PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES. 20 
daily, and if they were made more attractive and given a greater educational 
value by further extension and greater care, their influence for good might be 
multiplied indefinitely. 
In the room used by the Academy are, stored in book-cases and boxes, piled 
in stacks on the floor, spread out upon tables and chairs—occupying, indeed, 
much of the space in the room —the valuable collection of books and pamphlets 
belonging to the society. 
These books represent the cumulative results of a score of years of patient 
exchanging with similar societies. There have been a few purchases and some 
donations. The government offices and the state geological surveys have sent us 
their publications. Many of the books are rare and could not now be purchased 
in any book market. They are largely the scientific publications of this and 
foreign governments, the transactions of the scientific societies from all parts of 
the world, and periodicals devoted to the sciences. Some sets are complete, or 
nearly so, and many have been bound, through the generosity of the State. 
The narrow quarters now allowed to the society preclude any useful present 
disposition of the volumes. There is not half enough shelving for their use. 
But, in my mind, the question of room for this growing library opens up the 
wider one of the economic adjustment and administration of all the libraries now 
in the state-house. There are here a number of libraries, each covering a some- 
what different field and yet in some measure duplicating each other. For in- 
stance, the State Library, the Historical Society, the Board of Agriculture and 
the Academy of Science are all receiving and collecting the reports of the United 
States geological surveys. None of them has a complete series of these publi- 
cations, and probably not one of them alone will ever be able to secure a complete 
set. Possibly, if the libraries were united, a full series would be found, or the 
duplicates could be exchanged for the volumes lacking. At least, the user of the 
library would be enabled to find at one place all the literature of the subject con- 
tained in the state-house, instead of being required, as at present, to try three 
or four libraries before exhausting their possibilities on the subject. 
Both the State Library and the Historical Society are collecting large series of 
the volumes of our popular magazines, bound at the expense of the State. Both 
libraries collect the public documents issued by the national and state govern- 
ments; and the problem of more room for them has been repeatedly presented, 
and solved for a limited time. You all know how these documents fill space in a 
library; and yet they are indispensable for historical and statistical reference. 
This duplication is unnecessary and wasteful, not so much financially as in 
space and order and accessibility to the public. The seeker after information 
may have to try all the libraries before he finds what he wants. I have done this 
sometimes in hunting the bibliography of a subject. Then, too, we are con-. 
fronted by different systems of classification. One library has the Dewey sys- 
tem, and another is without system. In all of them the crowded condition and 
lack of shelf room are hindrances to the literary worker, and the books are inac- 
cessible even to the library attendants. 
By all means these libraries ought to be consolidated. Give proper room to 
the collections, establish a general single system of classification, provide ade- 
quate reading-room facilities, and the public will reap twentyfold the benefits of 
these books. It will be less expensive than the present plan; but even if it 
should double the present cost, the economic advantage derived from the in- 
creased utility would fully justify the outlay. 
Members of the Academy may ask why we should give over to the State and 
to public use that which has cost us the labor of years to accumulate—that 
