontaneous outcome of a widespread and deep-rooted interest in the welfare of this noble institution.

BRANCH LIBRARIES.

Considerable change has been effected during the past year in the organization of the branch libraries, some of which are referred to under the subjects of "Circulation and "Catalogue." An inspector of the branch libraries has been appointed, whose duty it is to keep the trustees informed of all matters needing attention.

Arrangements are being made for the establishment of a delivery station and reading-room in the West End, as soon as a proper room can be hired. A delivery station on Wayland street, near the Bird-street station of the New York & New England railroad, in Dorchester, has been opened.

The North End branch has been removed from the illlighted and unhealthy room in which it had been located for eight years, to a room in the second story of 166 Hanover street, which receives light from that street as well as from Salem street. The removal from a ground-floor location has proved advantageous by preventing annoyances from mischievous boys. The change has given great satisfaction to the library attendants and to the public.

Extensive repairs have been made on the Brighton branch, which has been put into thorough order.

CATALOGUE.

During the past year 38,343 volumes and parts of volumes have been catalogued, and 93,089 cards have been printed, inscribed, and placed in the various catalogues of the Library, an increase over the work of last year of 4,252 volumes, and 4,482 cards.

Four numbers of the bulletin have been published. Be

sides the titles of new books added to the central Library, these contain the following additional matter:

The conclusion of the Bibliography of the official publications of the Continental Congress.

Lists of books on costume and genealogy; on Spanish and Portuguese books; on Rousseau; and a catalogue of the foreign literature in the lower hall.

A new catalogue of History, biography, and travel has been prepared for the lower hall, and will soon go to press. A catalogue of books added to the South Boston branch library since 1879 has just been published.

The librarians have been taught at the central Library to compile, prepare for the press, and read the proof of the finding lists that have proved so successful.

The trustees in their last report expressed the opinion that the branch librarians should be charged with the duty of preparing their catalogues. The experience of the past year has shown that they can attend to this duty without interfering with the other work required of them. They are also making an effort to improve their card catalogues and to render them more helpful to readers.

Work of consolidating the titles in the catalogues at the various branches has begun and will be carried on as rapidly as other duties will permit, with a view to printing them at some future time.

Considerable assistance in the cataloguing of books for Bates ball has been received from the branch librarians, who have been regularly assigned for instruction at the central Library.

The revision of the card catalogue and the substitution of printed cards for the written ones and those in obscure type is being pushed as rapidly as possible.

It has been the policy of the trustees to cause new books to be catalogued and placed within the reach of the public without delay, leaving the older and less important books until opportunity offers.

The following work is in progress:

1. Catalogue of works on electricity.

2. Catalogue of works on architecture.

3.

Catalogue of fiction and books for the young, to supplement the lower hall catalogue of 1885.

4. A new and much enlarged edition of the Historical fiction catalogue. The first instalment, America to the Revolution, will be found in the bulletin for January, 1892.

5. Catalogue of the French literature in the Bates hall collection.

6. The portraits of Benjamin Franklin.

7. The collection of early American books given by Mrs. John A. Lewis will be published this year, accompanied by a Mather bibliography.

8. Catalogue of folk-lore literature.

This department has been partially reorganized with a view to economy and efficiency, and the result has been in the main satisfactory, as will be seen by the following summary of work from 1888 to 1891:

Ten numbers of the bulletin have been printed in the same period, eight of them in the last two years, containing in addition to the titles of new books the conclusion of the index to articles on American local history, a catalogue of bibliographies of special subjects, the catalogue of the books bought at the sale of Mr. Barlow's library, the Columbus letter, and other matters already mentioned.

The Barton catalogue was published in 1888, and the new edition of the Hand-book for readers in 1890. Two finding lists have been printed for each branch library and a supplementary catalogue for East Boston and South Boston.

The card catalogue is the true point of contact of the public with the organization of the Library, and as a matter of course, its condition of serviceability and adaptability is a source of constant solicitude to the trustees. Notwithstanding its many defects and inherent inconsistencies, it is probably the best piece of work of its kind available for popular use, and for many years it has been accomplishing even more than could have at first been safely predicted of it.

