tion, 84; Masonic, 14; Odd Fellows, 17; social, 57; scientific, 78; historical, 60; garrison, 14; mercantile, 10; and society, 108.

As to finances: 600 libraries reported a total of $1,679,210 received from taxation, and $1,513,352 was appropriated to 773 libraries by States, counties, and cities in the year. Five hundred and ninety-four libraries recived $1,035,052 from endowment funds; 833 received $386,441 from membership fees; 303 received $38,684 from book rents; 625 received $529,350 from donations; 1,017 received $729,547 from sources not stated. The total income reported by 2,437 libraries for the year ending April 1, 1896, was $5,911,636. The permanent endowment funds of 605 libraries aggregated $17,570,673. The value of the buildings owned by 567 libraries was $33,291,259. The value of the books added during the year by 2,333 libraries was $1,574,410.

State Aid and Special Legislation.-A review of the whole subject, with a bibliography, is given in the Report of the Commissioner of Education for 1895, accompanied by the full text of all the laws. This work has been furthered greatly by the creation of library commissions in various States.

The first State library commission was organized in 1890 by Massachusetts, followed by New Hampshire in 1891, Connecticut in 1893, Vermont and Wisconsin in 1895, Ohio in 1896, New York and Georgia in 1897, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Minnesota, Indiana, Kansas, Colorado, and Maine in 1899, and New Jersey and Iowa in 1900.

Buildings. Among the larger library buildings erected within the last decade are the Library of Congress, which cost $6,300,000; Boston Public Library, $2,300,000; Chicago Public Library, $2,000,000; Columbia University, $1,200,000; Carnegie Library, Pittsburg, about $800,000 (the building comprises library, music hall, art gallery, and museum); Princeton University, $650,000; Milwaukee Public Library, about $600,000; Wisconsin Historical Society, about $600,000; Newberry Library, Chicago, $500,000; Providence Public Library, $300,000; and Library of Carleton College, Northfield, Minn., $250,000. Many libraries costing from $50,000 to $200,000 have been built, among them the Kansas City Public Library, $200,000 (site $30,000 additional); Pratt

Institute Library, Brooklyn, $190,000; Library of the University of Illinois, about $165,000; Forbes Library, Northampton, Mass., $134,529; Carnegie Library, Atlanta, Ga., $115,000; Orrington Lunt Library, Northwestern University, $100,000; Peoria, Ill., Public Library, about $70,000 (site $16,000 additional); and Hoboken, N. J., Public Library, $62,000.

Many of these buildings are due to private beneficence. It is said that, as far as the incomplete statistics show, more than $24,000,000 have been bestowed by individuals for buildings, books, and maintenance, in the past ten years of the nineteenth century; and there was also a generous expenditure of public money in the same period. The yearly proceedings of the American Library Association include a full report on gifts and bequests.

Management.-Open Shelves.-A matter that has been much discussed is that of "free access" that is, the free admission of the public to the shelves, as in the New York Free Circulating Library. Yet this question still awaits solution, for the arguments appear to be about equal, pro and con. Most librarians evidently agree in believing that a certain number of books, at least, should be freely accessible to the public. Many libraries have open reference shelves "-in the new building of the New York Public Library, for instance, arrangements have been made for 40,000 volumes thus placed. In such large reference libraries, of 500,000 and more volumes, it is impracticable to allow unlimited access.

Cataloguing.-Co-operative cataloguing was referred to hopefully in 1893, but the expectations of its warmest adherents have hardly been realized, although the publishing section of the American Library Association continues to issue printed catalogue cards for new books. However, the Annual Literary Index (continuing both Poole's Index to Periodical Literature and the A. L. A. Index to General Literature, 1893) is issued regularly, and in Cleveland the Cumulative Index to periodicals began to appear in 1896. Some scientific periodicals are indexed by the co-operative effort of five libraries-the New York Public, Harvard University, Columbia University, Boston Public, and John Crerar (of Chicago), the index entries being printed on cards of standard size.

