large and urgent. If some 800 periodicals are received by a li- 

 brary each year that alone means an annual binding item of 800 

 volumes. To this must be added a considerable amount of re- 

 binding each year. 



Attendance.— The attendance was nearly 7,400 as against over 

 7,100 in 1926, and 1,319 publications were circulated among mem- 

 bers of the staff for use in the building. 



Bibliographic Work. — The number of questions received and 

 answered increases each year. Every Borough in the City was 

 served in this way in 1927, and the number of questions received 

 from outside of the City ste; 1 1\ c . It not infrequently 



will take an entire forenoon to secure and forward the informa- 

 tion asked for in only one question. 



To render this service is one of the purposes for which the 

 library exists, and such use of it is welcomed and encouraged, 

 but administratively it must be recognized that this consumes time 

 and tends to create the need for additional personnel. There is 

 need of two full time assistants, in place of one and a half as at 



Herbaria 



Phanerogamic (including Bryophytes and Algae) 1,176 



Mycological 467 



Total 1,643 



Specimens sent in exchange 210 



Phanerogamic Herbarium 

 As noted in the preceeding report, further expansion of the 

 Phanerogamic Herbarium is now practically impossible (except 

 by inactive storage of specimens 1 until additional herbarium cases 

 are provided. As soon as funds can be secured a mezzanine floor 

 should be provided in the main herbarium room similar to that in 

 the main-floor stack room of the library. That would double the 

 present capacity for herbarium cases. 



Mycological Herbaria 111 



Very few additions were made to the mycological herbarium 



during the past year. Two fascicles of Fungi Dakotensis con- 



