The Library at Columbia.

Of all the libraries in this country that at Columbia College is probably the most complete in all its arrangements for librarian and reader alike. Although very small in number of volumes compared with our own magnificent collection of books stored in Gore Hall, there are many points of excellence in its management which could be copied to advantage by the Harvard authorities. An article in the November Harpers gives a very good idea of some of these points of excellence, and the quotations are taken from it.

"The most important interior feature of the new building is the noble library hall, a room of grand proportions, with a triple-arch roof supported by iron truss-work, so that the floor space -113 by 75 feet-is unbroken by divisions. A gallery makes the circuit of it and the walls within reaching distance of the floor and of the gallery are lined with that best of decorations, books. The general arrangement is by subjects and every frequenter of the library has unquestioned access to the 25,000 volumes here shelved as a reference library. The floor is ditted with tables, to which the reader may freely take as many books as he requires, and as the dusk comes on, a tap of the bell from the librarian's room to the engineer puts at his disposal a movable electric light, which he may turn on or off at will. All the tables have individual lights, and the shades for these burners and for those about the room were so arranged, in consultation with Dr. C. R. Agnew, who is one of the trustees, that all the light falls on the tables, and no ray glares into the reader's eye. The assistant librarians have their desks on the main floor, and are ready to put their knowledge of their special subjects at the service of the reader.

The library is open every day in the year, except Sundays and Good Friday, from 8 A. M. to 10 P. M. All the Columbia men and other scholars who are capable of using it to advantage are permitted to read and take out the books. The number of books is about 60,000 and each year a large number are being added. The building also shelters the famous Torrey herbarium with its 60,000 specimens. The object of the librarian to give to the books the greatest accessibilities with the least possible inconvenience to the reader. The libraries of the several schools are now brought together under one administration, and the law librarian, the science librarian, and other specialists are staff officers of the university librarian. They, in turn, have the help of a staff of bright Wellesley girls, of the class of 1883, who are trained as cataloguers and library assistants.

The system of registry, which makes free use possible, is centred in a desk at the very entrance, in the transept of the great hall. This desk is in easy communication, by means of sliding boxes, with the stack-rooms, in which the body of the collection not needed for reference is packed with such economy of space that a low room, 61 by 22 feet, houses 40,000 volumes. Each book has pasted inside its cover a pocket, into which slips a book-card ; each reader is represented also by a card arranged according to his initials in a case at the registry desk. The book's number is entered on the reader's card ; the reader signs his initials on the book's card, which, while the book is out, is kept in a second case at the registry desk, arranged by subjects. Thus any book "out" can be instantly traced and the receipt for it produced. When a reader wishes to return a book, he has only to hand it in at the registry desk."