Much of the work published, like the last named, under the auspices of the American Library Association, is the product of co-operative effort. Among the special indexes due to the effort of individual libraries must be mentioned that of technical periodicals in the Patent Office Library in Washington, and the one for trade journals in the Commercial Museums in Philadelphia; both are in manuscript, on cards.

Librarians are, naturally, greatly interested in the international conferences on a co-operative catalogue of scientific literature, held in response to a call from the Royal Society of, London, the first in 1896, the second in 1898, the third in 1900. This catalogue, which begins with 1901, is to comprise all published original contributions to mathematical, physical, or natural sciences, to the exclusion of what are sometimes called the applied sciences, whether appearing in periodicals or in the publications of societies, or as independent pamphlets, memoirs, or books. It is to be arranged according to subject matter and author's names, with special regard to the requirement of scientific investigation. The management is intrusted to a central bureau established in London and regional bureaus in various countries, to which latter falls the work of dealing each with the literature of its country. Future international conventions (1905, 1910, and every tenth year thereafter) will make any necessary revision of the regulations.

Interlibrary Loans.-These are becoming more frequent, especially between reference libraries as a means of partially overcoming the distances between centers of research; they are naturally of great

JOHN SHAW BILLINGS, NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY.

value to the investigator.

This system of sending books on request from one library to another is in vogue at the library of the surgeon general's of fice (on a noteworthy scale, introduced there by Dr. John S. Billings), the Worcester (Mass.) Library, the medical libraries of Boston, (New York city),

etc., the Academy of Medicine the Congressional Library, etc. Circulating Libraries. The preponderance of the free circulating library in this country has naturally caused much energy to be applied to the improving and simplifying of methods, especially in all that pertains to the keeping of records, as in the charging systems. What is known as the "two-book system" has been introduced in many libraries. This permits the reader to draw two books at a time for home use, but only one of the books may be a work of fiction.

Traveling libraries bring books where the circulating library does not. This system was characterized by R. G. Thwaites, president of the American Library Association in 1900, as "in some respects, perhaps, the most hopeful of all forms of recent library popularization." It provides for small libraries of 25, 50, or 100 volumes, sent from central libraries to "individuals, clubs, and associate libraries in communities roundabout," for

certain periods (usually six months), upon request and under certain conditions. The traveling library was first introduced in 1892 in New York State, but before that time the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company was circulating books to its employees along its line. Since then various systems of traveling libraries have been established, as follows: 1895, Iowa and

Michigan; 1896, Colorado, Illinois, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Nebraska, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia,

HERBERT PUTNAM, LIBRARY OF CONGRESS.

and Wisconsin; 1897, Louisiana, New Jersey, and Tennessee; 1898, Alabama, California, Connecticut, Georgia, Kansas, Maryland, Minnesota, Missouri, Utah, and Washington; 1899, Idaho, Indiana, Maine, Montana, Texas, Vermont, and British Columbia; 1900, Arizona.

In 1893 the first traveling library went out in New York with 100 volumes. In 1898 it was reported that there were more than 1,650 in the country, of which 687 were in New York, with more than 73,000 volumes. Some specialties had already developed, as at the New Jersey Traveling Library at Princeton, which circulated books on forestry only.

The introduction of small collections of selected books directly into the homes of tenement-house residents has also been tried with encouraging results.