But the large volume of new books steadily flowing in necessitates an annual increment of cards, until the vast size of this catalogue gives rise to a serious problem, which must soon be definitely solved.

Last year about 45,000 of the 93,000 new cards printed were added to what must have been, at a safe estimate, over a million already in the over-crowded drawers of the public. card catalogue in Bates hall.

The serious objection to this immense collection of cards. is, after all, not merely its size, but the fact that all sense of proportion and relative importance is lost. Under the

heading Astronomy, for instance, a large number of important works will be found arranged among a still greater number of those of less consequence on the same subject. These minor works are of some value and should certainly be preserved, but it is evident that, as the catalogue increases, the difficulty of differentiating easily between authoritative and less valuable works will become greater and that a person consulting this subject will in most cases as not unfrequently happens now become discouraged. It is beyond dispute that almost any form of print is a relief from this state of things, and several schemes for printing have suggested themselves to the trustees, but none is at present settled upon; for the least alteration in so well defined a method as must prevail in a large catalogue involves serious consideration.

One plan is to print the titles in each drawer as it stands; in this way at least economy of space is gained. Another suggestion is to supply the public as rapidly as possible with sensible and untechnical finding-lists, and these undoubtedly will be issued to some extent, in any event.

It could be wished, however, that the public might feel inclined to avail itself with more readiness of the printed methods already at hand for its relief. The bulletins and special catalogues will lighten its burdens considerably, if it will look into the merits of such aids.

Any theory of cataloguing is, to a degree, always upon trial. It is by no means certain that the so-called dictionary system is the best, for the simple reason that the problem of indefinite extension has never yet become a menace. The experience of other large libraries is not, however, without its value; and it is safe to say that, to a majority of such institutions, an author-catalogue, full and scholarly, is the basis upon which all other cataloguing efforts must rest. The British museum is now printing its author-catalogue by letters, its manuscript catalogue-folios having become no longer practicable.

This perfection of an author-catalogue does not in the least interfere with efforts towards expanding the usefulness of a subject-catalogue, but it certainly seems to point in the direction of a possible separation of these two distinct lines of work. The long-held notion that a dictionary system is capable of limitless expansion would seem to be no longer tenable. The portion devoted to author-titles must be extended if an arrangement in a single alphabet is still to prevail. If the British museum, with 2,000,000 books, finds an author-catalogue practicable, this Library containing

about 500,000 books cannot afford to be too radical in its departures at present from accepted methods.

The subject-catalogue, however, is a different matter; beyond a certain limit which is fast approaching the larger it is, the less useful it becomes. To overcome its manifold objections, several methods are under the consideration of the trustees. They are fully alive to the difficulties before the public and themselves in this matter, and feel that in this separation of the dictionary card-catalogue may lie the solution of a disturbing problem. So impressed are they with the necessity of affording some relief that they propose during the coming year to make the experiment of printing class-lists of certain of the larger subjects represented in the catalogue and substituting them for the subjectreference cards which may then be removed from the cases. The alphabetical author-list will of course remain undisturbed.

CIRCULATION.

The trustees are much gratified with the result of their inspection of the circulation of the past year, although there has been a considerable decrease in the number of books lent from the lower hall and branch libraries. This decrease is attributable entirely to the failure to provide a low grade of books of fiction. In all branches except fiction there has been a gratifying increase in the circulation. Some years since the trustees began to eliminate from the Library all books of fiction of an objectionable character. During the past year this policy has been applied more rigorously and systematically, with the result expected, in view of the experience of past years; but it is believed that the loss in circulation will be temporary. At all events, whether temporary or otherwise, the trustees do not believe that the circulation should be increased by supplying weak or improper books or papers to children.

The Bates hall collection, which is the great storehouse of books of real value, has been more used than in any previous year in the history of the library.*

It is believed that if better accommodations could have been afforded for readers, the increase would have been even more marked. It is gratifying to observe also that the use