370 



REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1903. 



With the exception of the round wooden stacks in the rotunda and the 

 old wooden ones in the basement the}^ are of lacquered iron of dark 

 green color, with similar movable veneered shelves (4-7) that may 

 be easil}" adjusted, so perfectl^y finished that their surface feels like 

 velvet. 1 am not acquainted with such excellent work of this kind in 

 Europe. 



The repositories have an intermediate space of 2i feet onlj-, but may 

 be brightly lighted b}^ electricity. They were put up in the begin- 

 ning without any intention of utilizing the daylight. On the ground 

 floor there are special fireproof vaults for rare books, a provision 

 which is lacking in most European libraries. In the central rotunda, 



Fig. 19. — Columbia University. Seminar rooms on third floor of library. 



the galleries of which are supported by 16 costly green granite pillars 

 29 feet high, with gilded Ionic capitals, there are 158 seats. In its 

 entire design and in its artistic ornaments, although the decoration is 

 not yet entirel3' finished, the rotunda constitutes a great attraction. 

 The reference library comprises 10,000 volumes. The newly -acquired 

 l)ooks are deposited for a time in this reference library. An alpha- 

 betical card catalogue/' arranged systematical!}^ and ver}- careful l}'^ 



« The library is arranged and catalogued according to the Dewey system, com- 

 pleted by Cutter (Dewey was director of the library until 1888). Milkau {Central- 

 hdaloge, 1898, p. 20) writes, after Billings, that the Dewey system is now being replaced 

 at the Columbia University library by another. This, however, is not the case. I was 

 told that they were satisfied with the system and that they could get along very well 

 with it. 