Libraries and Schools.-Another recent development in the manifold activity of the American public library is its co-operation with the schools, which, beginning at Worcester, Mass., about twenty-five years ago, has only within the past few years become generally recognized as a department of library work. Boxes of books for instruction and entertainment, selected by the teachers, are sent to the schoolssometimes classified by grades; and traveling school libraries, to assist in certain courses of study, are not uncommon. Other

methods of reaching the school children-posting bulletins and lists in schools, the organization of "library leagues among pupils, etc.-serve to accentuate the community of interests between school and library. The latest manifestation of this spirit was seen in the year 1900 in New York city, where the Board of Education made arrangements for establishing small libraries in some of the

JAMES L. WHITNEY, BOSTON PUBLIC LIBRARY.

school buildings, to be open evenings, under the supervision of the New York Public Library. The children's room is a growing factor in our libraries. New methods picture exhibitions, short talks. attractive surroundings, even games-are used to draw the little ones to the library at an impressionable age.

FREDERICK H. HILD,

CHICAGO PUBLIC LIBRARY.

The Bureau of Education for the past thirty years has emphasized the importance of libraries as aids to instruction, and in 1896 we saw the establishment of the Library Department of the

National Educational Association.

Librarians.-Schools and Training Classes. In the Annual for 1893 a list of these was given. Since then summer courses have been offered at the Cleveland Public Library, the Ohio State University, and the University of Wisconsin; the Armour Institute Library School was removed to the University of Illinois in 1897, and elementary classes for training assistants have been put into operation in the public libraries of New York city, Denver, Hartford, Dayton, and Butte (Montana), the New York Free Circulating Library, etc.

The report for 1900 of the committee of the American Library Association on schools sounds a warning against giving undue importance to these various schools and training classes, and points out the one-sided education that the pupils are apt to acquire. While the question of the relative merit of school training and practical service in a librarian's equipment is touched upon in this report, sight is not lost of the unquestionable service that these schools have done in systematizing the details of certain work, especially cataloguing. Perhaps those libraries which maintain preparatory classes for prospective assistants, in which theory and practice are mingled, are doing their share in working out this problem.

Associations and Clubs. These, which do so much for the extension of library interest, have also been increasing. A National Association of State Librarians has been formed. State associations have been organized since 1893 in Vermont (1894), Ohio and Nebraska (1895), Illinois (1896), Georgia (1897), and California (1898). The California was formerly the Central California (formed in 1895), and other such "sectional associations" were organized in southern California (1891), north

FREDERICK M. CRUNDEN, ST. LOUIS PUBLIC LIBRARY.

Wisconsin (traveling libraries), and western Pennsylvania (1896), and Fox River valley (Wisconsin), Bay Path (Massachusetts), and western Massachusetts (1898). City clubs have been formed in the past seven years in Washington, D. C. (1894), Minneapolis and St. Paul (Twin City Library Club, 1897), and Buffalo, N. Y. (1898).

The American Library Association followed up its exhibit at Chicago (1893) by another one at the Paris Exposition of 1900. This association has added to its useful special sections those for small libraries, large libraries, and State and law libraries. Among the new publications issued under the auspices of its publishing section is a List of Subject Headings for Use in Dictionary Catalogues (1895). Here may be noted also the exceedingly useful Catalogue of the "A. L. A." Library of 5,000 volumes for a Popular Library, selected by the American Library Association and shown at the World's Columbian Exposition, published by the Bureau of Education in 1893, and introduced as a carefully selected list of books adapted to the needs of a small public library and suitable as a basis for a larger collection."

66

A review of the whole subject of library economy is offered in Public Libraries in America (Boston, 1894) by W. I. Fletcher, librarian of Amherst College. And the index to the first twenty-one volumes of the Library Journal is a key to a veritable storehouse of information on special topics.

Foreign Libra-
ries.-The fore-
going applies, as
is seen, to the
United States
only. The Sec-
ond International
Conference of
1897 at London
(the first was in
1877), in which
not a few Amer-
icans partici-
pated, brings us to the foreign field.

WILLIAM I. FLETCHER,
AMHERST COLLEGE LIBRARY.

