14 Kansas Academy of Science. 



All these have been filed away, awaitiner the time when 

 volumes will be completed and handed over to the state printer 

 for binding. We have not less than 500 volumes awaiting the 

 binder, and as soon as possible these will be bound and placed 

 on our shelves. 



In the cataloguing of books we have, at this date, only been 

 able to arrange our books in sets and by states and countries, 

 and a card catalogue of reference is prepared to facilitate 

 the finding of books. We yet await a much-needed subject 

 card catalogue to which seekers for information may refer. 

 The State-house contains a much larger collection of books 

 than is found in any other place in Kansas. First, there is 

 the state library, originally for law-books only, and so nat- 

 urally under the management of the supreme court. Subse- 

 quently large collections of miscellaneous books have been 

 added to the trust of the same board of directors, with the 

 assistance of subordinate boards. Additions are made by 

 exchanges of the various state publications, and by funds 

 provided for the purchase of books. The Stormont medical 

 library and the "traveling library" are distinct parts of the 

 state library, provided for by statute. These are operated by 

 commissions, of which the state librarian is ex officio chair- 

 man. 



Provision is made by law for the State Historical Society 

 to acquire books, and, acting under the statutes, they have 

 accumulated the next largest number in the state-house. For 

 purposes of exchange they may claim "sixty bound copies 

 each of the several publications of the state, and of its so- 

 cieties and institutions, except the reports of the supreme 

 court." 



The State Agricultural and Horticultural Societies as well 

 as the Academy of Science have each considerable libraries, 

 obtained by exchange or purchase of books. Of all these the 

 state library is the only one having made any considerable 

 beginning of a card catalogue on the Dewey system. To do 

 this properly requires expert knowledge as well as much labor. 

 For greatest advantage to the state, such a catalogue should 

 include all the libraries in the capitol building, and all of 

 them ought to be brought under one head. 



One of the evils of the present lack of system is the ac- 

 cumulation of duplicate copies of many publications, and this 

 is especially true of government works, printed in Washing- 



