428 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OF [1889. 



The necessity for a binding fund becomes more urgent, only one 

 hundred and thirty-eight of the volumes most constantly in use having 

 been bound during the year. 



A priced catalogue of the duplicates in the library has been pre- 

 pared. To derive the most benefit from the list it should be printed 

 and distributed to those likely to be interested in separate numbers 

 and incomplete sets of periodicals of which the collection for the 

 most part consists. 



A large and valuable collection of maps, the extent of which had 

 not been suspected, has been classified and catalogued. It is very 

 desirable that special receptacles be prepared for these so that they 

 may be more readily examined than is at present possible. 



Early in the year the title entries of journals and periodicals were 

 completed and the catalogue arranged in the drawers for use. The 

 work has been supplemented by a convenient hand-list or, guide to 

 the arrangement of periodicals on the shelves and also by a general 

 subject index. 



These lists are all, of course, kept complete to date so that noth- 

 ing remains to be done in the department of journals and periodi- 

 cals short of a subject-catalogue of scientific communications which 

 is an undertaking of such extent as to be at present beyond the 

 means of the Academy. Such a work would be an invaluable aid 

 to the naturalist, supplying to him what the superb Index-Catalogue 

 of the Surgeon-General's Office provides for the physician, but it 

 must be either the result of co-operation among several scientific 

 societies or the cost must be defrayed by government appropriation, 

 as in the case of the work referred to, or by an institution possessed 

 of a large income such as the Royal Society of London, to which we 

 are indebied for the indispensable author-catalogue of scientific papers. 



Although such work on the periodicals of the library must, there- 

 fore, be deferred, satisfactory progress has been made on a subject- 

 catalogue of the special departments. The subject-registry of Voy- 

 ages and Travels and Geology has been completed and the work is 

 now going on rapidly in the section of General Natural History. 

 The arrangement of the cards will be continuously alphabetical 

 without any sub-division into classes other than that which depends 

 on the initial subject word. It is believed that clearness and sim- 

 plicity will be thus secured and that those who use the library will 

 be able to avail themselves of the catalogue without the assistance of 

 the trained attendants or pages who are usually required to interpret 



