472 ' REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1903. 



In the three lecture halls of the third story lectures are t^iven l)y 

 professors of the University of Chicago (see also, p, 460). 



The number of employees is 53, as follows: 1 librarian, 1 assistant 

 librarian, 21 assistants and cataloguers, 7 pages, 3 clerks, 9 book- 

 binders, 6 attendants, 1 engineer, 2 checkers, 2 watchmen. As far as 

 one can judge from the annual reports, which are brief and indefinite, 

 the library had spent up to the close of 1899, $391,843 for ])ooks, pei'i- 

 odicals, and fittings; about $340,000 for purposes of administration — 

 that is, for fourteen years about an annual average of $28,000 for 

 books, etc., and |24,000 for administration, there being an annual 

 average increase of about 17,000 numbers, about one-third of which, 

 however, were gifts; these in 1900 were 3,675 numbers. In 1900 the 

 income from the Newberry bequest — and no other income is availa- 

 ble «— amounted approximately to $108,000, of which about $31,000 

 was used for salaries, about $10,000 for books, about $1,200 for 

 heating and lighting, about $4,800 for bookbinding, including that of 

 the catalogues, about $35,000 for repairs, etc., to the houses ow^ned 

 by the library, for insurance, postage, freight, printing, etc. The 

 remainder of over $25,000 is probably held in reserve, as there is no 

 information concerning it. 



The first librarian. Doctor Poole, died in 1894, and in his place was 

 appointed J. V. Cheney, who since 1887 had been head librarian of the 

 San Francisco Public Library, from Avhich he brought to Chicago 

 A. J. Rudolph, his right-hand man, and here introduced with him the 

 Rudolph methods of cataloguing.* 



The library has thus far published nothing except short annual 

 reports. 



Only quite exceptionally are books allowed to be taken from the 

 building. They are then sent to a library that is nearer to the scholars 

 who may require them, such as the University of Chicago, the Field 

 Columbian Museum, the Northwestern Universit}^ at Evanston, etc. 

 The question as to whether a reference or a circulating librar}^ is the 

 most useful form is well worthy of ijivestigation; there must certainly 



«The city levies no taxes on the library itself, though it does on the buildings, 

 from which the institution derives a great portion of its income, and this tax amounts 

 to over $25,000 annually. This seems astonishing when the public utility of the 

 Newberry Library is taken into account, l)ut, as with us, in the matter of taxes all 

 generous feelings are al>andone<l. For example, the Royal Dresden museums, wiiich 

 are exclusively kept up by the State, must pay taxes on articles imported from for- 

 eign countries, only objects for the collections themselves being free; neither do tliey 

 enjoy free postage, as is the case with all university institutes and many similar 

 museums in other German States. 



'' Cheney and Rudolph published in San Francisco, among other things, a very fine 

 and original catalogue: San Francisco Free Public Library. Classified English Prose 

 Fiction, including Translation and Juvenile Works, with Notes and Index to Subject- 

 references. No. 6, 189L viii j 306 pp. Lex. 8vo. Mr. Rudolph conceived in San 

 Francisco his original indexer, and it was first put in operation there. 



