During the month of September there were received at the Library by purchase 687 books and 166 pamphlets, and by gift 755 books and 1,709 pamphlets.

There were catalogued 2,307 books and 2,442 pamphlets, for which purpose 18,992 cards and 1,080 slips for the printer were written.

The following table shows the number of readers and the number of volumes consulted in both the Astor and Lenox branches of the Library during the month:

During the summer an engine and dynamo, having sufficient power for the lighting of the Astor Building, have been put in place and are now in regular service and working very satisfactorily. A considerable number of additional lamps has been introduced on the first story in the catalogue room, and in the annex rooms, where books are stored.

The Stuart room at the Lenox Building has been closed during the month to permit of the cataloguing and re-arrangement of the books in the collection. This work has been completed, and the room was again opened to visitors on October third. The alterations in the former exhibition room of the Lenox Building have been nearly finished. Sixteen tables, which will seat about fifty readers, are arranged

in this room, and electric light has been introduced. The west end has been railed off, and thirty special double cases have been placed in the enclosure for shelving the Drexel musical collection and the musical collection of the Astor, which has been transferred. It is hoped that this new reading room may be ready to be opened on November first, by which time the American local histories and American genealogies will have been transferred and properly arranged on the shelves at the east end, and the musical collection will have been put into sufficient order to be available for the use of readers.

Special attention has been paid to the enlargement of the Hebrew collection, by means of the fund for Semitic literature, generously placed at the disposal of the Library by Mr. Jacob H. Schiff. In recent Hebraic literature, including modern Judæo-German literature of this country, and in its sets and current issues of Jewish periodicals, this Library already has one of the best, if not the best, collections of its kind in the United States, and it is desired to make it as complete as possible in reports of all Jewish charities, institutions and societies in this country. It is hoped that the officers of such institutions will aid in making the files of this collection complete in all reports and documents issued by them or relating to their work.

Among the important gifts received this month were 2 volumes from the Ministre de l'Instruction de Belgique; 58 volumes and 4 pamplets from H. E. Deats; 5 volumes from the Secretary of State for India; 39 pamphlets from the "Ingeniörforening," Denmark; 2 volumes from the Peabody Institute; 11 volumes from the Railway Branch N. Y. C. Y. M. C. A.; 285 pamplets from the Social Reform Club; 2 volumes from the Victoria Institute; and a large collection of theatrical programmes, criticisms, etc., from H. W. Thompson.

I have the honor to submit the following report of the work of this Library for the fiscal year 1897-98, including some data for the first half of the calendar year, 1897.

The most important new feature of this work was the obtaining of plans for a new Library Building to be erected by the City of New York upon the site occupied by the reservoir on Fifth Avenue, between Fortieth and Forty-second Streets, and the making of a contract with the City of New York providing that this building shall be occupied by the New York Public Library so long as it shall maintain a public library and readingroom therein.

The plans were obtained by means of two successive architectural competitions, the first open to all architects doing business within the limits of Greater New York, the second limited to twelve competitors of whom six were chosen from those taking part in the first competition and six chosen from other architects. Eighty-eight architects took part in the first competition, which closed on the fifteenth of July, 1897.

The second competition closed on the first of November, 1897, and the jury of award, composed of three architects selected by the competing architects, three members of the Board of Trustees, and the Director of the Library, selected three of the designs as being the most meritorious. From these three sets of plans the Board of Trustees selected the one which the jury of award had declared to be the best, and of exceptional merit, being the set sent in by Carrère & Hastings, architects, of New York.

These plans, approved by the Board, were submitted to the Board of Estimate and Apportionment of the City of New York, which, by resolution dated December 1, 1897, approved them and authorized and requested the Department of Public Parks to remove the reservoir on Bryant Park and to erect, construct, maintain, equip and furnish in said Bryant Park a suitable and appropriate fireproof building in accordance with the plans thus approved. The Department of Public Parks was authorized and requested to employ Messrs. Carrère & Hastings to prepare detailed drawings, forms of contract and specifications for said building.