Free public libraries, as we understand them in the United States, exist only sporadically on the Continent in Europe. Gräsel, in the Börsenblatt for Dec. 5, 1898, made a plea for their establishment in smaller cities in Germany. Beginnings are cited as follows: The German Society of Ethical Culture has established libraries in Berlin, Freiburg, and Frankfort. In Jena this society cooperated with the Comenius Society. In Dresden the Association Volkswohl opened reading rooms.

Later reports show that in Germany, especially in the eastern provinces of Prussia, the local authorities and educational associations are founding libraries with great energy. To the Gesellschaft für Verbreitung von Volksbildung (headquarters in Berlin) is due the credit of having given the incentive to this work and practically furthering it. From 1892 to 1899 this society founded and aided 1,103 libraries, and in 1900 (to November) it founded and aided 438 libraries, expending $7,000 for this purpose. The libraries are administered partly by reading, library, and other educational associations, and partly by teachers, ministers, school boards, etc. Unfortunately, the

society has not the means for undertaking this work on a larger scale and satisfying all requests. It is noted also that the late Mr. Oswald Ottendorfer founded in Zwittau, Austria, in 1891, a free public library on the plan of the New York Free Circulating Library's branches.

Dziatzko, writing on German libraries, says that the Prussian Ministry of Education in 1892 took a step toward greater uniformity by issuing Rules for the Construction of the Alphabetical Catalogue. There is increasing liberality in library regulations, making the collections more accessible. As the libraries are usually intended for scholars (all this, of course, refers to university libraries and the like) the conditions for entrance are quite severe. The act in regard to qualifying for trained library service was published in the Centralblatt für Bibliothekswesen (vol. ii, pages 77-79). Germany, Switzerland, and Italy have national conferences of librarians.

WILLIAM HOWARD BRETT, CLEVELAND PUBLIC LIBRARY.

Italy is startlingly modern. Its system of interlibrary loans is so liberal that it will send a rare manuscript from one city to another at Government expense.

A. Chevalley described the poor condition of public libraries in France in the Library Journal for 1899, page 21.

Statistics for 1893 show that 1,277,436 volumes were used in the many free circulating libraries established by the city government of Paris.

Poole's Index has now found its counterpart in Germany and France in Bibliographie der Deutschen Zeitschriften Literatur (vol. i, 1896) and D. Jordel's Répertoire bibliographique des principales revues françaises (first issue for 1897) respectively.

and support, and are practically libraries for English-speaking people in foreign lands. In Japan, excluding the Imperial Library, there were, in 1899, 30 public and private libraries, containing 346,342 volumes, and these libraries were visited by 46,243 persons in 1897.

The Library Journal and Public Libraries have notes on foreign libraries each month. There are also various foreign periodicals devoted wholly or in part to library affairs, although, owing to conditions indicated, their contents differ in character from those of our own journals. Among them are the Centralblatt für Bibliothekswesen (vol. i, 1884); Rivista delle Biblioteche (vol. i, 1888); Revue des Bibliothèques (vol. i, 1891); The Li- SPRINGFIELD (MASS.) CITY LIBRARY. brary (vol. i, 1889; organ of Library Association of the United Kingdom); Revue internationale des Archives, des Bibliothèques, et des Musées (first year 1897).

JOHN COTTON DANA,

LOUISIANA, a Southern State, admitted to the Union April 30, 1812; area, 48,720 square miles. The population, according to each decennial census since admission, was 152,923 in 1820; 215,739 in 1830; 352,411 in 1840; 517,726 in 1850; 708,002 in 1860; 726,915 in 1870; 939,946 in 1880; 1,118,587 in 1890; and 1,381,627 in 1900. Capital, Baton Rouge.

