Character of books used in of British Museum. These numbers, it will be noticed, are of works, not volumes, and are exclusive of the 'books of Reference' Reading-Room which are lodged in the Reading-Room itself, and are very extensively used. No particulars are given the demand for individual works. The 15,761 works composed, it was estimated, about 40,000 volumes. In a Report on the working of the first of those Town Libraries which were established under the Act of 1850, a minute classification was given of the issues BOOK I. Chapter VI. Purchases. in its Consulting or "Reference" Department for one year (1852-53), the chief points of which may be thus indicated: Character of the demand at Astor Library in New York. The Astor Library (once before alluded to) at New books chiefly in York-a noble monument of American munificence in its founder, and of American energy and judgment in its managers-is, like the Town Libraries of England, freely open to all comers. In the first Report issued (after its opening) by Dr. Cogswell, its Librarian, he says:"On observing the classes and kinds of books which have been called for, I have been particularly struck with the evidence thus afforded of the wide range which the American mind is now taking in thought and research; scholastic theology; transcendental metaphysics; abstruse mathematics, and Oriental philology have found many more readers than Addison and Johnson; [Perhaps, this would in part be ascribable to the possession of Addison and Johnson at home?] while, on the other hand, I am happy to be able to say that works of practical science and of knowledge for every day use, have been in great demand. Very few have come to the Library without some manifestly distinct aim; that is, it has been little used for mere desultroy reading, but for the most part with a specific view. It would not be easy to say which department is most consulted, but there is naturally less dependence upon the Library for books of Theology, Law, and Medicine than the others, these three faculties being better provided for in the Libraries of the institutions especially intended for them. Still, in each of these departments, the Library has many works not elsewhere to be found. [Then follows the passage which I have quoted, from another point of view, in a preceding chapter of this volume. Elsewhere it is stated that the scientific department of the Library includes such works as Rennie's Theory, formation and construction of Harbours; A. Stevenson's Account of the Skerryvore Light House; R. Stevenson's of the Bell-Rock, and Smeaton's of the Eddystone; Wyatt's Industrial Arts and Metal work; the London Journal of Arts, with Newton's continuation of that periodical; the French Brevets d'Invention, (a complete set in 94 quarto volumes); sets of the London Repertory of Arts and Patent Inventions, the Mechanic's Magazine; Weale's Rudimentary Works, the Machinists' Assistant, &c.; Buchanan's Machinery and Mill-work; Clark's Britannia and Conway Tubular Bridges; Caillat's Parallels of Architecture; Stalkart's Naval Architecture; the Annales d'Agriculture; the Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society of England; Daly's Revue d'Architecture; Dingle's Polytechnisches Journal, &c.] "The same remark", continues Dr. Cogswell, "applies to Natural History, all branches of which are much studied BOOK 1. Chapter VI. BOOK I. Chapter VI. Purchases. here.... Passing to the historical side of the Library we come to a department in which a very general interest has been taken-far more general than could have been anticipated in our country-it is that of Heraldry and Genealogy. Among the early purchases for the Library there were but few books of this Class, as it was supposed that but few would be wanted; a year or two's experience proved the contrary, and the collection has been greatly enlarged; it is now sufficiently ample to enable any one to establish his armorial bearings, and trace his pedigree, at least as far back as the downfall of the Western Empire." The elegantly-veiled irony of the learned Librarian of New York would not be without its provocation in other commercial cities that might be named, nearer home, and the caterers for our popular Libraries will do well to bear this channel of public curiosity in mind, and not only to provide good store of genealogical books, but also ample files of Newspapers and of Magazines, for its appropriate supply. Those who are familiar with the Reading-Room of our National Library know well what a prominent place is occupied there by the tracers of pedigrees and the claimants and aspirants to lost or litigated estates. And in many a provincial Library, too, the attention of the visitor is sometimes arrested by similar faces bending over similar books,-faces in which eagerness and languor, patience and anxiety, past disappointment and lingering hope, are strangely and strikingly indicated. § 3. OF APPROXIMATIVE ESTIMATES OF THE COST OF LIBRARIES, AND OF THE DATA ON WHICH THEY MAY BOOK I. Chapter VI. BE BASED. timates of the cost of Libraries. One of the very first questions which a Committee Conjectural escharged with the arrangements for a projected Library is sure to propose is 'How many books can we get for so much money?' Any reply to such a question at so early a stage must obviously be a vague one. Like an attempt to make an estimate for a new house at so much 'per cubic foot', it must take many things for granted, on insufficient grounds, and bear the aspect rather of conjecture than of calculation. Such an estimate, however, has its temporary utility, and would be both easier to make and safer to rely upon, were the accounts and statistics of Libraries more accessible than they usually are. chases for Pub with the sums actually ex pended. A statement on this head, founded upon the ex- Statistics of purperience of eight Libraries in various parts of the Un-lic Libraries ited Kingdom, was laid before Mr. Ewart's Committee on Public Libraries, in 1849. Part of this I will here quote, adding to it some similar particulars as to provincial Libraries subsequently founded: Vol. II. 41 |