Annual Report of Librarian.

The annual report of the Librarian of the University has been issued and contains many interesting facts in regard to the library and the use made of it by students in the University during the year 1900-01. Incidentally, an appeal is made for relief from the present cramped conditions of the library and a recommendation is offered for a larger and improved building which could more easily meet the constantly increasing demands on the library service.

The accessions to the University Library during the year are placed at 24,238, of which more than half were received at Gore Hall and about one-fourth at the Law School. The number of volumes added to Gore Hall is less than in the two previous years, but exceeds the average of the ten years preceding (10,731) by about 3,000 volumes. The total number of volumes received by the library in the past three years is only a little less than the total of the previous five years.

By the curious mistake in former years of not allowing for the number of duplicates rejected, sold or exchanged, volumes worn out, and books transferred to other departments, the total number of books in the College Library (Gore Hall) has been reported each year far in excess of fact, so that an error of about 24,000 volumes has accumulated. A recount made last fall, however, shows the corrected total of volumes to be 387,097, while the whole number of books in the University libraries is 575,888.

Of the books received at Gore Hall during the year, nearly 5,000 came as gifts, one of which consisted of a collection of Slovak literature made by Professor Wiener and presented to the library by Professor A. C. Coolidge. This collection, which includes the library of Lombardini of Sollein, and many other Slovak publications procured in Southern Europe, is probably larger and more complete than any other of its kind in existence, except that owned by L. Rizner, a prominent Slovak bibliographer.

Gifts of money during the year amounted to $15,400, the largest of which--$10,000--was received under the will of the late Governor Roger Wolcott '70, to be added to a previous gift of the same amount establishing the J. Huntington Wolcott Fund for "the purchase of books of permanent value, the preference being given to works of history, political economy, and sociology."

Dr. Malcom Storer, the Curator of Coins and Medals, reports the addition to that collection of 138 pieces by gift and of 11 by purchase. For 77 of these the library is indebted to Robert C. Winthrop '54. The special collection of medals struck in honor of Harvard men has been increased by medals of James Monroe h. '17; R. B. Hayes l. '45; Charles Sumner '30; Theodore Roosevelt '80; and the John D. Long '57 medal for debate, in gold, given by the founder, R. C. Surbridge '89.

Several tables are included in the report, which show the number of students who used the libraries during the year. As no record can be kept of the open shelves in the reading rooms, all reference to them is excluded from the following figures: The recorded use of the 928 reserved volumes in the Harvard Hall reading room in the course of the year amounted to 28,496 The number of over-night loans was 13,566. At Gore Hall, books lent numbered 63,673, and those used in the building (recorded use only) numbered 24,180.