Government. The following were the State officers this year until May, when the newly elected administration came in: Governor, Murphy J. Foster; Lieutenant Governor, R. H. Snyder; Secretary of State, John T. Michel; Treasurer, A. V. Fournette; Auditor, W. W. Heard; Attorney-General, M. J. Cunningham; Superintendent of Education, J. V. Calhoun; Adjutant General, Allen Jumel; Commissioner of Agriculture, Leon Jastremski; Commissioner of Insurance, J. J. McCann; Bank Examiner, F. G. Freret; Railroad Commission, C. L. DeFuentes, R. N. Sims, W. L. Foster. The Secretary of State and the Superintendent of Education were re-elected. The other State officers for the remainder of the year were: Governor, W. W. Heard; Lieutenant Governor, Albert Estopinal; Attorney-General, Walter Guion; Treasurer, Ledoux E. Smith; Auditor, W. S. Frazee; Registrar of the Land Office, J. M. Smith; President of the Board of Control of the Penitentiary, C. Harrison Parker; President of the State Pension Board, J. A. Chalaron; Quarantine Physician, J. N. Thomas; Commissioner of Agriculture and Immigration, Jordan G. Lee; Jury Commissioners, J. R. Todd, L. H. Joseph, E. S. Maunsell. All the State officers are Democrats. Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Francis T. Nicholls; Associate Justices, Newton C. Blanchard, Lynn B. Watkins, Joseph A. Breaux, Frank A. Monroe; Clerk, T. M. C. Hyman-all Democrats.

The term of the State officers is four years. They are elected in April of the years of presidential elections. The Legislature meets biennially in May of the even-numbered years; the session is limited to sixty days.

Population. The population by parishes, according to the census of 1900, was as follows:

Acadia, 23,483; Ascension, 24,142; Assumption, 21,620; Avoyelles, 29,701; Bienville, 17,588; Bossier, 24,153; Caddo, 44,499; Calcasieu, 30,428; Caldwell, 6,917; Cameron, 3,952 Catahoula, 16,351; Claiborne, 23,029; Concordia,13,559; De Soto, 25,063; East Baton Rouge, 31,153; East Carroll, 11,373; East Feliciana, 20,443; Franklin, 8,890; Grant, 12,902; Iberia, 29,015; Iberville, 27,006; Jackson, 9,119; Jefferson, 15,321; Lafayette, 22,825; Lafourche, 28,882; Lincoln, 15,898; Livingston, 8,100; Madison, 12,322; Morehouse, 16,634; Natchitoches, 33,216; Orleans, 287,104; Ouachita, 20,947; Plaquemines, 13,039; Pointe Coupée, 25,777; Rapides, 39,578; Red River, 11,548; Richland, 11,116; Sabine, 15,421; St. Bernard, 5,031; St. Charles, 9,072; St. Helena, 8,479; St. James, 20,197 : St. John the Baptist, 12,330; St. Landry, 52,906; St. Martin, 18,940; St. Mary, 34,145; St. Tammany, 13,335; Tangipahoa, 17,625; Tensas, 19,070; Terrebonne, 24,464; Union, 18,520; Vermilion, 20,705; Vernon, 10,327; Washington, 9,628; Webster, 15,125; West Baton Rouge, 10,285; West Carroll, 3,685; West Feliciana, 15,944; Winn, 9,648.

WILLIAM WRIGHT HEARD, GOVERNOR OF LOUISIANA.

New Orleans has 287,104 inhabitants; in 1890 it had 242,039. Shreveport has 16,013; Baton Rouge, 11,269; New Iberia, 6,815; Lake Charles, 6,680; Monroe, 5,428; Alexandria, 4,760; Crowley, 4,214; Donaldsonville, 4,105; Plaquemine, 3,590; Lafayette, 3,314; Thibodaux, 3,253; Houma, 3,212; Opelousas, 2,951; Franklin, 2,692; Natchitoches, 2,388; Morgan City, 2,332; Jackson, 2,012.

Finances. From a statement of the Auditor it appears that from April 1, 1894, to April 1, 1900, State obligations to the amount of $2,649,206 have been retired at a cost of $1,393,382, some of the bonds having been retired before maturity. The Governor said in his message in May: "The 4-per-cent. bonds command a premium of 9 to 10 per cent., while the bonds of the various levee boards, which, a few years ago, were very difficult to place, are likewise above par. Not a dollar of the floating indebtedness created since 1880 is left outstanding, and all transactions, both of State and district boards, are absolutely upon a cash basis."

