STUDIES ON MUSEUMS AND KINDKED INSTITUTIONS. 401 



places. Ill 189S, 540 scries were sent to 8tM> places, coinprisiiii^ 18,9.51 

 hooks, which passed thi"oug"h the hands of a lar<>"e number of readers. 

 In spite of their being instructive I can not here go into details with 

 statistics on this subject.^' A writer on this peculiar and, so far as I 

 know, unique arrangement sa^'s:^ 



The State of New York i-an well afford thiK offer of books to her citizens. The 

 plan is at once generous and, in the highest sense, profitaljle, and is confidently 

 commended to the consideration of other States. 



In a like manner the State library lends from its great collection 

 for purposes of instruction, photographs of paintings, portraits, build- 

 ings, and the like, including glass and frames, when desired. It also 

 sends out wall pictures with magic lanterns.'' A small fee is charged 

 to cover the expense of shippage. Plate 12 represents a room of the 

 librar}' where such pictures are hung. 



The division of exchanges^ a peculiar establishment, is also connected 

 with the library. There are 350,000 duplicates. Every libraiy of the 

 State of New York, every school, everv' lecture circle, eveiy study club, 

 every reading societ}^, which is registered as such at the university 

 and is organized according to the prescribed rules (we saw above that 

 there are now in that State 1,511 such centers, large and small), may 

 deliver to the university books for which they have no further use. 

 In return for these they receive others of equal value, according to 

 the -choice of the recipient. About 20,000 volumes and pamphlets are 

 now annually exchanged in this manner. This may, therefore, be 

 regarded as an exchange book trade, which conducts its business with- 

 out expense to the persons interested, who do not even have to bear 

 the expense of transportation. All the surplus copies of the govern- 

 nient publications of the State of New York are also placed in this 

 duplicate collection, as well as the surplus stock of the works, books, 

 pamphlets, handbooks, bulletins, reports, etc., printed b}^ the univer- 

 sity itself, for free distribution. Of the latter, hundreds of thousands 



« See, among others, Extension Bulletin No. 27, 1899, pp. 23-46. 



&See W. R. P^astman, "A New Aid to Popular Education: Free Traveling Libra- 

 ries," The Forum, January, 189,5, pp. 616-621. I can not here reproduce the many 

 interesting details. See, also, the small handbooks of the New York State Library: 

 Traveling Libraries, 12 pages (1898), and Loans to Academies, 4 pages (1898), as 

 well as the numerous Finding Fists and Subject Lists. For example. Finding 

 List 41 (March, 1900) contains 50 volumes on religion (2), sociology (4), zoology 

 (1), music (1), fiction (15), literature (5), descriptions and travels (7), biographies 

 (6), history of South Africa (8), history of Philippines (1), subject Ijst on educa- 

 tion (subject 370, according to the Dewey system), 25 of the best books on education 

 (February, 1900), among tiiem books by Lange, Preyer, Spencer, Pestalozzi, and a 

 biography by Frcjbel; subject list on French history (subject 944), 50 of the best 

 books on French history, among them Guizot, Scott, Taine, Sainte-Beuve, Mignet, 

 Dickens, Hugo. 



'See the small handbook of the New York State Library, Loans to University 

 Institutions: Wall Pictures, 12 pages (1898). 

 NAT MUS 1903 26 