At the same time the contract with the New York Public Library was approved and ordered to be executed on behalf of the City, and this contract was duly signed and sealed on the 8th day of December, 1897. This contract provided that the City of New York should let to the New York Public Library the library building to be erected upon Bryant Park, to have and to hold so long as it shall continue to maintain a public library and reading room therein and so long as it shall use and occupy such building for the purpose of maintaining therein a public library and reading room and carrying on the objects and purposes of said corporation; that as soon after the completion and equipment of said building as practicable the New York Public Library shall place and arrange in said building its library and collections, and shall have and enjoy the exclusive use of the whole of said building; that the said library shall be accessible at all reasonable hours and times for general use, free of expense to persons resorting thereto, one or more of the reading rooms to be open and accessible to the public upon every day of the week except Sundays, from at least nine o'clock A.M. until at least nine o'clock P. M., and on Sundays from one o'clock P. M. until nine o'clock P.M.; and that there shall be established and maintained in the said library a free circulating branch open to the public during the day time on Sunday and during the evening of each other day of the week, as may be prescribed by the Board of Trustees.

On the 6th day of December, 1897, the Department of Public Parks adopted resolutions to the effect that it would proceed to construct the building in Bryant Park in accordance with the plans approved by the Board of Estimate and Apportionment, the said building to be constructed either of marble or Indiana limestone, or such other stone as may hereafter be suggested by the architects and approved by the Trustees of the New York Public Library and by the Board of Estimate and Apportionment; the said building to be fireproof, walls of solid masonry, and plumbing, machinery, heating, ventilating, electric lighting, boilers and all mechanical appliances to be of the most approved type and make; that Messrs. Carrère & Hastings are employed as architects and are instructed to proceed forthwith to prepare drawings, forms of contract and specifications, and that they are to report as to the best method of removing the reservoir and as to the expediency of using the materials composing the reservoir or some part thereof in and about the erection and construction of the new building. On the 9th of December the Department of Public Parks entered into a formal contract with Messrs. Carrère & Hastings for their services as architects in the construction, equipment, fixtures, fittings and accessories, and in the supervision thereof, in the erection and completion for occupation of the New York Public Library in Bryant Park in the City of New York.

The sketch plans for this building have been published in the Bulletin of the New York Public Library for January and February, 1898. They

provide for a building 350 feet in length from north to south, and 250 feet wide from east to west, providing shelving for about 1,300,000 volumes and a seating capacity for about 800 readers in its main reading room.

In accordance with the instructions of the Department of Public Parks, the architects proceeded to prepare forms of contract for removing the reservoir and for disposing of the materials of which it is composed, and made their report, submitting these forms to the Department of Public Parks, on February 16th, 1898. The plans and specifications thus submitted were duly approved by the Park Board on the 3d day of March, 1898, and the resolution of the Park Board approving the said plans for the removal of the reservoir, with a requisition for the amount of $150,000, and requesting the sale of bonds to that amount, was submitted to the Board of Estimate and Apportionment on March 13th, 1898.

SHELF DEPARTMENT.

The number of volumes received by the shelf department, entered in the accessions catalogue and placed on the shelves during the fiscal year, was 32,137, of which 20,579 were purchases and 11,558 were gifts. There were also accessioned 19,512 pamphlets, of which 5,059 were purchases and 14,453 gifts.

On the 30th of June, 1898, there were on the shelves and available for the use of the public 425,066 volumes and about 100,000 pamphlets. About 5,000 of the books and 6,000 of the pamphlets accessioned had been received during the year 1896-97.

The number of volumes actually received at the library during the fiscal year ending June 30th, 1898, was 27,869, of which 16,649 were purchases and 11,220 gifts. There were also received during this fiscal year 35,412 pamphlets, of which 4,298 were purchases and 31,114 gifts. A considerable number of the pamphlets received during the year as gifts are dupli

cates.

The work of classification and re-arrangement of the books on the shelves in accordance with the new plan of relative location has gone on steadily throughout the year. At the Lenox all the books except those in the Stuart Collection are arranged according to the new classification as it stands at present. At the Astor the subjects of Economics, Sociology (except Customs and Public Hygiene), Useful Arts (except Horticulture and Forestry), Botany, General History, History of Europe, of Greece and of Italy, and American literature have been arranged, the books and pamphlets marked with the new relative location marks, and corresponding marks placed in the new catalogues.

This requires that for each book or pamphlet both the author and sub