The total revenues derived from all privilege tax turned in by the sheriff's is $329,157.62, against $307,517.09 in 1899. The privilege license fees paid direct to the State treasury are not embraced in this statement, and will amount to about $70,000. The privilege tax report gives also the State revenue from saloons. There are now 13 counties that license the liquor business. Taxes amounting to $131,100 were paid by the 146 liquor saloons. The municipalities are empowered to levy a tax on dram shops not to exceed 50 per cent. of the amount collected by the State, and in some of the towns and cities the maximum penalty is denounced against them.

Valuations. The total assessment of the State is $276,568,507, an increase in one year of

$8,845,004. Following are valuations reported in December by the State Board of Appraisers: Railroads, $24,865,275; telegraphs, $338,634; telephones, $774,210; sleeping cars, $96,752; express companies, $62,610; aggregate, $26,137,481.

Charities and Corrections.-The number of inmates of the State Asylum for the Insane, at Jackson, this year was 1,195, with a total under treatment of 1,653.

There were 140 at the Soldiers' Home, which has an income of about $18,000. On the roll of pensioners were 240, with 248 applications under consideration. With the $50,000 available, the board was able to give only small amounts, divided into three grades $4.50, $3.50, and $2.50.

The Institute for the Blind graduated a class of 5 in May. Its appropriation in 1899 was $10,000. Appropriations for the year to other charitable institutions were: Institute for the Deaf and Dumb, $18,000; Charity Hospital, New Orleans, $90,000; Charity Hospital, Shreveport, $18,000; Lepers' Home, $7,000; Insane Asylum, $100,000.

There are about 840 convicts in the State Penitentiary. Under the new management most of them will probably be placed on convict farms.

Education. The biennial report of the public schools was rendered in June. The school population-children between six and eighteen yearswas 404,757 in 1899. The enrollment was 196,169, of whom 74,233 were negroes. The average attendance was 90,187 whites and 56,136 negroes. The number reported as in attendance at private schools was 11,896 whites and 2,798 negroes, though this is not complete; the Superintendent says about 10,000 should be added. The number of teachers in the public schools was: White males, 1,455; white females, 1,617; total whites, 3,072. Colored males, 536; colored females, 549; total colored, 1,085. Total teachers, 4,157.

The schools have several sources of revenue, chiefly the current school fund, which is a tax of 1 mill on the taxable property in the State. Then there are the poll tax and other special taxes and allowances. The poll tax, the payment of which is required of every registered voter sixty years of age or under, as a condition of casting his ballot, amounted in 1899 to $115,475, with several parishes to hear from. The amount of revenue for the public schools in 1899 was $1,242,026.

At the State Normal School, at Natchitoches, 17 were graduated in January and 30 in May. The board arranged in July for establishing a model school; a building will be erected for the accommodation of 480 pupils. The attendance for the fall term had reached 492 on Oct. 10.

The State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College is at Baton Rouge. An appropriation of $20,000 by the Legislature furnished means for a new building, which will have dormitories for 150 students and dining-room accommodations for 500.

A State industrial school is to be built at Lafayette, to be called the Southwestern Louisiana Industrial Institute. Efforts were made in the

Legislature to provide for a textile school, which is deemed desirable in view of the prospects of the cotton manufacturing industry.

The Louisiana Chautauqua, at Ruston, opened July 1 with a large attendance. Summer normal schools at Mansfield and Franklin enrolled large classes of teachers.

St. Charles College, at Grand Coteau, was completely destroyed by fire, Feb. 17. The library, of 5.000 volumes, contained some single books of great value that can not be replaced. There was insurance of $8,000 on the burned property, which