662 PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY. 



The following reports were also presented : — 



Report of the Library Committee. ' 



The general cataloguing of books in the Lil)rary has recently been 

 brought up to date, and can probably be now maintained with mode- 

 rate effort. 



The large collection of pamphlets is filed alphabetically, and it has 

 not yet seemed that the considerable cost of cataloguing it would be 

 justified. 



The most important work now awaiting attention is that of filling 

 gaps in our serial publications, and as time permits, attention will be 

 concentrated upon this. The labor and time which may be expended 

 in this direction are naturally almost unlimited. 



Supplementing previous action of the Council, the Librarian has 

 endeavored, by correspondence and conferences to enlist interest in the 

 publication by the Library of Congress or the Carnegie Institution of 

 the Handbook of the Learned Societies of the Old World. It seems 

 unlikely that any progress can be made, however, in the near future. 



Mr. Thomas J. Homer of Boston, with the support of this and other 

 libraries, is working on a new edition of the list of periodicals currently 

 received by the principal libraries in this vicinity. 



Plans for cooperation with the library of the Boston Society of 

 Natural History are under consideration by a joint committee. 



A valuable collection of manuscripts of the late Professor Benjamin 

 Peirce has recently been received from his heirs for care and safe- 

 keeping, which will doubtless be permanent. 



A copy of the eleventh edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica has 

 been placed in the Reading Room. 



The British Academy and the Cardiff (Wales) Naturalists' Society 

 have been added to our exchange list. 



During the year, 107 books have been borrowed from the Library 

 by 26 persons, including 17 Fellows and 2 libraries. All but 7 books 

 have been returned for examination, or satisfactorily accounted for. 



The number of bound volumes on the shelves at the time of the last 

 report was 32,715. 960 volumes have been added during the past 

 year, making the number now on the shelves 33,675. This includes 

 91 purchased from the income of the General Fund, 23 from that of 

 the Rumford Fund, and 846 received by gift or exchange. 



265 of the last mentioned are brochures, placed on the shelves in 

 pamphlet covers. The pamphlets added during the year number 453. 



